Find your ONE THING and DO IT!

Gary Keller (The One Thing) has identified that behind every successful person is their ONE Thing. No matter how success is measured, personal or professional, only the ability to dismiss distractions and concentrate on your ONE Thing stands between you and your goals. The ONE Thing is about getting extraordinary results in every situation.

It’s about figuring out what matters most, and when you’re doing that ONE Thing, eliminate distraction. Make regular appointments with yourself to do your most important work. That’s when you avoid distractions at all costs.

Think of it like going to movies. You’re there for ONE Thing—to see the film. Because you’re really clear about that, you turn off your cell phone, you grab snacks in case you get hungry, and you probably even make a pit stop before you go in. All this so you can have an uninterrupted experience.

Blocking Time

When you time block your most important work and treat it like going to movies—you make a stand around avoiding distractions—amazing things happen. When you start thinking of your days this way, the burden of always having to be “on” goes away and you end up accomplishing more.

Based on goals in any area of your life, ask yourself, “What’s the ONE Thing I could do, such that by doing it everything else would be easier or unnecessary?” Then time block to make it happen. It doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that.

The amazing thing is when people ask themselves the question, they are almost always accurate. People instinctively know what matters most. If you’re not sure, look to the people who came before you. Chances are someone has already accomplished what you’re trying to achieve and they’ve shared how they did it (in a book, an article or a blog post). Start with their answers and go from there.

How do you discover what your “one thing” is?

Again, it’s the focusing question. You simply ask yourself in any given area of your life, “What’s the one thing I can do, such that by doing it everything else is easier or unnecessary?” That’s it.

Success is sequential, not simultaneous. It’s one step at a time. ONE Thing at a time. It’s not your one and only thing. It’s the ONE Thing right now. It’s the most important thing.

What you’re trying to do is set up a positive domino run in your life. You want to line things up with the end in mind.