The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results”
The One Thing explains the success habit to overcome the six lies that block our success, beat the seven thieves that steal time, and leverage the laws of purpose, priority, and productivity.
2. The Domino effect
• The authors beautifully tie physics principle to the
law of action
• Getting extraordinary results is all about creating a
domino effect in your life.
• Toppling dominoes is pretty straightforward.
You line them up and tip over the first one.
• In the real world, though,
it’s a bit more complicated.
3. The Domino effect
• So every day they line up their priorities
anew, find the lead domino, and whack
away at it until it falls.
• Why does this approach work? Because
extraordinary success is sequential, not
simultaneous.
• The key is over time.
Success is built sequentially.
It’s one thing at a time
4. The 3 parts
1. THE LIES
2. THE TRUTH
3. EXTRAORDINARY RESULTS
6. Everything Matters Equally
• To-do lists inherently lack the intent of
success.
• how can you make your todo list
stepping-stone for the next so that you
sequentially build a successful life?
• One pulls you in all directions; the other
aims you in a specific direction.
• A to-do list becomes a success list
when you apply Pareto’s Principle to it.
7. Do more - Multitask
• Don’t feel bad when you get distracted.
Everyone gets distracted.
• Distraction undermines results. you can
end up doing nothing well.
• Multitasking is an illusion. Its really Task
switching. Multitasking takes a toll.
• Give it your undivided attention to your
top thing
8. Be more Disciplined
• Don’t be a disciplined person.
Be a person of powerful habits and use
selected discipline to develop them.
• If you are what you repeatedly do
• Build one habit at a time. Success is
sequential, not simultaneous.
9. Must have more Willpower
• Don’t spread your willpower too thin.
decide what matters and reserve your
willpower for it.
• Time your task. Do what matters most first
each day when your willpower is
strongest.
• Don’t fight your willpower. Build your days
around how it works and let it do its part to
build your life.
10. Must balance work & life
• Work versus Family balance myth
• Think about two independant
balancing buckets.
11. A Balanced Life
• Counterbalance your personal life
bucket independentantly of work.
• Family and career have different
dynamics
• An extraordinary life is a
counterbalancing act.
12. Big Is Bad
• Think big. Don’t order from the menu.
• Act bold. Don’t fear failure.
• Don’t let small thinking cut your life
down to size.
• Adopt a Growth mindset
15. The Focusing Question
• The Focusing Question is a great
question designed to find a great
answer.
• The Focusing Question is a
double-duty question. It comes in
two forms: big picture and small
focus.
16. The Focusing Question
• The Big-Picture Question: “What’s my
ONE Thing?” Use it to develop a vision
for your life and the direction for your
career or company;
• The Small-Focus Question: “What’s my
ONE Thing right now?” Use this when
you first wake up and throughout the day.
• Asking the Focusing Question is the
ultimate success habit for your life.
17. The Success Habit
• Start with the big stuff and see where it
takes you.
• Understand and believe it.
• Make it a habit.
• Leverage reminders. Recruit support.
21. Live with purpose
1. Happiness happens on the way to
fulfillment.
2. Discover your Big Why.
Discover your purpose by asking yourself
what drives you.
3. Absent an answer, pick a direction.
22. Live by Priority
1. There can only be ONE
2. Goal Set to the Now
3. Put pen to paper
25. The Three Commitments to your ONE thing
1. Follow the Path of Mastery
2. Move from “E” to “P”
3. Live the Accountability Cycle
26. The Commitment – To Mastery
• Commit to be your best.
• It is the combination of not only doing the best
you can do at it,
• but also doing it the best it can be done.
• mastery takes time, it takes a commitment to
achieve it.
29. The Four Thieves of Productivity
1. Inability to Say “No”
2. Fear of Chaos
3. Poor Health Habits
4. Environment Doesn’t Support Your Goals
30. The Journey - Ahead
• Put yourself together, and your
world falls into place.
• When you bring purpose to your
life, know your priorities, and
achieve high productivity
• Then your life makes sense and
the extraordinary becomes
possible!
They think big success is time consuming and complicated. As a result, their calendars and to-do lists become overloaded and overwhelming.
Success starts to feel out of reach, so they settle for less. Unaware that big success comes when we do a few things well, they get lost trying to do too much and in the end accomplish too little.
Over time they lower their expectations, abandon their dreams, and allow their life to get small. This is the wrong thing to make small.
You have only so much time and energy, so when you spread yourself out, you end up spread thin.
You want your achievements to add up, but that actually takes subtraction, not addition.
In 2010 I was in desperation and I realized something had to give when I discovered this book on fellow college mate's recommendation.
Success starts to feel out of reach, so they settle for less. Unaware that big success comes when we do a few things well
“Going small” realizing that extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus.
When you go as small as possible, you’ll be staring at one thing. And that’s the point.
Before we go into book content I need tell you about this superb metaphor and principle that is introduced in the beginning of the book
They think big success is time consuming and complicated. As a result, their calendars and to-do lists become overloaded and overwhelming., they get lost trying to do too much and in the end accomplish too little. Over time they lower their expectations, abandon their dreams, and allow their life to get small. This is the wrong thing to make small.
You have only so much time and energy, so when you spread yourself out, you end up spread thin. You want your achievements to add up, but that actually takes subtraction, not addition.
He described how a single domino is capable of bringing down another domino that is actually 50 percent larger.
The challenge is that life doesn’t line everything up for us and say, “Here’s where you should start.”
Proof of the ONE Thing is everywhere. Look closely and you’ll always find it.
ONE PRODUCT, ONE SERVICEExtraordinarily successful companies always have one product or service they’re most known for or that makes them the most money.
No one actually has the discipline to acquire more than one powerful new habit at a time. Super-successful people aren’t superhuman at all; they’ve just used selected discipline to develop a few significant habits. One at a time. Over time
, then achievement isn’t an action you take but a habit you forge into your life.
Give each habit enough time. Stick with the discipline long enough for it to become routine. Habits, on average, take 66 days to form. Once a habit is solidly established, you can either build on that habit or, if appropriate, build another one.
Harness the power of selected discipline to build the right habit, and extraordinary results will find you.
“automaticity” came when participants were 95 percent through the power curve and the effort needed to sustain it was about as low as it would get.
You don’t have to seek out success.
On any given day, you have a limited supply of willpower, so decide what matters and reserve your willpower for it.
Monitor your fuel gauge. Full-strength willpower requires a full tank.
Full-strength willpower requires a full tank. Never let what matters most be compromised simply because your brain was under-fueled. Eat right and regularly.
Do what matters most first each day when your willpower is strongest. Maximum strength willpower means maximum success.
Willpower may not be on willcall, but when you use it first on what matters most, you can always count on it.
Separate your work life and personal life into two distinct buckets—not to compartmentalize them, just for counterbalancing. Each has its own counterbalancing goals and approaches.
View work as involving a skill or knowledge that must be mastered. This will cause you to give disproportionate time to your ONE Thing and will throw the rest of your work day, week, month, and year continually out of balance. Your work life is divided into two distinct areas—what matters most and everything else. You will have to take what matters to the extremes and be okay with what happens to the rest.
Acknowledge that your life actually has multiple areas and that each requires a minimum of attention for you to feel that you “have a life.” Drop any one and you will feel the effects. This requires constant awareness. You must never go too long or too far without counterbalancing them so that they are all active areas of your life. Your personal life requires it.
Start leading a counterbalanced life. Let the right things take precedence when they should and get to the rest when you can.
Separate your work life and personal life into two distinct buckets—not to compartmentalize them, just for counterbalancing. Each has its own counterbalancing goals and approaches.
View work as involving a skill or knowledge that must be mastered. This will cause you to give disproportionate time to your ONE Thing and will throw the rest of your work day, week, month, and year continually out of balance. Your work life is divided into two distinct areas—what matters most and everything else. You will have to take what matters to the extremes and be okay with what happens to the rest.
Acknowledge that your life actually has multiple areas and that each requires a minimum of attention for you to feel that you “have a life.” Drop any one and you will feel the effects. This requires constant awareness. You must never go too long or too far without counterbalancing them so that they are all active areas of your life. Your personal life requires it.
Start leading a counterbalanced life. Let the right things take precedence when they should and get to the rest when you can.
Avoid incremental thinking that simply asks, “What do I do next?” This is at best the slow lane to success and, at worst, the off ramp. Ask bigger questions. A good rule of thumb is to double down everywhere in your life. If your goal is ten, ask the question: “How can I reach 20?” Set a goal so far above what you want that you’ll be building a plan that practically guarantees your original goal.
The point was that they didn’t choose from the available options; they imagined outcomes that no one else had. They ignored the menu and ordered their own creations.
Think big.
Don’t order from the menu. “People who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the only ones who do.”
Act bold. Big thoughts go nowhere without bold action.
Don’t fear failure. It’s as much a part of your journey to extraordinary results as success. Adopt a growth mindset, and don’t be afraid of where it can take you.
Don’t let small thinking cut your life down to size. Think big, aim high, act bold. And see just how big you can blow up your life.
Once you’ve asked a big question, pause to imagine what life looks like with the answer. If you still can’t imagine it, go study people who have already achieved it. What are the models, systems, habits, and relationships of other people who have found the answer? As much as we’d like to believe we’re all different, what consistently works for others will almost always work for us.
Extraordinary results aren’t built solely on extraordinary results. They’re built on failure too. In fact, it would be accurate to say that we fail our way to success. When we fail, we stop, ask what we need to do to succeed, learn from our mistakes, and grow. Don’t be afraid to fail. See it as part of your learning process and keep striving for your true potential.
The surest path to achieving lasting happiness happens when you make your life about something bigger, when you bring meaning and purpose to your everyday actions.
For me, it looks like this: “My purpose is to help people live their greatest life possible through my teaching, coaching, and writing.” So, then what does my life look like?
Your most important priority is the ONE Thing you can do right now that will help you achieve what matters most to you.
Knowing your future goal is how you begin. Identifying the steps you need to accomplish along the way keeps your thinking clear while you uncover the right priority you need to accomplish right now
Write your goals down and keep them close.
Pull your purpose through to a single priority built by Goal Setting to the Now, and that priority—that ONE Thing
Be purposeful about your ONE Thing. Move from “E” to “P.”
Go on a quest for the models and systems that can take you the farthest.
Don’t just settle for what comes naturally—be open to new thinking, new skills, and new relationships.
If the path of mastery is a commitment to be your best, being purposeful is a commitment to adopt the best possible approach.
“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”
One of the greatest thieves of productivity is the unwillingness to allow for chaos or the lack of creativity in dealing with it.
When you strive for greatness, chaos is guaranteed to show up.
High achievement and extraordinary results require big energy. Your environment is simply who you see and what you experience every day.