The ONE Thing
The ONE Thing – Gary Keller
Anything that can’t be measured is tough to control.
Similarly things that are done unplanned are bound to be unproductive.
Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you reach
planned destination.
Extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow
the focus can be made. One day is equivalent to one domino in the series of
dominos that fall. In the Netherlands people made 4.5 mn dominos fall that
cumulatively unleashed more than 94000 joules of energy, which is as much
energy as it takes for an average male to do 545 pushups. The example conveys a
big process to be followed by us.
The key is overtime because for big results enough is not
enough. To make it more than enough, results demand continuous efforts in
succession. Success is built sequentially with one thing at a time. Instead of
inculcating new traits in us, it is better to oust the detrimental habits. To
do that, understanding the wrong practices should be the start.
The six lies between us and Success that mislead and derail
us:
Everything matters equally.
A balanced life
Multitasking
A disciplined life.
Will power is always on will-call
Big is bad.
Lie 1 - Everything Matters
equally:
It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is what are
we busy about? Knocking out a hundred tasks for whatever the reason is a poor
substitute for doing even one task that’s meaningful. The things which are most
important don’t always scream the loudest.
As per Pareto law, the vital 20% makes the 80% result count. So go even
smaller to find the vital few of the vital few.
Separate work life and personal life into two distinct buckets and just ensure that family is not sacrificed for work. In the planned time of the professional hours give 80% of the time to single work. To achieve extraordinary result you must choose what maters the most and give it all the time it demands. This requires getting extremely out of balance in relation to all other work issues, with only infrequent balancing to address them. When you act on priority, you’ll automatically go out of balance, giving more time to one thing over the other. Remember success like magic happens only at the extremes.
“Imagine life is a game in which you are juggling five balls. The balls are Called work, Family, Health, Friends and Integrity. You’re keeping all of them in the air. But one day you come to understand that Work is the rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls are made up of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked perhaps even shattered.
Don’t order from menu! The
new way of doing certain things fuel more energy and enthusiasm. For eg. Steve
Jobs recruited the Engineers that were poets and Authors to get creativity in
the work. . Act bold and don’t fear failure. It’s a part of the journey.
Garry Kellar says that putting all the eggs in one basket is no risk.
It’s better than carrying many more baskets. For reducing down your baskets you
need focusing questions.
It’s simple. Answers come from questions and the quality answer comes
from a quality question. Questions engage our critical thinking. Research shows
that questions improves learning by as much as 150%.
The focusing question collapses all possible questions into one, “What one thing that I can do such that by doing
it everything else will be easier or unnecessary.”?
1. 1.Understand believe it. ----
2. 2.Use it. ----
3. 3.Make it a habit.
4. 4.Leverage reminders: Put up sign “Until my ONE Thing is done – everything else is a distraction.”
5. 5.Recruit Support: Let family and colleagues at work know your ONE Thing.
Decide your habits well. Habits will automatically decide your future.
The research and experience of others is the best place to start when
looking for answers. Think of possibilities.
Just remember that a new answers demands a new behavior.
Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll run over it if you just sit
there.
It is similar to the Iceberg that has only 1/9th of it above
the water.
Our purpose sets our priority and our priority determines the
productivity our actions produced. Even for one to be financially wealthy a
purpose is a must. Without purpose you’ll never know when you have enough money
and you will never be financially wealthy.
With purpose fulfilment happens and Happiness happens on the way of
fulfilment. So discover the big ‘Why’. Absent an answer, pick a direction.
Start matching down the path and see you like it. Time brings clarity and if
you find you don’t like it, you can always change your mind. It’s your life.
Live by priority:
Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do
something about it now. Purpose without priority is powerless. Remember rewards motivate us to move forward
and the ill-truth is that the farther away a reward is in the future, the
smaller is the immediate motivation to achieve it. Goal setting plays an
important role here.
One day goal – Weeks Goal – Months’ goal – One year goal – Five year
goal …so on.
The Process:
The process of following the purpose should be the real fun element. In
an experiment to evaluate the impact of visualization 262 students were divided
into two parts. One part was asked to visualize an outcome (like getting an “A”
in an exam) and the other set of students were asked to visualize the process
needed to achieve “A”. The students who visualized the process performed
better.
Live for productivity
Productivity isn’t about being a Workhorse keeping busy or burning the
midnight oil. It’s about priorities, planning and fiercely protecting your
time. Most successful people are the most productive people. So the goal should
not be to get more, but rather to have less to do.
Time blocking:
It’s a way of making sure that what has to be done gets done. Alexander Graham Bell said, “Concentrate all
your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun rays do not burn until brought to
a focus.” Time blocking is an art of harnessing your energy and center it on
your most important work.
If disproportionate results come from an activity then one should give disproportionate time to that activity. To make the best out of it, start working in the ONE Thing early morning that day.
How to handle all other important routine and non-routine tasks? Off course decide the activity on its merit
and urgency but not without understanding the priority. Be a maker in the
morning and a manager or supervisor in the afternoon/ evening.
There are many ways our blocks can get sabotaged. Follow the four proven ways to battle the
distractions
1.
Build a bunker:
2.
Store provisions: Have snacks, water bottles and
other essentials beside you.
3.
Sweep for mine: Turn off your phone, exit
internet browsers. Your most important work deserves 100% of your attention.
4.
Enlist Support: Tell those most likely to seek
you out what you’re doing and when you’ll be available.
1.
Follow the path of mastery
2.
Move from “E” to “P”
3.
Live the accountability cycle.
1.
Follow the path of mastery: When you can see
Mastery as a path you go down instead of stopping at the destination arrived.
Remember the fact the White belt Karate players know all the moves that the
Black best Karate players know. It’s just that they haven’t practiced enough.
2.
Move from “E” to “P” : When we roll out of bed
in the morning and start tackling the
day we do it in one of the ways: Entrepreneurial (E) or Purposeful (P). E is our natural approach. Planning a work
and going after it with full enthusiasm. With P we end up achieving things far
beyond our natural abilities.
“What got you here won’t take you there.”
we all have natural gifts and
talents that we use to achieve everything we do in all parts of our lives. We
all are different and it’s no coincidence that we all achieve different
results. We also all eventually hit a ceiling – the “entrepreneurial ceiling.”
The only way to break
through this ceiling is to know “P”. We need to know what
we care about, what drives us, and why we get up and go to work every day. If
we know our purpose, then we know if we have achieved all we want to achieve.
If we know our purpose, then we begin to look to others to find what we need to
blow through the ceiling that has us stuck. We can then begin to see what is
possible for us and move to make it happen. We move from living at the limit of
our skills to the vast vistas of our purpose. We move from
“E” to “P”.
3. The accountability Cycle:
Taking complete ownership of the outcomes by holding
no one but yourself responsible for them is the most powerful thing you can do
to drive success. Accountable people achieve results others only dream of.
Find a coach:
The single most important difference between groups of elite performers
and the groups of Amateurs is that the elite performers seek out Teachers and
Coaches and engage in supervised training whereas the amateurs rarely engage in
similar type of practice.
Focus is a matter of deciding what things you’re not going to do. The
four thieves of productivity are:
1.
Inability to say ‘No’
2.
Fear of Chaos
3.
Poor health habits
4.
Environment does not support your goals.
1.
Inability to say ‘No’:
When you say yes to something it’s imperative that you
understand what you are saying No to. Saying Yes to everything/ everyone is
like saying Yes to No one.
2.
Fear of Chaos:
When we work out tirelessly, clutter automatically takes up
residence around us. Messes are inevitable when you focus on just ONE Thing.
Ensure that the work does not sit and wait. The art of being wise is the art of
knowing what to overlook.
3.
Poor Health habits: High achievements
and extraordinary results require high energy.
4.
Environment does not support your
goals:
Environment is
simply who you see and what you experience every day. Create a productivity
specific environment to support your ONE Thing. No one succeeds alone and no
one fails alone. Pay attention to the people around you.
The summary of this
wonderful book The ONE Thing written by Gary Keller is just an attempt to preserve good points. In
the process I have used my experiences, observations, discretions and
foresights to land on a point.
Bulls Eye.
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