I recently read the book called,The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results. It's a book that reveals the surprisingly simple truth behind extraordinary results.
I'm sure you can guess what that is – focusing on your ONE THING!
I'm a big believer in FOCUS and eliminating distractions. I've practiced this principle, also known as the 80/20 Rule, much of my life. It's helped me achieve a lot.
However, Gary takes things much further and provides a lot of practical tips and strategies to identify your ONE THING and eliminate distraction. This book was a fantastic read and one that I believe will help people achieve bigger and better results in their lives.
Watch the video below:
(Click here to watch on YouTube)
[smart_track_player url=”http://www.buzzsprout.com/9299/387194-plm-298-the-one-thing-the-surprisingly-simple-truth-behind-extraordinary-results-book-review.mp3″ social=”true” social_twitter=”true” social_facebook=”true” social_gplus=”true” ]
Video transcript
Hey, this is Stefan from projectlifemastery.com, and in this video, I'm going to share with you what I'm learning from the book called, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results, by Gary Keller. Now, if you're somebody that has a hard time focusing, somebody that easily gets distracted, somebody that tries to focus on and do too much at once and gets stressed and overwhelmed all the time, then I'd highly recommend this book.
I've been reading this book now for the last week or so and I've been sharing on my Snapchat a lot of what I've been learning from this book. I actually did a little vote on my Snapchat where I had people vote on which book they thought that I should read next. The book, “The One Thing” is the book that won the vote, and so I've been reading that, getting a lot of value from it. By the way, if you guys aren't yet following me on Snapchat, I highly recommend that you do.
My username is stefanjames1, and there'll be a link below in the description to my Snapcode. Follow me on Snapchat because I'm sharing a lot more value, a lot of stuff that I'm learning all throughout the day. Now, this book has really reinforced for me some really important principles, and really “The One Thing” is a core principle that's based on the Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule.
The 80/20 principle
If you're unfamiliar with what that is, basically the 80/20 principle states that 20% of your actions will produce 80% of the results that you're after and that no actions are equal; no actions carry the same weight.
There's always certain actions on your to-do list that will help you achieve a goal or outcome a lot faster, that will allow you to make more of a significant, quantum leap of progress towards achieving that goal. If you've got a list of twenty things to do, you need to narrow that list and understand that not all twenty things are going to carry the same weight in helping you to achieve the goal or the outcome that you're after.
You've got to narrow your focus on the 20% of that. It's almost like the Pareto Principle's becomes a law, the law of the universe, and it's been proven now of how much of a difference that it makes, not just in your business, but every aspect of your life. The book” The One Thing” really helps you to narrow your focus even further than that. If you've got a list of twenty things, you narrow that down to the 20%, that might be the top four things for you to do, but narrowing that even further to the one thing.
In the book, Gary basically talks about how you've got to ask yourself and define what is the one thing that you can do in your life that will make the biggest progress, the biggest growth in your life, the biggest focus of your life, what is that for you? Hopefully by the time you guys finish watching this video, you will actually think about this and maybe write it down or go check out the book if you want deeper lessons from the book, but really getting clear on what's that one thing. In the book, Gary dispels a few myths that exist, one of them being multi-tasking.
A lot of people think that multi-tasking is power, but the studies and the research shows that multi-tasking actually dilutes your focus. It actually prevents you from actually being as productive as you want because you're focused on too many things. I remember one study stated that multi-tasking actually lowers your IQ more than smoking marijuana, so multi-tasking is not something that's going to help you be ultimately productive.
We live in a world where there are so many distractions, there are so many things, like social media and phone calls and text messages and so many things competing for our time and our focus that it's become increasingly challenging for people to focus on one thing.
The myth of multi-tasking and balance
Focusing on the one thing, dispelling the myth of multi-tasking and also dispelling the myth of balance because balance is something that doesn't really exist. Nothing is ever a 100% balanced. He uses an example in the book of a ballerina, balancing on her toe. If you actually look at the ballerina's foot, you'll actually see that it's actually shaking a lot.
It's not 100% balanced. I think balance overall is something you should strive for, but many times throughout your life, you're going to have to go out of balance. You're going to have to focus on one area of your life more than others and other areas might suffer a little bit.
As long as you still sustain the different areas of your life and try to maintain balance, that's key, but again, you're going to have to focus on one primary thing more than everything else. Overall, define your one thing. What's the one thing for you, the one thing in your life that you're focused on right now?
Maybe it's your business, your success, finances, maybe it's your emotional well-being, maybe it's primarily focused on your physical health and body. Maybe it's focusing on your spiritual life, your relationships. Getting clear on what your one thing is is very, very important. Then, beyond that, you want to also get clear on the one thing in each area of your life.
Defining the one thing in your physical health. What's the one thing that you could do in your physical health that, by doing it, it's going to allow you to have the most energy, physical vitality, stamina, endurance, strength, the aesthetics that you really desire? What's that one thing in defining that?
Then, what's the one thing in your emotional well-being that's going to allow you to experience the joy, the happiness, the passion, the love, the fulfillment, the peace? What's the one thing in that area? Then, what's the one thing for your finances, that by doing it, it's going to allow you to experience financial freedom, financial abundance, financial security?
What's the one thing in your business that's going to allow you to experience the most growth, the most upside, the most return on your investment and return on your time? What's that one thing in your spiritual life? What's the one thing in your relationship that's going to allow you to experience the most love and joy and passion and intimacy?
Getting clear on each area of your life, and you guys that follow me, you guys know that I'm big on my Monthly Goals Reports and everything, and my whole life plan that I have; I have visions and goals for each area of my life. I focus on one thing at a primary time, one primary project, but I really have many different outcomes.
My health, my physical body, my relationships, my emotional well-being, my finances, my time, my friendships, my family, my spiritual life and my businesses. Those are the different areas of my life, and so focusing on making progress, and by focusing on the one thing, it's going to allow you to scale up your life and level up much faster to achieve more success in your life, more joy, more of whatever it is that you want.
How questions shape your life
Narrowing your focus, very key, each area of your life. There's one primary question I want to share with you guys that I got from this book as well. In the book, Gary talks about how questions shape your life.
I remember learning this from Tony Robbins years ago, how the quality of your life is the quality of the questions that you ask yourself. The questions you ask yourself allow you to direct your focus on what it is that you want, allow you to move towards what you want. Most people, they have no idea how to direct their mind. They just basically react to whatever stimulation comes up and so you've got to take charge of your mind.
You've got to ask yourself the right questions every single day and all throughout the day to direct your mind, your focus, your energy on what really matters. The question that Gary asks besides, “What is my one thing,” he narrows down the question to, “What is the one thing that you can do that by doing it will make everything else easy and unnecessary?”
Okay, I'm going to say that again. “What is the one thing that you can do that by doing it will make everything else easy and unnecessary?” It's a really great question and I always think about, “How can I incorporate these questions more into my life?” Oftentimes, it comes down to incorporating it into my morning ritual, my morning routine, asking myself these questions first thing in the morning that direct my focus on what I want, on being more productive, more efficient. That's a really great question that you guys can pull from this, that you guys can utilize in your life.
Focusing on what matters
Like I said, I'm not going to go into everything that I learned from this book. There's a lot of information, but really I think that's the core principle of this book, is really focusing on what matters, focusing on the one thing that's most important. I'll share with you guys a little bit about my life. For me, the one thing in my business is recording content, recording videos.
It's the one thing that I can do that nobody else can do that I'm the best at in my business, I'm passionate about, I love it, it's fun for me. I enjoy it, and it's the one thing that can allow me to attract more people to me, to my brand, to my business, to gather more awareness.
It's the one thing that can allow me to add value to you, to build a better relationship with you, to help you to impact the world, to make a difference and contribute. It's also the most important thing. It can allow me to grow and scale my business and earn more money and profit and it could also be recording content for a new product or a new service or something along those lines that can really add value.
That's my one thing in my business. Everything else is secondary to that. In my physical health, the one thing for me is exercise. If I exercise every day, whether that's doing cardio or doing weights, oftentimes something that's aerobic and something that doesn't build up too much acid, what that does is it helps increase my stamina and my strength.
It helps make me feel confident and alive and it gives me energy throughout the day as well, helps build my immune system, helps me take in a lot more oxygen and lymphasize, and get rid of toxins in my body. By doing that one thing every single day, I'm basically guaranteed for the rest of my life to be healthy and fit, vibrant and energetic.
Really, there's no guarantee. I shouldn't say that. By doing that one thing, it's going to be that 20% that's going to allow me to produce the 80%. There's nothing ever, anything that's a 100%, okay. There's no 20% that produces a 100% of the results but most of it, 80%, the bulk of that, okay.
I'm not saying that there are other things that you can't do in your business, there are not other things that you can do in your health, your emotions, etc., but really, you've got to focus the majority of your time, energy and effort on that one thing and then everything else is secondary to it.
Doing my morning ritual
For me, my emotional well-being is doing my morning ritual. Without a doubt, my morning ritual is actually part of my physical health. It's a part that influences my relationships, my emotional well-being, my business, everything.
Just spending 15 minutes to an hour every single day on myself, conditioning my mind, conditioning my focus, conditioning my belief, asking myself these questions, feeding my body, my mind, my health, etc., by doing that every single day, that 15 minutes to hour a day, the return that I get on that is amazing.
The return that I get on my business is incredible because my morning ritual puts me in the right state, prepares me for the day, allows me to do my one thing in my business, to be more productive, get better results. That one thing allows me to have much more passion and more loving, more joyous relationships with my partner and also other people in my life, and the same thing with everything else.
Morning ritual, that's my one thing there. Do that every single day, again, 80% of my emotions is going to be taken care of for that day, so again, those are just examples from my life, but I want you guys to get more clear on your one thing. What's the one thing for you? The one thing, the overall one thing in your life, the one thing in each area of your life, and also incorporate these questions. Ask yourself these questions more often.
What's my outcome?
For me, you guys know that I'm a fan of RPM, Results, Purpose, Massive Action Plan. I actually see the one thing fitting into that because the more important question that I ask myself is, “What's my outcome?” I actually think that's a more important question than, “What's your one thing?” because your one thing is really just there to help you accomplish an outcome, a goal, a result that you're really after.
If you don't know what you want, you're going to be lost. For me, what's my outcome, that's how I start my day. What's my outcome, how I plan my day? What's the most important thing, that day, my most important outcome?
Why do I want it and then what's my one thing that's going to help me to achieve that outcome? What's that one thing that's going to, by doing it, make everything else easy and unnecessary? Part of my ritual, guys. Hopefully, you guys pick up this book. Hopefully, it can help you guys and benefit you and hopefully this video was able to benefit you guys as well.
I just want to share with you guys a little bit about what I'm learning. I did a vote on my Snapchat, asking if you guys would receive value if I did more videos like this, sharing what I'm learning from these books.
I'll be reviewing some of these books as well so I might shoot some more videos today with some certain books I've been reading and share them with you guys, and hopefully, you guys can benefit from it. Thank you, guys, for watching the video. Make sure to like the video, leave a comment below. Let me know if you read the book or let me know what your one thing is. I'd love to hear what that is, and subscribe for more videos like this. Take care.
(4 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading...