Why this book: I was asked to speak at Mark Divine’s Unbeatable Mind Academy Retreat and chose to speak on this topic. I was inspired by that famous scene from the movie City Slickers,  and was intrigued to find that same scene inspired this book. I chose to read the book in order to augment and stimulate my ideas for my presentation. It was very useful and I did use a few things from it, but my presentation was built primarily on my own experience.
My impressions: The One Thing was quite a bit better than I thought it would be. In one way, it is a typical business leadership book, relatively short, easy to read, proposes a simple idea with numerous anecdotes to make the points, with highlighted sections for execs who are too busy to read it fully or carefully. Yes, in these respects, The One Thing does fit that mold, and it is indeed an advantage that it can be read, or skimmed in an airplane ride. That said, it explores The One Thing idea well. There are a number of ideas and perspectives that I found insightful and which were useful to me in my own thought processes, as well as in my One Thing presentation. In my own life and coaching, I’ll use a number of the ideas from this book help me understand and explain new perspectives which should lead to new behaviors.

Below are some ideas I found interesting:

– Multitasking: He debunks the myths about the advantages of multi-tasking. The more things we are trying to do at the same time, the less quality the result of our efforts in any of those endeavors. He reinforces a main theme of his book: To get the best result, focus on one-thing at a time.

– Discipline vs Habit: He argues that the need for Discipline to accomplish things we want in life is much over-blown. He argues effectively that it DOES take discipline to create a new habit – but that takes normally (depending on the habit) between 2 and 4 months. After that, it is a habit – one does it automatically. Doesn’t require any discipline or will power. How much discipline does it take to brush your teeth or take a shower every day?

– Multiple ONE Things: Yes we have multiple One Things – in different spheres in our life. But he challenges us to find our One Thing in each sphere and focus on it in that sphere. He asks, what is the most important thing – the thing upon which everything else depends? What is our One Thing in our family life? In our professional life? In our relationship with our parents? Our Spouse? Our kids? In our favorite hobby? What is the One Thing I need to do to get me closer to the really BIG One Thing I’m striving for in my life?

– The Focusing Question: He offers a great question: What is the One Thing, such that by doing that, everything else becomes easier, or unnecessary? This is a great question and it can be modified depending on the context, for example to …that everything else becomes clearer, simpler, easier to understand, etc.

– Will Power is not on “will-call:” He notes that will power is a finite resource and we use it up during the day and as we get tired. He says that, “Will power is like a fast-twitch muscle that gets tired and needs rest.” Research shows how, after a long day of decision making and dealing with stress and issues, focus is difficult. We become impatient, intolerant, and our work is of less quality. Point: Do your important work – your ‘one thing’ work when you are  fresh –don’t postpone it until the end of the day. Do your most important work when your will power is at its strongest. Do the less important stuff, or the less demanding stuff then.

– Balanced Life vs Counter-balanced life: He makes a point that I have made in a previous blog post (HYPERLINK) that successful people don’t have “balanced” lives. They are putting their primary energy into their One Thing which leads to greater success, but clearly some things have to get short shrift. He argues for what he calls the “Counter-balanced” life – one in which one gives at least some effort to areas that demand attention, in order to ‘have a life.’ You can never go too long without counter-balancing your priority work by giving some attention to these other areas – otherwise the costs can be very high (family, health, friends, integrity.)

A possible shortcoming of the book:  As I was reading The ONE Thing, I realized that he didn’t address those of us who choose to be “Pretty good” at a number of things. Many of us choose not to be really good at any one thing, but take the “renaissance man (person)” approach and choose to excel by our diversity of interests and activities.  I have written on that separately in my essay In Praise of Mediocrity, and believe that the authors might have applied the advice and ideas in The ONE Thing to those of us with many “things,” or whose ONE thing might be to be pretty good at many things.

Some good quotes out of the book:
-No one succeeds alone. No one.
-Success is built sequentially. It’s one thing at a time.
-When you get your ONE Thing, you begin to see the world differently.
-The things that are most important don’t always scream the loudest.
-A to-do list can easily lead you astray. (drives us to do things that are not important to your One Thing)
-Doing the most important thing is always the most important thing.
-Success is actually a short race – a sprint fueled by discipline just long enough for habit to kick in and take over.
-Habits require much less energy and effort to maintain than to begin.
-Success is about doing the right things, not about doing everything right.
-The reason we shouldn’t pursue balance is that the magic never happens in the middle; magic happens at the extremes.
-When you focus on what is truly important, something will always be under-served….Leaving some things undone is a necessary tradeoff for extraordinary results.
-Imagine life is a game in which you are juggling five balls. The balls are called work, family, health, friends, and integrity. (work is the rubber ball –it bounces back. The other four are glass.)
-Life is a question. How we live it is our answer.
-The small focus question: “What is my ONE Thing right now?”
-Happiness happens on the way to fulfillment.
-Resting is as important as working.
-The most productive people, the ones who experience extraordinary results, design their days around doing their ONE Thing. Their most important appointment each day is with themselves, and they never miss it.
-Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.
-There is magic in knocking down your most important domino, day after day.
-Until my ONE Thing is done, everything else is a distraction. (The author wrote this on a sheet of paper and put it on his desk.)
-When you see mastery as a path you go down instead of a destination you arrive at, it starts to feel accessible and attainable.
-A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to extraordinary results. Untidiness. Unrest. Disarray. Disorder. … When you strive for greatness, chaos is guaranteed to show up.