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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Gary Keller
Read between
November 18 - December 26, 2022
The Focusing Question helps keep your first step from being a misstep.
the quality of any answer is directly determined by the quality of the question.
Ask the wrong question, get the wrong answer. Ask the right question, get the right answer. Ask the most powerful question possible, and the answer can be life altering.
Ask the wrong question, get the wrong answer. Ask the right question, get the right answer. Ask the most powerful question possible, and the answer can be life altering.
Research shows that asking questions improves learning and performance by as much as 150 percent.
“Sometimes questions are more important than answers.”
“Sometimes questions are more important than answers.”
For Life is a just employer, He gives you what you ask, But once you have set the wages, Why, you must bear the task.
I worked for a menials hire, Only to learn, dismayed, That any wage I had asked of Life, Life would have willingly paid.
“... any wage I had asked of Life, Life would have willingly paid.”
“... any wage I had asked of Life, Life would have willingly paid.”
life is a question and how we live it is our answer.
life is a question and how we live it is our answer.
How we phrase the questions we ask ourselves determines the answers that eventually become our life.
How we phrase the questions we ask ourselves determines the answers that eventually become our life.
To get the answers we seek, we have to invent the right questions—and we’re left to devise our own. So how do you do this? How do you come up with uncommon questions that take you to uncommon answers? You ask one question: the Focusing Question.
Anyone who dreams of an uncommon life eventually discovers there is no choice but to seek an uncommon approach to living it.
“What’s the ONE THING I can do such by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”
The Focusing Question is so deceptively simple that its power is easily dismissed by anyone who doesn’t closely examine it.
The Focusing Question can lead you to answer not only “big picture” questions (Where am I going? What target should I aim for?) but also “small focus” ones as well (What must I do right now to be on the path to getting the big picture? Where’s the bull’s-eye?).
It tells you not only what your basket should be, but also the first s...
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It shows you how big your life can be and just how small you must go to get there. It’s both a map for the big picture and a ...
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The Focusing Question is a big-picture map and small-focus compass.
decision—it drives you to make the best decision. It ignores what is doable and drills down to what is necessary, to what matters.
It leads you to the first domino.
you must keep asking the Focusing Question. Ask it again and again, and it forces you to line up tasks in their levered order of importance.
Then, each time you ask it, you see your next priority. The power of this approach is that you’re setting yourself up to accomplish one task on top of another.
Powered by the Focusing Question, your actions become a natural progression of building one right thing on top of the previous right thing.
“What’s the ONE Thing I can do / such that by doing it / everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”
This sparks focused action. “What’s the ONE Thing”
can’t hedge your bet. You’re allowed to pick one thing and one thing only.
The last phrase, “can do,” is an embedded command directing you to take action that is possible.
Action you “can do” beats intention every time.
“But those Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas all ran away and hid from one little Did.” —Shel Silverstein
“But those Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas all ran away and hid from one little Did.” —Shel Silverstein
It’s the bridge between just doing something and doing something for a specific purpose.
“Everything else will be easier or unnecessary” is the ultimate leverage test.
when you do this ONE Thing, everything else you could do to accomplish your goal will now be either doable with less effort or no longer even necessary.
Most people struggle to comprehend how many things don’t need to be done, if they would just sta...
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In effect, this qualifier seeks to declutter your life by asking yo...
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This elevates the answer’s potential to change your life by doing the leveraged thing ...
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The Focusing Question asks you to find the first domino and focus on it exclusively...
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Great questions are the path to great answers.
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.
One is about finding the right direction in life and the other is about fi...
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The Big-Picture Question: “What’s m...
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Use it to develop a vision for your life and the direction for your career or company; it...
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The Small-Focus Question: “What’s my ONE Thing right now?”
Use this when you first wake up and throughout the day.
The small-focus question prepares you for the most productive workweek possible.
What’s the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?
Start with the big stuff and see where it takes you.
For example: “For my job, what’s the ONE Thing I can do to ensure I hit my goals this week such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”
