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by
Gary Keller
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December 4 - December 19, 2023
“Going small” is ignoring all the things you could do and doing what you should do.
It’s recognizing that not all things matter equally and finding the things that matter most.
You need to be doing fewer things for more effect instead of doing more things with side effects.
a nagging sense that we attempt too much and accomplish too little haunts our days.
16 percent of all traffic fatalities and nearly half a million injuries annually. Even an idle phone conversation when driving takes a 40 percent bite out of your focus and, surprisingly, can have the same effect as being drunk.
Do we not value our own job or take it as seriously? Why would we ever tolerate multitasking when we’re doing our most important work? Just because our day job doesn’t involve bypass surgery shouldn’t make focus any less critical to our success or the success of others. Your work deserves no less respect.
Multitasking takes a toll. At home or at work, distractions lead to poor choices, painful mistakes, and unnecessary stress.
Success is actually a short race—a sprint fueled by discipline just long enough for habit to kick in and take over.
The more we use our mind, the less minding power we have.
Willpower is like a fast-twitch muscle that gets tired and needs rest.
The brain makes up l/50th of our body mass but consumes a staggering 1/5th of the calories we burn for energy.
The studies concluded that willpower is a mental muscle that doesn’t bounce back quickly. If you employ it for one task, there will be less power available for the next unless you refuel. To do our best, we literally have to feed our minds,
Foods that elevate blood sugar evenly over long periods, like complex carbohydrates and proteins, become the fuel of choice for high-achievers—literal proof that “you are what you eat.”
When our willpower runs out, we all revert to our default settings. This begs the question: What are your default settings?
You make doing what matters most a priority when your willpower is its highest. In other words, you give it the time of day it deserves.
So, if you want to get the most out of your day, do your most important work—your ONE Thing—early,
Since your self-control will be sapped throughout the day, use it when it’s at full strength on what matters most.
On any given day, you have a limited supply of willpower, so decide what matters and reserve your willpower for it.
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.
Leaving some things undone is a necessary tradeoff for extraordinary results.
The idea of counterbalancing is that you never go so far that you can’t find your way back or stay so long that there is nothing waiting for you when you return.
Start leading a counterbalanced life. Let the right things take precedence when they should and get to the rest when you can.
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 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.
“But those Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas all ran away and hid from one little Did.” —Shel Silverstein
“People do not decide their futures, they decide their habits and their habits decide their futures.” —F. M. Alexander
“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” —George Bernard Shaw
A life lived on purpose is the most powerful of all—and the happiest.
Sticking with something long enough for success to show up is a fundamental requirement for achieving extra-ordinary results.
When your life is on purpose, living by priority takes precedence.
the more things you do, the less successful you are at any one of them.
You can’t please everyone, so don’t try.
There will always be unfinished work and loose ends lying around to snare your focus.
other areas of your life may experience chaos in direct proportion to the time you put in on your ONE Thing.
Francis Ford Coppola warns us that “anything you build on a large scale or with intense passion invites chaos.”
“The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.” — William James
If you can have a highly productive day until noon, the rest of the day falls easily into place. That’s positive energy creating positive momentum. Structuring the early hours of each day is the simplest way to extraordinary results.
Screenwriter Leo Rosten pulled everything together for us when he said, “I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all, to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all.”
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” — T. S. Eliot
elder Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside all people. He said, “My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us. One is Fear. It carries anxiety, concern, uncertainty, hesitancy, indecision and inaction. The other is Faith. It brings calm, conviction, confidence, enthusiasm, decisiveness, excitement and action.” The grandson thought about it for a moment and then meekly asked his grandfather: “Which wolf wins?” The old Cherokee replied, “The one you feed.”
Bronnie Ware’s 2012 book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying
