The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

by Gary Keller

To stay on track for the best possible day, month, year, or career, 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.

ANATOMY OF THE QUESTION The Focusing Question collapses all possible questions into one: “What’s the ONE Thing I can do / such that by doing it / everything else will be easier or unnecessary?

PART ONE: “WHAT’S THE ONE THING I CAN DO …” This sparks focused action. “What’s the ONE Thing” tells you the answer will be one thing versus many. It forces you toward something specific. It tells you right up front that, although you may consider many options, you need to take this seriously because you don’t get two, three, four, or more. You can’t hedge your bet. You’re allowed to pick one thing and one thing only. The last phrase, “can do,

PART TWO: “… SUCH THAT BY DOING IT …” “But those Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas all ran away and hid from one little Did.” —Shel Silverstein This tells you there’s a criterion your answer must meet. It’s the bridge between just doing something and doing something for a specific purpose. “Such that by doing it” lets you know you’re going to have to dig deep, because when you do this ONE Thing, something else is going to happen. PART THREE: “… EVERYTHING ELSE WILL BE EASIER OR UNNECESSARY?

“Everything else will be easier or unnecessary” is the ultimate leverage test.

BIG IDEAS 1. Great questions are the path to great answers. The Focusing Question is a great question designed to find a great answer. It will help you find the first domino for your job, your business, or any other area in which you want to achieve extraordinary results. 2. 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 finding the right action. 3. The Big-Picture Question: “What’s my ONE Thing?” Use it to develop a vision for your life and the direction for your career or company; it is your strategic compass. It also works when considering what you want to master, what you want to give to others and your community, and how you want to be remembered. It keeps your

relationships with friends, family, and colleagues in perspective and your daily actions on track. 4. The Small-Focus Question: “What’s my ONE Thing right now?” Use this when you first wake up and throughout the day. It keeps you focused on your most important work and, whenever you need it, helps you find the “levered action” or first domino in any activity. The small-focus question prepares you for the most productive workweek possible. It’s effective in your personal life too, keeping you attentive to your most important immediate needs, as well as those of the most important people in your life.

11 THE SUCCESS HABIT “Success is simple. Do what’s right, the right way, at the right time.” —Arnold H. Glasow

What’s the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?

BIG IDEAS So how do your make The ONE Thing part of your daily routine? How do you make it strong enough to get extraordinary results at work and in the other areas of your life? Here’s a starter list drawn from our experience and our work with others. 1. Understand and believe it. The first step is to understand the concept of the ONE Thing, then to believe that it can make a difference in your life. If you don’t understand and believe, you

won’t take action. 2. Use it. Ask yourself the Focusing Question. Start each day by asking, “What’s the ONE Thing I can do today for [whatever you want] such that by doing it everything else will be easier or even unnecessary?” When you do this, your direction will become clear. Your work will be more productive and your personal life more rewarding. 3. Make it a habit. When you make asking the Focusing Question a habit, you fully engage its power to get the extraordinary results you want. It’s a difference maker. Research says this will take about 66 days. Whether it takes you a few weeks or a few months, stick with it until it becomes your routine. If you’re not serious about learning the Success Habit, you’re not serious about getting extraordinary results. 4. Leverage reminders. Set up ways to remind yourself to use the Focusing Question. One of the best ways to do this is to put up a sign at work that says, “Until my ONE Thing is done—

everything else is a distraction.” We designed the back cover of this book to be a trigger—set it on the corner of your desk so that it’s the first thing you see when you get to work. Use notes, screen savers, and calendar cues to keep making the connection between the Success Habit and the results you seek. Put up reminders like, “The ONE Thing = Extraordinary Results” or “The Success Habit Will Get Me to My Goal.” 5. Recruit support. Research shows that those around you can influence you tremendously. Starting a success support group with some of your work colleagues can help inspire all of you to practice the Success Habit every day. Get your family involved. Share your ONE Thing. Get them on boar...

FIG. 17 Your one-two punch for extraordinary results. 1. ASK A GREAT QUESTION The Focusing Question helps you ask a great question. Great questions, like great goals, are big and specific. They push you, stretch you, and aim you at big, specific answers. And because they’re framed to be measurable, there’s no wiggle room about what the results will look like.

FIG. 18 Four options for framing a Great Question. Look at the “Great Question” matrix (figure 18) to see the power of the Focusing Question. Let’s take increasing sales as a way to break down each of the quadrants, using “What can I do to double sales in six months?” as a placeholder for Big & Specific (figure 19).

where you want to be—Big & Specific. Quadrant 4. Small & Specific: “What can I do to increase s...

Quadrant 3. Small & Broad: “What can I do to increase sales?” This is not really an achievement question at all. It’s more of a brainstorming question.

Quadrant 2. Big & Broad: “What can I do to double sales?

Quadrant 1. Big & Specific: “What can I do to double sales in six months?” Now you have all the elements of a Great Question.

“What’s the ONE Thing I can do to double sales in six months such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?

2. FIND A GREAT ANSWER The challenge of asking a Great Question is that, once you’ve asked it, you’re now faced with finding a Great Answer. Answers come in three categories: doable, stretch, and possibility. The easiest answer you can seek is the one that’s already within reach of your knowledge, skills, and experience. With this type of solution you probably already know how to do it and won’t have to change much to get it. Think of this as “doable” and the most likely to be achieved. The next level up is a “stretch” answer. While this is still within your reach, it can be at the farthest end of your range. You’ll most likely have to do some research and study what others have done to come up with this answer. Doing it can be iffy since you might have to extend yourself to the very limits of your current abilities. Think of this as potentially achievable and probable, depending on your effort. High achievers understand these first two routes but reject them. Unwilling to settle for ordinary when extraordinary is possible, they’ve asked a Great Question and want the very best answer.

FIG. 20 The Success Habit unlocks possibilities. Extraordinary results require a Great Answer.

“Has anyone else studied or accomplished this or something like it?” The answer is almost always yes, so your investigation begins by finding out what others have learned.

The research and experience of others is the best place to start when looking for your answer.

FIG. 21 The benchmark is today’s success—the trend is tomorrow

A new answer usually requires new behavior, so don’t be surprised if along the way to sizable success you change in the process. But don’t let that stop you.

BIG IDEAS 1. Think big and specific. Setting a goal you intend to achieve is like asking a question. It’s a simple step from “I’d

like to do that” to “How do I achieve that?” The best question—and by default, the best goal—is big and specific: big, because you’re after extraordinary results; specific, to give you something to aim at and to leave no wiggle room about whether you hit the mark. A big and specific question, especially in the form of the Focusing Question, helps you zero in on the best possible answer. 2. Think possibilities. Setting a doable goal is almost like creating a task to check off your list. A stretch goal is more challenging. It aims you at the edge of your current abilities; you have to stretch to reach it. The best goal explores what’s possible. When you see people and businesses that have undergone transformations, this is where they live. 3. Benchmark and trend for the best answer. No one has a crystal ball, but with practice you can become surprisingly good at anticipating where things are heading. The people and businesses who get there first often enjoy the

lion’s share of the rewards with few, if any, competitors. Benchmark and trend to find the extraordinary answer yo...

“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” —Will Rogers

FIG. 23 In business, profit and productivity are also driven by priority and purpose. Personal productivity is the building block of all business profit. The two are inseparable. A business can’t have unproductive people yet magically still have an immensely profitable business. Great businesses are built one productive person at a time. And not surprisingly, the most productive people receive the greatest rewards from their businesses.

depends on what you’d do with it.” I believe that financially wealthy people are those who have enough money coming in without having to work to finance their purpose in life.

BIG IDEAS 1. Happiness happens on the way to fulfillment. We all want to be happy, but seeking it isn’t the best way to find it. The surest path to achieving lasting happiness happens when you make your life about something bigger, when you bring meaning and purpose to your everyday actions. 2. Discover your Big Why. Discover your purpose by asking yourself what drives you. What’s the thing that gets you up in the morning and keeps you going when you’re tired and worn down? I sometimes refer to this as your “Big

Why.” It’s why you’re excited with your life. It’s why you’re doing what you’re doing. 3. Absent an answer, pick a direction. “Purpose” may sound heavy, but it doesn’t have to be. Think of it as simply the ONE Thing you want your life to be about more than any other. Try writing down something you’d like to accomplish and then describe how you’d do it. For me, it looks like this: “My purpose is to help people live their greatest life possible through my teaching, coaching, and writing.” So, then what does my life look like? Teaching is my ONE Thing and has been for almost 30 years. At first it was teaching clients about the market and how to make great decisions. Next, it was teaching salespeople in the classroom, during sales meetings, and one-on-one. Later it was teaching business classes. Then it became teaching high performers models and strategies for high achievement, and the last ten years it has been teaching

seminars on specific life-building principles. What I teach is what I then coach and is supported by what I write. Pick a direction, start marching down that path, and see how you like it. Time brings clarity, and if you find you d...

14 LIVE BY PRIORITY “Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” —Alan Lakein “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat. “I don’t much care where—” said Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you

go,” said the Cat. Alice’s classic encounter with the Cheshire Cat in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland reveals the close connection between purpose and priority.

Purpose without priority is powerless.

To be precise, the word is priority—not priorities—and it originated in the 14th century from the Latin prior, meaning “first.” If something mattered the most it was a “

If you’re offered a choice of $100 today or $200 next year, which would you choose? The $200, right? You would if your goal were to make the most money from the opportunity. Strangely, most people don’t make that choice. Economists have long known that even though people prefer big rewards over small ones, they have an even stronger preference for present rewards over future ones—even when the future rewards are MUCH BIGGER. It’s an ordinary occurrence, oddly named hyperbolic discounting—the farther away a reward is in the future, the smaller the immediate motivation to achieve it.

To understand how Goal Setting to the Now will guide your thinking and determine your most important priority, read this out loud to yourself: Based on my someday goal, what’s the ONE Thing I can do in the next five years to be on track to achieve it? Now, based on my five-year goal, what’s the ONE Thing I can do this year to be on track to achieve my five-year goal, so that I’m on track to achieve my someday goal? Now, based on my goal this year, what’s the ONE Thing I can do this month so I’m on track to achieve my goal this year, so I’m on track to achieve my five-year goal, so I’m on track to achieve my someday goal? Now, based on my goal this month, what’s the ONE Thing I can do this week so I’m on track to achieve my goal this month, so I’m on track to achieve my goal this year, so I’m on track to achieve my five-year goal, so I’m on track to achieve my someday goal? Now, based on my goal this week, what’s the ONE Thing I can do today so I’m on track to achieve my goal this week, so I’m on track to achieve my goal this month, so I’m on track to

achieve my goal this year, so I’m on track to achieve my five-year goal, so I’m on track to achieve my someday goal? So, based on my goal today, what’s the ONE Thing I can do right NOW so I’m on track to achieve my goal today, so I’m on track to achieve my goal this week, so I’m on track to achieve my goal this month, so I’m on track to achieve my goal this year, so I’m on track to achieve my five-year goal, so I’m on track to achieve my someday goal? I hope you hung in there and read the entire thing. Why? Because you’re training your mind how to think, how to connect one goal with the next over time until you know the most important thing you must do right NOW. You’re learning how to think big—but go small. To prove its value, just skip the steps by asking yourself, “What’s the ONE Thing I can do right now so I’m on track to achieve my someday goal?

BIG IDEAS 1. There can only be ONE. Your most important priority is the ONE Thing you can do right now that will help you achieve what matters most to you. You may have many “priorities,” but dig deep and you’ll discover there is always one that matters most, your top priority—your ONE Thing. 2. Goal Set to the Now. Knowing your future goal is how you begin. Identifying the steps you need to accomplish along the way keeps your thinking clear while you uncover the right priority you need to accomplish right now. 3. Put pen to paper. Write your goals down and keep them close.

Pull your purpose through to a single priority built by Goal Setting to the Now, and that priority—that ONE Thing you can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary—will show you the way to extraordinary results. And once you know what to do, the only thing left is to go from knowing to doing.

Productive action transforms lives.

“My goal is no longer to get more done, but rather to have less to do.” —Francine Jay Productive people get more done, achieve better results, and earn far more in their hours than the rest. They do so because they devote maximum time to being productive on their top priority, their ONE Thing. They time block their ONE Thing and then protect their time blocks with a vengeance. They’ve connected the dots between working their time blocks consistently and the extra-ordinary results they seek. FIG. 26 Make an appointment with yourself and keep it!

great quote

The solution? Time blocking.