The One Thing Quotes

“Big is bad is a lie. It’s quite possibly the worst lie of all, for if you fear big success, you’ll either avoid it or sabotage your efforts to achieve it.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“When everything feels urgent and important, everything seems equal. We become active and busy, but this doesn’t actually move us any closer to success. Activity is often unrelated to productivity, and busyness rarely takes care of business.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“extraordinary success is sequential, not simultaneous. What starts out linear becomes geometric. You do the right thing and then you do the next right thing. Over time it adds up, and the geometric potential of success is unleashed. The domino effect applies to the big picture, like your work or your business, and it applies to the smallest moment in each day when you’re trying to decide what to do next.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“Juggling is an illusion. ... In reality, the balls are being independently caught and thrown in rapid succession. ... It is actually task switching.”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“When you strive for greatness, chaos is guaranteed to show up.”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“Don't fear big. Fear mediocrity. Fear waste. Fear the lack of living to your fullest”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“Until my ONE Thing is done—everything else is a distraction.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“Not everything matters equally, and success isn’t a game won by whoever does the most. Yet that is exactly how most play it on a daily basis.”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“Think as big as you possibly can and base what you do, how you do it, and who you do it with on succeeding at that level. It just might take you more than your lifetime to run into the walls of a box this big.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“Task switching exacts a cost few realize they are even paying.”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“To be financially wealthy you must have a purpose for your life. In other words, without purpose, you’ll never know when you have enough money, and you can never be financially wealthy.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“Don't fear big. Fear mediocrity. Fear waste. Fear the lack of living to your fullest. When we fear big, we either consciously or subconsciously work against it. We either run toward lesser outcomes and opportunities or we simply run away from the big ones. If courage isn't the absence of fear, but moving past it, then thinking big isn't the absence of doubts, but moving past them. Only living big will let you experience your true life and work potential.”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“The reason we shouldn’t pursue balance is that the magic never happens in the middle; magic happens at the extremes.”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“Achievers operate differently. They have an eye for the essential. They pause just long enough to decide what matters and then allow what matters to drive their day. Achievers do sooner what others plan to do later and defer, perhaps indefinitely, what others do sooner. The difference isn’t in intent, but in right of way. Achievers always work from a clear sense of priority.”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“You must be single-minded. Drive for the one thing on which you have decided.” —General George S. Patton”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“The people we live with and work with on a daily basis deserve our full attention. When we give people segmented attention, piecemeal time, switching back and forth, the switching cost is higher than just the time involved. We end up damaging relationships.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“They allow purpose to be the guiding force in determining the priority that drives their actions.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“Taking complete ownership of your outcomes by holding no one but yourself responsible for them is the most powerful thing you can do to drive your success.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“Passion for something leads to disproportionate time practicing or working at it. That time spent eventually translates to skill, and when skill improves, results improve. Better results generally lead to more enjoyment, and more passion and more time is invested. It can be a virtuous cycle all the way to extraordinary results.”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“As actor and comedian Lily Tomlin once said, “The road to success is always under construction.” So don’t allow yourself to be detoured from getting to your ONE Thing. Pave your way with the right people and place. BIG IDEAS Start saying “no.” Always remember that when you say yes to something, you’re saying no to everything else. It’s the essence of keeping a commitment. Start turning down other requests outright or saying, “No, for now” to distractions so that nothing detracts you from getting to your top priority. Learning to say no can and will liberate you. It’s how you’ll find the time for your ONE Thing. Accept chaos. Recognize that pursuing your ONE Thing moves other things to the back burner. Loose ends can feel like snares, creating tangles in your path. This kind of chaos is unavoidable. Make peace with it. Learn to deal with it. The success you have accomplishing your ONE Thing will continually prove you made the right decision. Manage your energy. Don’t sacrifice your health by trying to take on too much. Your body is an amazing machine, but it doesn’t come with a warranty, you can’t trade it in, and repairs can be costly. It’s important to manage your energy so you can do what you must do, achieve what you want to achieve, and live the life you want to live. Take ownership of your environment. Make sure that the people around you and your physical surroundings support your goals. The right people in your life and the right physical environment on your daily path will support your efforts to get to your ONE Thing. When both are in alignment with your ONE Thing, they will supply the optimism and physical lift you need to make your ONE Thing happen. 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.” Live with Purpose, Live by Priority, and Live for Productivity. Follow these three for the same reason you make the three commitments and avoid the four thieves—because you want to leave your mark. You want your life to matter. 18”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“When we know something that needs to be done but isn’t currently getting done, we often say, “I just need more discipline.” Actually, we need the habit of doing it. And we need just enough discipline to build the habit.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“Leaving some things undone is a necessary tradeoff for extraordinary results.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“Productivity isn’t about being a workhorse, keeping busy or burning the midnight oil... . It’s more about priorities, planning, and fiercely protecting your time.” —Margarita Tartakovsky”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“Happiness happens when you have a bigger purpose than having more fulfills, which is why we say happiness happens on the way to fulfillment.”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“Where I’d had huge success, I had narrowed my concentration to one thing, and where my success varied, my focus had too.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“When you see someone who has a lot of knowledge, they learned it over time. When you see someone who has a lot of skills, they developed them over time. When you see someone who has done a lot, they accomplished it over time. When you see someone who has a lot of money, they earned it over time. The key is over time. Success”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“when you can see mastery as a path you go down instead of a destination you arrive at, it starts to feel accessible and attainable.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“buying into The ONE Thing becomes difficult because we’ve unfortunately bought into too many others—and more often than not those “other things” muddle our thinking, misguide our actions, and sidetrack our success.”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results