The One Thing Quotes

“No one succeeds alone. No one.”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“Thinking big is essential to extraordinary results. Success requires action, and action requires thought. But here’s the catch—the only actions that become springboards to succeeding big are those informed by big thinking to begin with. Make this connection, and the importance of how big you think begins to sink in.”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“only actions that become springboards to succeeding big are those informed by big thinking to begin with.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“Here’s what I found out: We overthink, overplan, and overanalyze our careers, our businesses, and our lives; that long hours are neither virtuous nor healthy; and that we usually succeed in spite of most of what we do, not because of it.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“When you argue for your limitations, you get to keep them.”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“Lily Tomlin once said, “The road to success is always under construction.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“Equality is a lie. Understanding this is the basis of all great decisions.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“In one study, elite violinists had separated themselves from all others by each accumulating more than 10,000 hours of practice by age 20. Thus the rule. Many elite performers complete their journey in about ten years, which, if you do the math, is an average of about three hours of deliberate practice a day, every day, 365 days a year. Now, if your ONE Thing relates to work and you put in 250 workdays a year (five days a week for 50 weeks), to keep pace on your mastery journey you’ll need to average four hours a day. Sound familiar? It’s not a random number. That’s the amount of time you need to time block every day for your ONE Thing. More than anything else, expertise tracks with hours invested. Michelangelo once said, “If the people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem wonderful at all.” His point is obvious. Time on a task, over time, eventually beats talent every time. I’d say you can “book that,” but actually you should “block it.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“Multitasking is a scam.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“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.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“There can only be one most important thing. Many things may be important, but only one can be the most important.” —Ross Garber”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“The truth is that things don’t matter equally and success is found in doing what matters most.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“Knocking out a hundred tasks for whatever the reason is a poor substitute for doing even one task that’s meaningful.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” —Mark Twain”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“Multitasking is merely the opportunity to screw up more than one thing at a time.”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“It is those who concentrate on but one thing at a time who advance in this world.” — Og Mandino”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“Give each habit enough time. Stick with the discipline long enough for it to become routine. Habits, on average, take 66 days to form. Once a habit is solidly established, you can either build on that habit or, if appropriate, build another one.”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“People who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the only ones who do." - Apple Adv.”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“Be like a postage stamp–stick to one thing until you get there.”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.” —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“Purpose is the straightest path to power and the ultimate source of personal strength—strength”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“be a maker in the morning and a manager in the afternoon.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“Your talent and abilities are limited resources. Your time is finite. If you don’t make your life about what you say yes to, then it will almost certainly become what you intended to say no to.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“When life happens, you can be either the author of your life or the victim of it. Those are your only two choices— accountable or unaccountable. This may sound harsh, but it’s true. Every day we choose one approach or the other, and the consequences follow us forever.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“What kind of regrets? For me, very few books cause tears, much less require a handkerchief, but Bronnie Ware’s 2012 book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying did both. Ware spent many years caring for those facing their own mortality. When she questioned the dying about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, Bronnie found that common themes surfaced again and again. The five most common were these: I wish that I’d let myself be happier—too late they realized happiness is a choice; I wish I’d stayed in touch with my friends—too often they failed to give them the time and effort they deserved; I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings—too frequently shut mouths and shuttered feelings weighed too heavy to handle; I wish I hadn’t worked so hard—too much time spent making a living over building a life caused too much remorse. As tough as these were, one stood out above them all. The most common regret was this: I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself not the life others expected of me. Half-filled dreams and unfulfilled hopes: this was the number-one regret expressed by the dying. As Ware put it, “Most people had not honored even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.” Bronnie Ware’s observations aren’t hers alone. At the conclusion of their exhaustive research, Gilovich and Medvec in 1994 wrote, “When people look back on their lives, it is the things they have not done that generate the greatest regret.... People’s actions may be troublesome initially; it is their inactions that plague them most with long-term feelings of regret.” Honoring our hopes and pursuing productive lives through faith in our purpose and priorities is the message from our elders. From the wisest position they’ll ever have comes their clearest message. No regrets. So make sure every day you do what matters most. When you know what matters most, everything makes sense. When you don’t know what matters most, anything makes sense. The best lives aren’t led this way.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“We are kept from our goal, not by obstacles but by a clear path to a lesser goal.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“the key to success isn’t in all the things we do but in the handful of things we do well.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“purpose-driven priority.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“No one is self-made”
― Gary Keller , The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“Saying yes to everyone is the same as saying yes to nothing. Each additional obligation chips away at your effectiveness at everything you try.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results