The One Thing by Gary Keller

The One Thing

8.2/106 min read

5/11/17

  • Extraordinary results come from your ability to narrow your focus

  • What is the one thing you can do this week that would make everything else easier?

  • You have to figure out the one thing

  • Go as small as possible

  • Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there

  • The domino effect starts with one thing. Each domino can bring down something bigger

  • When you think of success, shoot for the moon

  • Success builds on success

  • It takes time to learn, accomplish, and make money

  • No one succeeds alone

  • Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least

  • The things that matter most don't always scream the louder

  • Have a success list instead of a to do list that will lead to miraculous results

  • The majority of your results will come from the minority of your actions

  • Learn to say no until the one thing that matters most is complete

  • Things don't matter equally

  • If you try to do two things at once you won't do either well

  • Don't multitask

  • If you are working, work. If you are playing, play

  • No matter how hard you try, there will always be things left unserved

  • The question of balance is really a question of priority

  • You need just enough discipline to build a habit

  • Success is about doing the right thing, not about doing everything right

  • Time waits for no one. If you put something off for later, you may never get to it

  • Magic does not happen in the middle, magic happens at the extremes

  • Success is sequential, not simultaneous

  • If you try to divide your time across multiple things, none of them will get the time they deserve

  • A balanced life is a myth

  • Historically we have done a poor job estimating our limits

  • Science isn't about guessing, but rather the art of progressing

  • Think and believe big

  • Thinking big is essential for extraordinary results

  • Big requires growth

  • Fear mediocrity

  • Only living big will unleash your true life and work potentials

  • People that are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the only ones that do

  • Set goals so big that the solution to come up with a game changer

  • Imagine what life looks like with the answer

  • Study the lives of people that have achieved it what are the models relationships have it working as of people that have achieved

  • Do less

  • Listen to your body, slow down, and chill out

  • We over think over analyze and over prepare our businesses relationships and lives

  • We usually succeed in spite of what we do rather than because of it

  • If you can honestly say that this, what you are doing right now, is what you are meant to be doing, all of the amazing possibilities of your life become possible

  • There is an art to clearing away all the clutter and focusing on what matters most

  • Concentrate your energy, thought, and effort exclusively upon the business in which you are engaged is the secret to success

  • Strive to build the best products and learn the most about it

  • Put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket

  • The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step

  • Answers come from questions and the quality of any answer is directly proportional to the question

  • Ask the right question, get the right answer

  • Ask the most powerful questions and the answers could be life altering

  • Judge a man by the quality of his questions, not his answers

  • The power to question is the basis of all human progress

  • Asking questions improves learning by as much as 150%

  • Life is a question and how we live it is the answer

  • The questions that we ask ourselves determines the life that we eventually live. To get the answers we see we must come up with their own question

  • What is the one thing I can do in that doing it everything will become easier or unnecessary?

  • Your life can be so big but you must go very small in order to get it

  • In order to do anything, we must make decisions. Making small decisions allows us to drill down on the what is really important

  • It is important to do the right task first, but it is also important to build the right mindset. Build the right skills

  • Build one right thing on top of the previous right thing

  • You cannot have your back. You must pick one thing at a time to do

  • Focus on the first domino and knock that shit over

  • Success is simple. Do what is right the right way at the right time

  • People do not decide their futures, they decide their habits, and their habits decide the futures

  • Live with purpose and you'll know where you want to go. Live with priority and you'll know what to do to get there

  • Purpose without priority is powerless

  • Right now is all we have to work with. The past is a former now. Our future is a potential now

  • What you doing in any given moment determines what you experience in the next

  • What is the one thing I can do right now to be on track to achieve my day goal… today to be on track to achieve my week goal… to be on track to achieve my year goal… to be on track to achieve my five-year goal… to be on track to achieve my someday goal

  • Where are you going and where do you want to be someday?

  • Writing down your goals works. You are 35% more likely to achieve your goals

  • Go from knowing to doing

  • Fiercely protect your time

  • Let's go be productive

  • Block your time

  • Work on event time. Not clock time

  • Be a maker in the morning and a manager at night

  • Mastery is a journey. It never ends

  • You need deliberate practice

  • If people knew how hard and how long you had to work, it wouldn't seem wonderful

  • Are you doing the best you can do or are you doing it the best it can be done?

  • Every ceiling of achievement must be challenged

  • Be an accountable manager

  • Focusing is about saying no

  • You can't please everyone so don't try

  • If you don't take care of your body, where will you live?

  • Surround yourself only with people that will lift you higher

  • The purpose of life is to be useful, to be compassionate, 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 productively

  • Make your life matter