2: The Success Habit

Free Course: The One Thing 2: The Success Habit

Welcome back to this short course on the best-selling personal + professional development book, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller.

In Lesson 1, we covered how The ONE Thing can help you achieve extraordinary results in life and work, and how the Focusing Question can help you pin down what matters most.

Here’s what we’re looking at in Lesson 2…

The Success Habit

Anyone who’s spent any length of time around me knows I’m in love with physical fitness. I don’t believe in “off days.” I workout every single day no matter what.

So in 2020, when all the gyms got shut down, I asked myself the following Focusing Question:

“What’s the ONE highest leverage thing I can do to ensure I maintain my physical health throughout this pandemic?”

Answer: Bring the gym to my house.

It was a great decision, and I haven’t stepped foot in a commercial gym ever since.

For me, the Focusing Question is a lifestyle—a success habit I use on a daily basis. I use it to uncover the highest leverage action I can take at any given moment. I also use it to make effective use of the time I have.

When the outcome matters, the Focusing Question—or some variation of it—is my first tool of choice.

When you’re looking to make the best decision you can about an important area of your life, asking yourself this question can be clutch:

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

Here’s a 3-part breakdown of The Focusing Question.

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

What’s the ONE Thing I can do…

This first part of the Focusing Question is about taking action… it’s not the ONE thing you “should do”, or “could do”, or “would do” — but the ONE Thing you CAN do. The word “can” implies action, as opposed to other words, which imply intention.

such that by doing it…

This part of the question lets you know you’re about to get specific. It means that you’re about to take action on something that actually has a purpose.

everything else will be easier or unnecessary?

This final part of the Focusing Question is about LEVERAGE. It says that when you do this ONE thing, everything else you could do to accomplish your goal will now be either doable with less effort or no longer even necessary.

For example: hiring an assistant to handle your calls and emails is a high-leverage action that frees up the time you used to put into calls and emails, thus making it easier for you to focus on growing your business.

The Focusing Question is a dual-purpose question.

The-One-Thing_Big-Picture_vs_Small-Focus

The Focusing Question has a dual purpose—it’s both a big-picture map and a small-focus compass. One is about finding the right direction in life (big picture), and the other is about finding the right action (small-focus).

You can zoom out and ask “What’s my one thing?” to get clear about long-term ambitions for your life, career, or business.

For example, “What’s the one thing we want to be known for as a company?” or “What’s the one thing I can do in my organization to move up to a leadership position within the next 5 years?”

Or you can zoom in and ask, “What’s my one thing right now?” to pin down the specific actions you need to take in order to get to the bigger picture.

For example, “Based on my goal of getting promoted within 12 months, what’s the one thing I can do this month to bring me closer to making that happen?”

The Focusing Question is a Success Habit.

The Focusing Question is a keystone habit for me because I’ve gotten extraordinary results from using it. But I don’t use it for everything, and I wouldn’t advise you to either. It would be overkill. So start with the important areas of your life and see where it takes you. After some practice, you’ll develop your own sense of when to use it.

Below, you’ll find some key categories of life I’d suggest using the Focusing Question for:

Say the category first, then state the question, add a timeline, and finish with “such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”

For example: “For my business, what’s the ONE thing I can do to ensure I hit my goals this week such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”

FOR MY PHYSICAL HEALTH…

What’s the ONE Thing I can do to ensure that I exercise…?

What’s the ONE Thing I can do to relieve my stress…?

FOR MY PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT…

What’s the ONE Thing I can do to improve my skills at ______…?

What’s the ONE Thing I can do to continue learning and stay mentally sharp….?

FOR MY KEY RELATIONSHIPS…

What’s the ONE Thing I can do to strengthen my relationship with my spouse/partner…?

What’s the ONE Thing I can do to show my appreciation to my parents…?

FOR MY SPIRITUAL LIFE…

What’s the ONE Thing I can do to contribute to the lives of others…?

What’s the ONE Thing I can do to deepen my relationship with God/my Creator/The Universe…?

FOR MY FINANCES…

What’s the ONE Thing I can do to increase my net worth…?

What’s the ONE Thing I can do to improve my investment cash flow…?

FOR MY JOB…

What’s the ONE Thing I can do to ensure I hit my goals…?

What’s the ONE Thing I can do to help my team succeed…?

FOR MY BUSINESS…

What’s the ONE Thing I can do to make us more profitable…?

What’s the ONE Thing I can do to improve our customer experience…?

Actionable insights

So, how do you make The ONE Thing a daily success habit of your own? How do you make it strong enough to get extraordinary results, both in your personal + professional life?

Create some focusing questions. Scroll up and look at my examples above, then see if you can create some in the areas of your life that matter most to you. If looking at all the domains of your life feels overwhelming, simply split it into two for now: Personal. Professional.

Use it. Start each day by asking yourself the Focusing Question: “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?” Doing this gives you clarity and direction. You’ll be more productive at work and more fulfilled with your personal life.

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. Researchers tell us this can take around 66 days, depending on the person and the routine you want to habitualize. Regardless of how long it takes you, stay with it until it becomes a habit—you’ll know when it does because it’ll start feeling automatic. If you’re not serious about learning the Success Habit, you’re not serious about getting extraordinary results.

Leverage reminders to use the Focusing Question. Grab a Post-it note and write, “Until my ONE Thing is done everything else is a distraction.” Place it on your desk so it’s top of mind.