Thought for the day: What is the single most important thing that you can do today that will contribute to your overall success?
Okay, so this one is for my mom who has talked so highly about the book The ONE Thing by Gary Keller. The concept of the book (at least so far), is to focus on one thing at a time to achieve extraordinary results.
One thing that has stood out to me so far (no pun intended) is the topic of to-do lists. As Keller puts it, to-do lists aren’t contributing to one’s overall success. Instead, a to-do list is pulling one away even further from the success that they wish to achieve.
Think about it, what is the ONE thing that you want to achieve the most over the course of your life?
How many things do you have on your daily to-do list?
How many of these things are actually contributing to your overall success of that one thing that you want to accomplish?
How many of the tasks that consume your to-do list are pulling you in every which direction but the one that you want to be going in?
Doing more is only hurting you.
Doing more and being busy doesn’t mean that you will become more successful. In fact, it will probably only prolong the time it takes to reach your success. This is because you are spending all of your time focusing on multiple tasks when you should be focusing on just one, the most important one that will contribute to your success.
Success isn’t about being busy or getting the most amount of tasks completed. Success is about completing the most important task and becoming an expert on it.
For example, in order to pass that Bar Exam, a lawyer devotes hours upon hours of time studying. What do you assume they are studying? Probably not medical journals or construction blueprints, right? Neither of these would contribute to their success.
Instead, they probably spend their time reading books on law because that is what would benefit them the most. They are focusing on the one subject that is going to benefit them, and they are working to master it.
Now obviously I am not a doctor, a foreman, or a lawyer. But the point is that if you want the best chance of being successful and the best chance of achieving your goals, then you need to narrow down your focus to the most important task(s) and start prioritizing your day around the task(s) that will benefit you the most.
Life isn’t about having more, but rather, doing more with what you already have.
I see this to be true in my life as well. I am the type of person who hates having spare time on their hands. If I am not constantly doing something that I believe to be productive, then I feel as if I am slowly going to start losing my mind.
But how much of what I do is actually productive? How many of the tasks that I fill my to-do list with because I believe them to be productive are actually pulling me in every direction but the one that I want to be going in, which if forward.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some things that we have to do in order to survive. This isn’t meant to negate any of that. What this is meant to do, is to get you to focus on the one most important task that will lead to your success, and to master that one task.
As I challenge myself today, I also want to do the same for you. Focus on one thing. Focus on the one task that will contribute the most to your success, and work towards mastering it. You don’t need to be good at a lot of things, you just need to be great at one. That is how you will find success in your life.
Michael Bonnell
5/30/2019
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