The habit of success: Asking the right question and focusing on one thing at a time
In his book, “The One Thing: The simple truth behind extraordinary results” Gary Keller argues against the common misunderstanding that lie between you as a person and success. He argues against some conventional beliefs such as believing that one must lead a disciplined life to be successful and addresses the concept of a balanced life as a myth that would never deliver the success you wish for. Instead, he favors an approach that is based on selective discipline and uses a counterbalancing approach to help explain how success is achieved. What all these approaches have in common is: asking what needs to be done before everything else and focusing on finding that one thing at a time! As reflected through the title of this summary, through this book, I learned a lot about building a lifestyle that is based on asking the right questions in life, and focusing on finding the right answers, one question at a time. That is what is referred to by Gary Keller as the habit of success.
But how do you choose what to focus on?
Keller argues that choosing a question to ask is the single most important thing that one has to do. Towards the middle of the book, Keller states how one of the most empowering moments of his life came after the realization that life is a question, and how he chose or not chose to live it was his answer!
To quote Keller, “How we phrase the questions we ask ourselves determines the answers that eventually become our life.”
In this context, the challenge is that the right question isn’t always so obvious. Most things we want don’t come with a map or a set of instructions, so it can be difficult to frame the right question. He argues that choosing the right question to focus on answering is the most important guide, because it tells you where to start building, and that you build today will either empower you or restrict you tomorrow; it will either serve as a platform for the next level of your success or as a box, trapping you where you are.
Through “The one Thing: The simple truth behind extraordinary results” we learn that success comes down to one single thing: being appropriate in the moments of your life. We learn that if we can honestly say, “This is where I’m meant to be right now, doing exactly what I’m doing,” then all amazing possibilities for our life become possible. We also learn that focus is a double-edged sword that comes in two forms, big picture and small focus, in that the first helps us find the right direction, while the second held us take the right action.
Keller recommends that we use the big picture question to develop a vision for our lives, a direction for our careers or companies, as it serves as our strategic compass. On the other hand, he suggests that we use the small focus question throughout the day. When we wake up, it would helps us find levered action, or the first domino of the set, that will drive your success in a domino effect, in any activity. This same focus helps us stay attentive to our most important and immediate needs and those of the people that are important to us.
All in all, I would recommend this book to anybody who is interested in personal development, or simply anyone looking for a way to start, and/or focus their journey in a direction that will eventually lead to success.
