Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by: 

Author:  Gary Keller

Genre:  Non-Fiction, Self-Improvement, Business

Info:  240 pages, published April 1, 2013

Format:  Book

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Summary 

The goal of The ONE Thing is to help you focus your time and energy on one thing at a time.   Keller argues that to keep yourself from getting distracted and stressed out by the daily onslaught of e-mails, texts, tweets, messages, and meetings, you need to learn how to focus on one thing.

The book promises that if you can do this, you will cut through the clutter, achieve better results in less time, build momentum toward your goal, control your stress,  revive your energy, stay on track, and achieve extraordinary results in every area of your life–work, personal, family, and spiritual.

 

Quotes

“Multitasking is a lie.”

“Success is actually a short race – A sprint fueled by discipline just long enough for habit to kick in and take over.”

“Passion for something leads to disproportionate time practicing or working at it. That time spent eventually translates to skill, and when skill improves, results improve. Better results generally lead to more enjoyment, and more passion and more time is invested. It can be a virtuous cycle all the way to extraordinary results.”

“You need to be doing fewer things for more effect instead of doing more things with side effects.”

“The pursuit of mastery bears gifts.”

“A life worth living might be measured in many ways, but the one way that stands above all others is living a life of no regrets.”

“Success is actually a short race—a sprint fueled by discipline just long enough for habit to kick in and take over.”

“I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all, to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all.”

“Long hours spent checking off a to-do list and ending the day with a full trash can and a clean desk are not virtuous and have nothing to do with success. Instead of a to-do list, you need a success list—a list that is purposefully created around extraordinary results.  To-do lists tend to be long; success lists are short. One pulls you in all directions; the other aims you in a specific direction. One is a disorganized directory and the other is an organized directive. If a list isn’t built around success, then that’s not where it takes you. If your to-do list contains everything, then it’s probably taking you everywhere but where you really want to go.”

“Success is about doing the right thing, not about doing everything right.  The one thing

The more we use our mind, the less minding power we have.  Willpower is like a fast twitch muscle that gets tired and needs rest.  It is incredibly powerful, but it has no endurance.”

“Do your most important work – you’re one thing – early, before your willpower is drawn down.”

“To achieve an extraordinary result you must choose what matters most and give it all the time it demands.”

“Imagine life is a game in which you are juggling five balls.  The balls are called work, family, health, friends, and integrity.  And you’re keeping all of them in the air.  But one day you finally come to understand that work is a rubber ball.  If you drop it, it will bounce back.  The other four balls – family, health, friends, integrity – are made of glass.  If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered.”

“Don’t fear big.  Fear mediocrity.  Fear waste.  Fear the lack of living to your fullest.”

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