The Power of ONE Thing

What’s the ONE thing you will set in motion this year?

I usually don’t send out a New Year’s message with recommendations because, frankly, we all receive a flood of messages telling us what to do this time of the year.

But on the day before New Year’s Eve this past year, I received a message from a long-time advisor and colleague, Bob Serling, that changed my mind.

Bob is truly a marketing genius and a master at spotting what others don’t see. His advice and strategies have been invaluable and foundational to my career and business for over 20 years.

Here is what Bob had to share:

“Every member of my mastermind, and every top-performing business owner, I know, focuses on achieving more by doing less. True success comes from an unwavering focus on a single, simple goal. And everything else is a distraction.”

Then he closed with these two recommendations:

• Recommendation #1 – Write this down and post it next to your computer: “Addition by subtraction.” Use this as a daily reminder that you achieve far more by doing less, as long as what you’re doing are only those things critical to achieving your goal.

• Recommendation #2 – Read The One Thing by Gary Keller. It will keep you focused on the few tasks that are critical to your success.

If you’d like to know more about Bob and his strategies, download a free copy of his latest ebook at www.licensinglab.com.

The ONE book

I took Bob’s advice and purchased a copy of The One Thing for my Kindle.

It’s a fantastic book grounded in the success and failures of Gary Keller, Chairman, and co-founder of Keller Williams Realty, the largest real estate company in the world.

The question at the heart of the book is this:

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

You can choose to apply this question to any personal or business situation. In the book, Keller shares how he used this question to focus his attention to turn around Keller Williams Realty.

When Keller realized that he had the wrong people in several top positions, he resigned from his position as CEO to focus solely on ONE thing: finding and hiring the right people for critical roles. His company then went on to achieve great success.

I learned from reading the book that I have unknowingly been using this strategy almost every day. I start with a blank sheet of paper and begin my day with the ONE thing that rises to the top of the list.

What’s your ONE thing for today, this week, this month, or this year?