Reflecting on The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results
Have you ever been in awe of what other people have achieved and wondered: how do I get there with the million things I need to do already? How could I possibly find the time? I feel it's universal that we're all struggling to balance the complexity of life with what we would like to achieve. But the surprising answer The ONE Thing presents is that you can do more by doing less.
How DO You Accomplish Your Goals?
With a hook as contradictory as that, it's easy to be skeptical, I know I was, but the answer is one that I've been living by ever since I've read it. Like many, I've always made lists to keep track of what to do and guide me along my days, but the book immediately calls out all the worst practices we've been guilty of at one time or another. Putting things that are already done on the list, or especially doing the easiest things on the list, are easy ways to waste your day.
Instead, the central premise of the book is to pick ONE thing, and if you are brutally honest with yourself and do that ONE thing, you will be unstoppable. You get to that ONE thing by picking a huge task and breaking down the complexity into smaller and smaller steps time-wise. Such a simple idea, and yet a powerful one! The hard part is going through with it, and following the nuances that allow you to go through with it. The book presents many strategies, but the most important thing is that you do it at the very start of your day. Nobody is a font of willpower, the trick is choosing how to use your own reserves of willpower.
Complexity Strikes Again
While I still say the book is worth reading several times over and still recommend it deeply despite them, it's not without its flaws. Beyond the central premise, the waters get muddy. Obviously, it's not always possible logistically or otherwise to be able to do your ONE thing at the very beginning of the day. You also run the risk of burning yourself out. The book compromises its central premise by introducing other "ONE" things to fill in these holes, and ends up contradicting itself quite a lot.
The gist of those compromises is that you should do your ONE thing, but after caring for your own health and nutrition, and after family and social fulfillment. So you end up with a couple things, and your ONE thing isn't at the top of that priority. It also has a rather contemptuous view on the concept of "work-life balance," and the post-modern concept of balance as a whole, ironically, which also feeds into that contradictory confusion. Though they are compromises, they are completely sensible ones, as not following them leads to a very quick burnout.
Value to Consider
It's unfair to expect a book like this to be able to break down the complex experience of life down into bits that fit every single person and every single lifestyle, so I completely get it. The SEVERAL things isn't exactly a catchy title. Though flawed in my eyes, it still has immense value, and a plethora of strategies for you to use to accomplish your goals.
Though I've broadly covered the premise, there is so much more to discover within it that are beyond the scope of this article, and the authors use a satisfying amount of sources to back up every one of their concepts that would lead me to writing a novel just to describe it.