What’s your One thing…?

Last week I finished reading a book titled “the one thing” written by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. It’s a brilliant book which guides through the importance of focusing and how to inculcate that habit in self. It tells you how to keep yourself away from distractions and clutter and focus on “the one thing” which is important for you?

Focusing requires few distractions and less on your plate. Be it any area of your life – work, personal, family and spiritual, to get extra ordinary results you have to work with focus. And your focus should be on important things which are be aligned with your purpose of life. You need to prioritize the things as then only you can generate productivity and profit from your work.

It has been accepted worldwide and proved by some researches too that multi-tasking is a myth. The one who does multi-tasking or feels that he’s doing multitasking must not be doing all the things with that efficiency that he would have done if he had focused on only one thing at a time.

If you want more productivity from your work, more income for a better lifestyle, more satisfaction from life, more time for yourself, your family and your friends …the Mool mantra is “Focus on the one thing at a time”.

The Book revolves around asking focusing questions to self and finding answers for – “What’s the one thing I can do, so that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary”?

Look at your finances. Can u figure out the one thing which you can do, so that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary? If the purpose of your financial management is to get rich, then can you answer this focusing question? If your priority is buying a house after 3 years, then do you have answer on the one thing to focus on?

Answer is not investing, but investing with planning. If you are planned from all aspects then only you can concentrate and achieve your important goals.

Besides covering the Must dos like time blocking, following 66 days schedule to form a habit, work with purpose, priority for productivity and profit, in “the One thing”, authors have pointed out few areas which they call as “four thieves” that can hold you up and rob you of your productivity. And since there’s no one standing by to protect you, its up to you to stop these thieves in their tracks. Though the complete book is relevant in all aspects of life including financials, Let’s see how these thieves can be hindrance in achieving your financial well being

1. Inability to say “no”

Are you a “Yes” man? Do you have some insurance policies due to this nature of yours. Do you say “Yes” to every Samosa party happening in your office. Do you say “Yes” to every online sale and then the EMI offers by credit cards. Do you say “Yes” to all I phone launches. See, when you say yes to something, its imperative that you understand what you are saying no to.

It’s up to you to decide what’s more important to you. When you say yes to spending, you say no to saving, when you say yes to endowment insurance plans, you say no to other flexible products like Mutual funds, When you say yes to Samosa, you say no to Salads. When you say your “Friends’ Party” yes, you say “No” to cricket match with your kid, Your yes to movie means no to sleeping.

Focusing is less about saying “yes”, but more about saying “NO”, as without NO, YES cannot exist.

2. Fear of Chaos:

Messes are inevitable when you focus on just one thing. If you want to get your most important thing done, then it is guaranteed that other things don’t get done. It happens. For e.g. when you focus purely on saving for your new house you may have to compromise on your vacations which may ire your kids, you may not buy your wife b’day gift, you won’t be able to attend some of family’s get togethers, You may not be able to replace your old furniture of house etc.

One of the greatest thieves of productivity is the un willingness to allow for chaos or the lack of creativity in dealing with it. So don’t give up, either learn to deal with it or completely ignore it. But accept this chaos.

3. Poor Health habits:

You can’t live a wealthy life with poor health habits. This is the important area which I always stress on in most of my articles. If you don’t take care of your body, where will you live? If your “One thing” is so important for you, then do understand the impact of having poor health on the achievement of that one thing. Figure out ways to stay healthy and seriously make and follow the routine. Eat right, work out , meditation , walking, running, swimming, playing etc, do whatever you like but just take good care of your health.

You need energy to work on your important thing. Personal energy mismanagement is a silent thief of productivity. Your one health problem has potential to drain away all your wealth.

4. Environment doesn’t support your goals

 While it is important to learn to manage the probable chaos around you, there are something which you can’t ignore. No one succeeds alone and no one fails alone. Pay attention to people around you. You environment which includes the people surrounding you and your physical surroundings must support your goal.

 You have to make your immediate family understand the importance of the one thing for you and how this will impact on everyone’s life. If you have true friends then they will definitely understand your “No”. Being with like-minded people will bring positive change in your life and increase your focus on important things.

 Chaos can be managed till certain level, but if it goes beyond your head then can have serious implications. So make people understand around you, but don’t let yourself surrender to your environment. The right people in your life and right surroundings will support your efforts to get the One thing.

Overall , must book to read for all and follow the ideas.

So what’s your one thing…?