Own Your One Thing

You do the right thing and then you do the next right thing. Over time it adds up, and the geometric potential of success is unleashed.
-Gary Keller

Steady progress towards your ONE Thing takes a great deal of focus. 

However, beyond just keeping your ONE Thing top of mind, you also need to take consistent steps towards making your ONE Thing happen. Try to keep your “a little something everyday” streak alive as you pursue your ONE Thing.

It sounds easy enough - just do at least one meaningful thing each day towards reaching your ONE Thing.

But there are some powerful forces that can easily derail you.
These are the three big goal killers:

Your Social Network
We like to imagine that friends and family are as excited about our success as we are. In reality, your ONE Thing might not align with the expectations of people around you. Friends and family members have their own demands and expectations, and are rightfully concerned about your seeming maniacal levels of focus. You must learn to politely tell everyone not to worry. At first this might be difficult, but after a while they will either ignore you or eventually - actually start to support you. At the same time - don’t idealize being the lone hero. Even the legendary Thoreau who camped out on Walden Pond often walked 20 minutes back to the family house in Concord to get some of his mother’s home cooking.

Your Impatience
It takes confidence to invest in something that does not bear an immediate outcome, and it's very easy to lose focus when things take longer than expected.  Diligent, even Relentless are words that you must tattoo on your brain. For example, guess which multi-billionaire owns the URL www.Relentless.com .  Constantly remind yourself that almost everything takes longer than expected - but then can start moving very quickly as momentum kicks in. 

Not only learn to be patient towards your goal, but also learn to be patient towards yourself. You will make wrong turns. You will get distracted more than you should. But whatever you do - don’t waste time doubling down on a mistake by beating yourself up and slowing down even further. Learn to bounce back up and get going again.

Your Need for Distraction
As soon as you decide on your ONE Thing, a dozen other shiny ONE Things will pop up and try to lure you into starting those as well! There is an old  saying “Forewarned is Forearmed!” What this means is that you need to be prepared to meet the siren song of distraction head-on if you want to have any hope of achieving your ONE Thing.

A simple but effective way for dealing with all the other competing ideas that will crop up is to start a list or spreadsheet titled “Future ONE Things”. If you’re a writer, this might mean simply capturing a story idea and filing it away while you finish up the book you actually need to be working on. If you’re working on a start up and see a new opportunity, jot it down and then revisit your list in a couple weeks to see what still makes sense. The skill here is to simply have a routine for capturing other good ideas and setting them aside while you keep your current ONE Thing front and center.

Impatience, distraction and the demands of others can all weigh heavily on your ROCKET Goals. However, these goal crushers do not need to take you by surprise! Stay focused and just keep doing the next right thing, one thing after another. As your success takes off - you’ll be surprised how easy it was once you learned to keep your ONE Thing the ONE thing.