Own Your ONE Thing

“Why do we set goals and create plans?” In spite of all the good answers I get, the truth is we have goals and plans for only one reason—to be appropriate in the moments of our lives that matter. While we may pull from the past and forecast the future, our only reality is the present moment. Right NOW is all we have to work with.
- Gary Keller, The ONE Thing

To our knowledge, time travel has not been invented - at least not yet. Despite countless Hollywood movies that send characters back and forth through the time continuum, there are no do-overs from the past, nor can we escape our current challenges by leap-frogging from age 13 to age 30 back to the future.

NOW is the only time we have been given. For some reason, it can be incredibly easy to forget that NOW is all we have. As humans, we seem prone to live in many other time periods other than right now. Our minds dart back and forth in time like a moth circling around the light: worrying about what’s for dinner, about a fight from yesterday, about what a friend said ten years ago, about where we’re going to retire in 20 years, about our doctor’s appointment next week. Anything to distract us from the here and now.

When created with ONE singular focus and determination - ROCKET Goals act as a powerful two-edged sword, by clearing a clear path towards the future - but even more importantly - by cutting directly into the massive clutter and incessant buzzing of the here and NOW. When all hell is breaking loose - a clearly burning ONE Thing allows us to calmly move forward with absolute Minimum Viable Certainty.

To live directly in the NOW requires a special combination of humility and confidence. Humility, in knowing that you may not be making the absolute best choice, but at the same time feeling 100% confident that if you keep your ONE Thing clearly in mind, somehow you will find the way forward.

So what does all this mean from a practical perspective? Living in the NOW, continually guided by your ONE Thing, is not something that can really be learned from a checklist.

You might be blessed with great coaches and mentors who can constantly guide, each step along the way towards your goal - but even then, those coaches, generals, mentors, they cannot follow you into the battle or onto the field. In those moments you must become your own coach, keenly aware of immediate next steps RIGHT NOW, but also keenly aware of where you are in broader field of play on the way towards your goal.

Right NOW, you are both 45 minutes and 17 seconds into your training run, and 52 days away from your race. This perspective helps you to keep a steady pace when needed and also when to pour on the effort. For example, marathon champion Eluid Kipchoge follows an 85/10/5 training cycle where a surprising 85% of his mileage is at a low aerobic pace, and only 5% of training miles at intense speed. By keeping his ONE Thing goal clearly in mind, Kipchoge is able to perfectly and consistently match his right NOW efforts to the bigger and incredible goal.

As your ONE Thing becomes unmistakably clear, you will increasingly know to do right NOW.