I'm so excited to tell you all about this amazing book! It's called "The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results," and it was written by an incredible American named Gary Keller. Gary is the chairman of Keller Williams International, which is one of the largest real estate companies in the world! He's also written several best-selling books that have sold millions of copies worldwide, which is pretty impressive! We're going to chat about one of Gary Keller's books today. It's one of his bestsellers and has consistently ranked number one on Amazon.com's book sales list in the United States.

Let's start by taking a look at the title of the book. Have you ever wondered what it means to say, "There is only one most important thing"? We all believe that if we want to succeed and achieve something, we have to work hard, learn a lot, and do lots of things. But here's the thing: the author of this book says that if you want to succeed and achieve outstanding results, you have to learn to give up a lot of things and focus on doing that one most important thing. The author believes that because this truth is so simple, many people find it hard to believe. It's okay if you do too!

It's really interesting that Gary Keller himself didn't believe this would work at first. He spent a long time understanding this truth, and it's so great that he did!

Part 1

Gary Keller spent 10 years in the first stage of his entrepreneurial career building a very good company. During this period, he was doing really well! He was so confident that the company would be able to expand its business to various countries around the world very soon. Much to everyone's surprise, the company suddenly found itself in a bit of a pickle. Despite all his hard work and sacrifices, the business was in a bit of a pickle and there didn't seem to be any signs of improvement. At that time, he felt like he was stuck in a trap and was really hoping someone could help him out. At that time, one of his teachers reached out to him for help.

The two of them went for a walk together, and after chatting about all the relevant details, the teacher began to think about how to solve his problem. By the time they got back, the teacher had come up with a great solution. He asked Gary Keller, "What do you think you need to do to turn things around?" Gary Keller shook his head, looking a little confused. The teacher wrote 14 key positions on the wall and said, "I know this is a lot, but I really think you can do it! You just need to assign the 14 key positions I have marked out to people who are really competent. That's the one thing you need to do to turn the embarrassing situation of the entire company around." "As long as you choose the right people for these 14 key positions, the entire company will flourish in a positive direction." Gary Keller was blown away. He was amazed that the solution was so simple! He asked his teacher if there might be a way to make the solution a little more complicated, and if it would be safer to do a few more things to turn the company around. The teacher replied with a smile, "No, my friend. Jesus only needed 12 disciples, and you only need people in 14 key positions."

This was a pivotal moment in Gary Keller's life. After chatting with his teacher, Gary made a big decision: he was going to fire himself! He decided to step down from his role as CEO and focus on finding the 14 key people. And what happened as a result? He did it! He found 14 key people. In just three short years, the company was doing really well! It was making a profit every year for 10 years in a row, and it grew from a regional company to a national one.

At this point, a few new challenges popped up. When Gary Keller was chatting with these 14 key people about work, he'd start by giving a quick summary of the tasks they'd promised to complete at this stage. Gary Keller was really struggling with this. He knew that these 14 people could complete most of the tasks they had promised him, but sometimes the most important tasks were not completed. This was causing their work to fall into a difficult situation. Gary Keller tried to communicate with them and simplify their work, from "several tasks to be done this week" to "the three most important tasks this week," and then to "the two most important tasks this week," but still no effect was seen. At last, he thought he'd try the "one thing at a time" approach. He asked them, "What is the most important task for you this week?" "Which task, once completed, will make the other tasks easier or less important?" This approach was born out of sheer desperation, but it brought another surprise. After that, these 14 key people really started to shine!

Gary Keller had two eye-opening experiences in difficult situations. He started to see a pattern between the company's situation and his approach. He noticed something pretty interesting: every time the company had great success, it was when he focused on doing one thing. Gary Keller thought about this question: everyone has 24 hours a day, so why do some people succeed and others fail? Have you ever wondered why some people succeed while others don't? It's a fascinating question, isn't it? I've been thinking about it a lot recently, and I've come up with an intriguing theory.

So, why are those who succeed able to accomplish more, achieve higher goals, earn more money, and own more things? If we think about it, time is our most precious resource in life. It's what we all have to work with, and it's something that everyone has the same amount of. So, if we consider time to be the original capital of a person's career, then everyone's original capital is 24 hours a day. Have you ever wondered how successful people manage to get so much more done in a day than the rest of us? Gary Keller truly believes that the answer is that successful people focus all their actions and energy on their goals. They succeed because they've made the choice to focus on what's truly important to them. They've let go of a lot of things they could do but don't have to, and they're doing what they love.

No matter where you are in life, whether at work or in your personal life, if you want to achieve the best results, you need to narrow your focus. But, bless their hearts, most folks just don't see it that way. They think that if they want to achieve great things, it will take a lot of time and they will definitely experience many setbacks. And that's okay! We all have to start somewhere, and it's important to remember that even the most successful people have experienced setbacks along the way. So they fill their schedules with plans, and their tight schedules make it harder for them to achieve success. We all have the same amount of time and energy to work with, don't we? We all want to do everything, but if you try to do everything, you will probably be exhausted and unable to take care of anything properly. We all know that trying to do too many things at once can actually make us less efficient, right? We all know that feeling when we're under too much pressure. It can make it really difficult to get things done on time, eat well, sleep well, find time to exercise, and spend time with family and friends. Gary Keller thinks this is a bit of a mistake. Guess what? There really is a shortcut to success! As we mentioned earlier, it's all about focusing your time and energy on the most important thing. And it's totally understandable that most of us don't usually do this because we have so many misconceptions about success. We often hear lots of different ideas about success, but not all of them are true. Sometimes these ideas can even get in our way and prevent us from achieving our goals.

Part 2

Gary Keller has deliberately collected many maxims that conflict with the idea that "the most important thing is only one thing." These include "everything is important," "doing several things at the same time is more efficient," and "self-discipline and willpower can solve everything." Gary believes that these are all lies, but we can all be a little bit wrong sometimes!

Let's take a closer look at the first one: "Everything is important."

We all know how it goes. Every day, we have to do lots of things, and sometimes we have to carry things over to the next day if we don't get them done. And then, before we know it, there they are, all those things that we just can't seem to get to. We're all so busy these days, aren't we? It's so easy to think that if we just keep going, success will come closer to us. We work so hard, but we don't get paid more because a lot of our busy-ness is blind. We all make the mistake of thinking that everything is important and that we just want to get it all done! If we want to get everything done, we have to learn to manage our time better! I'm sure you'll agree that making a to-do list is a great way to help us focus our attention. But, we can sometimes feel like we're trapped by our lists. It's as if we have to get everything on the list done! On top of that, the order we do things in can get a little mixed up because of the list.

Successful people have a different approach to things than ordinary people. They take their time to think things through carefully until they've found the main task. Then they make this the center of their universe, the hub around which everything else revolves. They're more likely to tackle those things that other folks tend to put off. They also have a clear idea of what needs to be done, which is great! Instead of a long, boring to-do list, they like to keep things simple with a short and sweet success list.

Have you ever wondered how successful people transform an ordinary list into a success list? Let's dive into the fascinating findings of Joseph Juran. Juran was an amazing code breaker who made some truly outstanding contributions to both science and business. His amazing achievements caught the eye of General Electric. General Electric was so impressed with his work that they invited him to take a look at their management compensation plan based on the theories of Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto.

In the 19th century, the brilliant Vilfredo Pareto worked out that 20% of the world's population owned 80% of its wealth. This was all about the imbalance in the distribution of wealth, which is a real shame. But Juran noticed that this was probably a general rule. Later on, we started calling this rule the "80/20 rule." The 80/20 rule is a helpful reminder that it's often the case that a few causes, inputs, and efforts lead to a lot of results, outputs, and returns. In other words, it's not fair when it comes to success either! It's amazing how often a little bit of effort can lead to big success! So it really pays to be selective in what you do! Gary Keller is a great example of this. He's been able to achieve so much because of a few key moments in his life. Take investments, for example. He's built most of his wealth from a few well-placed investments. So, we can use the 80/20 rule to turn our to-do list into a success list, which is pretty cool, right? Choose the 20% of things you want to do that are most important to you. And then, when you're down to that 20%, narrow it down some more until you find the most important thing.

The second myth about success is that it's more efficient to do several things at once.

If we're focusing on the most important thing, why not give it our all at once? Back in 2009, a professor at Stanford University conducted a study. He was really interested in seeing how people who are often called "multi-taskers" could complete several tasks at the same time. He even told a New York Times reporter that he himself didn't have this ability and had always envied those who could! The professor led a research team that distributed more than 200 questionnaires to investigate students' multitasking habits. They split the respondents into two groups: those who often multitask and those who don't. They thought that those who often multitask might be more productive. But the results were a bit of a surprise! The professor said, "I thought that multitaskers must have some kind of magical ability, but I discovered that they simply can't focus, bless them!" They seem to be able to do everything and nothing bothers them, but in reality, they are not very good at anything.

So, it looks like the idea that we can multitask is just a beautiful lie! The thing is, this approach is really popular these days. Lots of people think they should multitask and give it their all. We often think that this way of working is a sign of efficiency and love to chat about how to master this skill. Even companies look at it as a great advantage when hiring, but it's really just a "blind lie." It's okay if you're trying to do several things at once! We all are. But it's not really efficient or successful to try to do everything at the same time. We've all been there! When you try to do two things at once, it's so easy to end up either not doing either one well or not doing either one at all. As the saying goes, "Simultaneously handling several things is the same as simultaneously screwing up several things." We've all been there!

Sometimes we can do two things at once, like walking and talking at the same time or eating and looking at a map at the same time. But we can't really do two things at once that require our full attention, can we? It's a bit strange, isn't it, how many modern people like to give the impression of being "multi-talented"? For example, we've all been there: listening to music while working, talking on the phone while driving, and playing with our phones while eating. Sometimes we're not short on time or things, but we're always telling ourselves to do more at the same time, aren't we? We all know how it is! What used to take one hour now takes two or even three hours.

Let's take our work situation as an example. Our office is a place where we all try to be as efficient as we can, which often means multitasking. You're deep in thought on a project when someone coughs and asks if you have any cough drops. Oh, that phone in the office! It just keeps on ringing, and it seems like no one is immune. Oh my, your inbox seems to be full of emails that never end, and your phone is vibrating non-stop to let you know you have new messages! There are so many deliveries that still need to be unpacked, and there are lots of things that still need to be done. But there are always people asking about the progress of things, which is great! We all know that distractions, interruptions, and disruptions happen all the time. It's so hard to concentrate sometimes! Research shows that, on average, employees are interrupted every 11 minutes in the office and spend a third of their day recovering from interruptions. But even so, we still have to get things done within the allotted time!

Have you ever tried multitasking? Do you find yourself switching between tasks? Come on, we all know this is just self-deception. Researchers have found that switching tasks can be pretty costly. For simple tasks, you're probably saving time by doing one thing at a time. But for complex tasks, it's a different story. In these cases, you're likely spending more time than you need to. So, on average, we end up wasting 28% of our time on task switching during the workday. It's so easy to forget how much we're really paying for the image of being a "jack of all trades."

The third thing I want to talk to you about is a common misconception about success. Many people believe that self-discipline and willpower can solve everything.

It's so easy to think that if we just have more willpower, we'll automatically be more successful. But here's the thing: for most of us, willpower isn't something we can just call on whenever we need it. And it's not like we can keep using it up without running out!

You can think of willpower as a little indicator bar on your phone that shows you how much battery power you have left. Just like your phone battery, it might be full when you wake up, but as the day goes on, you use it up. It's so important to find the right time to recharge, rather than using it all the time. We all know that we need to use limited resources in a planned way, but we don't plan for willpower, which is such an important resource, as a personal limited resource. It's so easy to forget about willpower! This can leave us in a tricky situation, as by the time we really need to use our willpower to get important tasks done, it may have run out.

Modern research shows that willpower is indeed fleeting, with a huge burst of energy that doesn't last. It's okay if you don't have a lot of willpower left at the end of the day! Our bodies are amazing, but they do have limits. One of these is the glucose level in our blood, which can drop quite a bit after we use up our supply of willpower. We can think of willpower as a resilient "mental muscle" that takes a little while to recover. If we use too much willpower on one thing and then move on to the next thing without waiting for it to recover, we might find that our performance isn't quite as good as we'd like it to be. At this time, it's really important to nourish your brain! One great way to do this is by eating foods that slowly raise blood sugar, such as carbohydrates and proteins. So, to make the most of our willpower, it's really helpful to be aware of the best times to use it. Do the most important things when willpower is at its strongest every day, and finish them before it fails.

We all know that self-discipline isn't something that comes easily to us. We all have to accept that we can't be self-disciplined all the time. The good news is that we can develop a habit through regular training methods and a long enough training period. The good news is that you can make success a habit! All you have to do is choose the right habit, train yourself to develop it, and before you know it, it will seem to others that you are a self-disciplined person. It's totally normal to find it tough to develop a habit at first. But don't worry, once it's established, it's much easier to maintain than to develop!

So, how long does it take for self-discipline to become a habit? I'd love to know your thoughts on this! The lovely folks over at the University of London conducted a survey and found some pretty interesting results! It turns out that it takes an average of 66 days to develop a habit. We're often told that it takes 21 days to form a habit, but this is a bit unrealistic. So, don't give up too soon! And guess what? Australian researchers have also discovered a halo effect in the habit-forming process! The students who formed good habits reported feeling less stressed, less inclined to impulse shop, and had better eating habits. They also watched TV less often and even saved dirty dishes from washing! This is great news! It shows that it's not only easier to maintain good habits, but it also has benefits for other aspects of life.

I'm sure you all know the amazing swimming champion Michael Phelps! When he was just a little kid, he was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder. His kindergarten teacher told his mother, "Phelps is always fidgeting and can't calm down." I'm really sorry, but it seems like your son is having a bit of trouble concentrating. But this young man, who seemed to have no trouble focusing or succeeding, went on to set world records one after the other. His mother beamed, "I'm just so proud of Michael and his amazing ability to concentrate." His swimming coach also said that his focus was his greatest weapon. I'd love to know why Phelps made this transformation! The secret is in his training habits over the years. From the tender age of 14 all the way to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Phelps trained seven days a week, six hours a day underwater, without a single break. He gave this most important task his all. Thanks to his amazing self-discipline and habit, he was able to find his place in the pool and achieve great success!

Part 3

Now that we've busted these success myths, let's get back to the main theme of the book. There's only one most important thing, but what is it? Take a moment to ask yourself this key question: What is the most important thing I can do? I bet you're wondering why doing this one thing makes everything else easier or unnecessary. I know this can all feel a bit overwhelming, but I'm here to help! This question can be broken down into three parts.

1. What's the most important thing you can do, my friend?

This question is all about getting you motivated to take action! When we say "the most important thing," we mean that there is one thing that stands out as the most crucial. It's not about having many options, but rather focusing on one that truly matters. You might have lots of options, but you'll need to make a choice. Otherwise, you'll find yourself stuck on the first thing and unable to move on to the second or third. You've got to choose the most important thing to do. When you say, "I can do it," you're basically saying that you're open to taking possible actions. Just remember, "can do" is not "must do," "may do," or "will do." We all have a lot on our plates! There are so many things we must do, may do, and will do, but sometimes we just don't get around to them. I truly believe that the power to do something because you can is much greater than the power to do something because you want to.

2. When you say, "If I do this, then this will happen," you're setting yourself up for success! It means that your answer has to meet a certain standard.

This standard will help you transform your actions from random to purposeful. When you think, "If I do this, then..." it's a great reminder to dig a little deeper. Because after you do this one thing, something else will happen!

3. You'll be amazed at how much easier and unnecessary other things will become!

Archimedes said something really interesting. He said, "Give me a place to stand and I will move the world." It's so important to find that perfect fulcrum to make other things easier or unnecessary. Once you've done the most important thing, you'll find that the other things you need to do to achieve your goal can actually be done with less effort, or they're not necessary at all. You can "turn a blind eye" to the little things, just as if you were wearing an eye patch! This will help you change the course of your life and focus on what's truly important, free from distractions.

These key questions will be your guide as you find your most important thing at different stages of life. At different times, all you need to do is shift your attention and think about what the key question is.

It's so important to devote yourself to something you're passionate about. When you do, your life will feel so much more meaningful and you'll be happier! Happiness is waiting for you when you do what you love every day and gradually achieve your goal. I'm here to tell you the secret to success! All you have to do is figure out what's truly important to you and go for it, one step at a time.

The wonderful Gary Keller, who wrote this book, has a great suggestion for us: the backcasting method. First, think about your long-term goal. Then, work backwards to figure out the most important thing you should do now to get there. Just stop for a moment and think about it.

· What's the most important thing I can do in the next five years to achieve my long-term goal?

· And what is the most important thing I should do this year to achieve my five-year goal?

And now for the fun part! What is the most important thing I should do this month to achieve my yearly goal?

· What's the most important thing I can do this week to make sure I reach my monthly goal?

· To achieve my goal this week, what is the most important thing I should do today?

· To achieve my goal today, what is the most important thing I should do right now?

Now, take all of your goals and connect them together until you find the most important thing you need to do right now. I'd love to give you an example. One day, someone asked the famous American comedian Jerry Seinfeld how you can become a better comedian. Seinfeld said it's by writing a joke every day, which I think is a great idea! His method was to hang a huge calendar on the wall, and whenever he wrote down a joke, he would put a big red cross on the day's calendar. He said that the red crosses would get longer and longer, and he'd really want to see them keep going. All he had to do was not let them stop! Persistence isn't about going the distance, it's about taking lots of little steps.

In a nutshell, that's the main idea of the book "The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results." The author kindly reminds us that we've all been a bit confused about what it takes to succeed in the past. We all thought that to succeed in our careers, we had to do everything at once, and that self-discipline and willpower were the answer to all our problems. I'm sure you'll agree that these are all misconceptions about success. To achieve truly remarkable results, it's essential to identify the most important task you can do, and then work backwards from this core goal to find the most important thing to do right now. Now, think about what is the most important thing for you.