100 Top Quotes From The One Thing
The One Thing presents a powerful and pragmatic approach to productivity and success in a world filled with distractions and overwhelming demands. Gary Keller and Jay Papasan challenge the idea of multitasking and highlight the profound impact of focusing on "The One Thing" that matters most at any given time.
By narrowing down priorities and ruthlessly eliminating distractions, individuals can achieve extraordinary results in both their personal and professional lives. The book advocates for the implementation of the "Domino Effect," wherein the accomplishment of one significant task triggers a chain reaction of positive outcomes. With actionable advice and engaging anecdotes, Keller and Papasan guide readers in mastering their time and energy, thereby increasing productivity, improving decision-making, and reducing stress.
By committing to a singular purpose and aligning actions with long-term goals, The One Thing offers a transformative perspective on how to achieve excellence and fulfillment in an increasingly complex and fast-paced world. (The One Thing Summary).
The One Thing Quotes
"Success demands singleness of purpose. You need to be doing fewer things for more effect instead of doing more things with side effects. It is those who concentrate on but one thing at a time who advance in this world. Passion for something leads to disproportionate time practicing or working at it. That time spent eventually translates to skill, and when skill improves, results improve. Better results generally lead to more enjoyment, and more passion and more time is invested. It can be a virtuous cycle all the way to extraordinary results."
"Multitasking is a lie”
“Work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls-- family, health, friends, integrity-- are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered.” (Meaning)
"People do not decide their futures, they decide their habits and their habits decide their futures.” —F. M. Alexander”
"A life worth living might be measured in many ways, but the one way that stands above all others is living a life of no regrets.”
"Your next step is simple. You are the first domino.”
"I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all, to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all.”
"Success is actually a short race—a sprint fueled by discipline just long enough for habit to kick in and take over.”
"It is not that we have too little time to do all the things we need to do , it is that we feel the need to do too many things in the time we have.”
"Extraordinary results happen only when you give the best you have to become the best you can be at your most important work.”
"You need to be doing fewer things for more effect instead of doing more things with side effects.”
"You can become successful with less discipline than you think, for one simple reason: success is about doing the right thing, not about doing everything right.”
"Long hours spent checking off a to-do list and ending the day with a full trash can and a clean desk are not virtuous and have nothing to do with success. Instead of a to-do list, you need a success list—a list that is purposefully created around extraordinary results. To-do lists tend to be long; success lists are short. One pulls you in all directions; the other aims you in a specific direction. One is a disorganized directory and the other is an organized directive. If a list isn’t built around success, then that’s not where it takes you. If your to-do list contains everything, then it’s probably taking you everywhere but where you really want to go.”
"The path of mastering something is the combination of not only doing the best you can do at it, but also doing it the best it can be done.”
"A different result requires doing something different.”
"If time is the currency of achievement, then why are some able to cash in their allotment for more chips than others? The answer is they make getting to the heart of things the heart of their approach. They go small. Going small is ignoring all the things you could do and doing what you should do. It’s recognizing that not all things matter equally and finding the things that matter most. It’s a tighter way to connect what you do with what you want. It’s realizing that extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus.”
"Success is built sequentially. It’s one thing at a time.”
"The majority of what you want will come from the minority of what you do.”
"Don’t let small thinking cut your life down to size. Think big, aim high, act bold. And see just how big you can blow up your life.”
"Voltaire once wrote, “Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.” Sir”
"One of the most empowering moments of my life came when I realized that life is a question and how we live it is our answer.”
"Focus is a matter of deciding what things you’re not going to do.” —John Carmack”
"We are kept from our goal, not by obstacles but by a clear path to a lesser goal.” —Robert Brault”
"Imagine life is a game in which you are juggling five balls. The balls are called work, family, health, friends, and integrity. And you’re keeping all of them in the air. But one day you finally come to understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls—family, health, friends, integrity—are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered.”
"Achievers always work from a clear sense of priority.”
"Anyone who dreams of an uncommon life eventually discovers there is no choice but to seek an uncommon approach to living it.”
"Even if you’re sure you can win, be careful that you can live with what you lose.”
"Success is about doing the right thing, not about doing everything right.”
"Juggling is an illusion. In reality, the balls are being independently caught and thrown in rapid succession. It is actually task switching.”
"What’s the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”
"The people we live with and work with on a daily basis deserve our full attention. When we give people segmented attention, piecemeal time, switching back and forth, the switching cost is higher than just the time involved. We end up damaging relationships.”
"To be financially wealthy you must have a purpose for your life. In other words, without purpose, you’ll never know when you have enough money, and you can never be financially wealthy.”
"Big is bad is a lie. It’s quite possibly the worst lie of all, for if you fear big success, you’ll either avoid it or sabotage your efforts to achieve it.”
"Not everything matters equally, and success isn’t a game won by whoever does the most. Yet that is exactly how most play it on a daily basis.”
"Until my ONE Thing is done—everything else is a distraction.”
"They allow purpose to be the guiding force in determining the priority that drives their actions.”
"Task switching exacts a cost few realize they are even paying.”
"Achievers operate differently. They have an eye for the essential. They pause just long enough to decide what matters and then allow what matters to drive their day. Achievers do sooner what others plan to do later and defer, perhaps indefinitely, what others do sooner. The difference isn’t in intent, but in right of way. Achievers always work from a clear sense of priority.”
"When everything feels urgent and important, everything seems equal. We become active and busy, but this doesn’t actually move us any closer to success. Activity is often unrelated to productivity, and busyness rarely takes care of business.”
"You must be single-minded. Drive for the one thing on which you have decided.” —General George S. Patton”
"When you strive for greatness, chaos is guaranteed to show up.”
"Think as big as you possibly can and base what you do, how you do it, and who you do it with on succeeding at that level. It just might take you more than your lifetime to run into the walls of a box this big.”
"Passion for something leads to disproportionate time practicing or working at it. That time spent eventually translates to skill, and when skill improves, results improve. Better results generally lead to more enjoyment, and more passion and more time is invested. It can be a virtuous cycle all the way to extraordinary results.”
"When we know something that needs to be done but isn’t currently getting done, we often say, “I just need more discipline.” Actually, we need the habit of doing it. And we need just enough discipline to build the habit.”
"Buying into The ONE Thing becomes difficult because we’ve unfortunately bought into too many others—and more often than not those “other things” muddle our thinking, misguide our actions, and sidetrack our success.”
"Leaving some things undone is a necessary tradeoff for extraordinary results.”
"No one succeeds alone. No one.”
"Extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus.”
"Only actions that become springboards to succeeding big are those informed by big thinking to begin with.”
"When you see someone who has a lot of knowledge, they learned it over time. When you see someone who has a lot of skills, they developed them over time. When you see someone who has done a lot, they accomplished it over time. When you see someone who has a lot of money, they earned it over time. The key is over time. Success”
"Don't fear big. Fear mediocrity. Fear waste. Fear the lack of living to your fullest. When we fear big, we either consciously or subconsciously work against it. We either run toward lesser outcomes and opportunities or we simply run away from the big ones. If courage isn't the absence of fear, but moving past it, then thinking big isn't the absence of doubts, but moving past them. Only living big will let you experience your true life and work potential.”
"It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?”
"Don't fear big. Fear mediocrity. Fear waste. Fear the lack of living to your fullest”
"Happiness happens when you have a bigger purpose than having more fulfills, which is why we say happiness happens on the way to fulfillment.”
"Thinking big is essential to extraordinary results. Success requires action, and action requires thought. But here’s the catch—the only actions that become springboards to succeeding big are those informed by big thinking to begin with. Make this connection, and the importance of how big you think begins to sink in.”
"The reason we shouldn’t pursue balance is that the magic never happens in the middle; magic happens at the extremes.”
"Knocking out a hundred tasks for whatever the reason is a poor substitute for doing even one task that’s meaningful.”
"There can only be one most important thing. Many things may be important, but only one can be the most important.” —Ross Garber”
"When you can see mastery as a path you go down instead of a destination you arrive at, it starts to feel accessible and attainable.”
"The truth is that things don’t matter equally and success is found in doing what matters most.”
"Equality is a lie. Understanding this is the basis of all great decisions.”
"Here’s what I found out: We overthink, overplan, and overanalyze our careers, our businesses, and our lives; that long hours are neither virtuous nor healthy; and that we usually succeed in spite of most of what we do, not because of it.”
"When you argue for your limitations, you get to keep them.”
"Taking complete ownership of your outcomes by holding no one but yourself responsible for them is the most powerful thing you can do to drive your success.”
"Multitasking is merely the opportunity to screw up more than one thing at a time.”
"Productivity isn’t about being a workhorse, keeping busy or burning the midnight oil... . It’s more about priorities, planning, and fiercely protecting your time.” —Margarita Tartakovsky”
"It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” —Mark Twain”
"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.”
"People who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the only ones who do."" - Apple Adv.”
"We are kept from our goal, not by obstacles but by a clear path to a lesser goal.”
"Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.” —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe”
"Purpose is the straightest path to power and the ultimate source of personal strength—strength”
"Give each habit enough time. Stick with the discipline long enough for it to become routine. Habits, on average, take 66 days to form. Once a habit is solidly established, you can either build on that habit or, if appropriate, build another one.”
"The key to success isn’t in all the things we do but in the handful of things we do well.”
"Be like a postage stamp–stick to one thing until you get there.”
"Multitasking is a scam.”
"Be a maker in the morning and a manager in the afternoon.”
"No one is self-made”
"Every day, without realizing it, we engage in all manner of activities that diminish our willpower. Willpower is depleted when we make decisions to focus our attention, suppress our feelings and impulses, or modify our behavior in pursuit of goals. It’s like taking an ice pick and gouging a hole in our gas line. Before long we have willpower leaking everywhere and none left to do our most important work. So like any other limited but vital resource, willpower must be managed.”
"While decisions tap our willpower, the food we eat is also a key player in our level of willpower.”
"When life happens, you can be either the author of your life or the victim of it. Those are your only two choices— accountable or unaccountable. This may sound harsh, but it’s true. Every day we choose one approach or the other, and the consequences follow us forever.”
"So the more things you do, the less successful you are at any one of them.”
"Success comes down to this: being appropriate in the moments of your life.”
"Your talent and abilities are limited resources. Your time is finite. If you don’t make your life about what you say yes to, then it will almost certainly become what you intended to say no to.”
"When you gamble with your time, you may be placing a bet you can’t cover.”
"The ability to control oneself to determine one’s actions is a pretty powerful idea. Base”
"You need to be doing fewer things for effect instead of doing more things with side effects”
"Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” — Will Rogers”
"Purpose, meaning, significance—these are what make a successful life. Seek them and you will most certainly live your life out of balance, criss-crossing an invisible middle line as you pursue your priorities. The act of living a full life by giving time to what matters is a balancing act.”
"If you can honestly say, “This is where I’m meant to be right now, doing exactly what I’m doing,” then all the amazing possibilities for your life become possible.”
"It’s important to realize that on the journey to achieving big, you get bigger. Big requires growth, and by the time you arrive, you’re big too! What seemed an insurmountable mountain from a distance is just a small hill when you arrive—at least in proportion to the person you've become. Your thinking, your skills, your relationships, your sense of what is possible and what it takes all grow on the journey to big. As you experience big, you become big.”
"If you are what you repeatedly do, then achievement isn’t an action you take but a habit you forge into your life.”
"It’s important for you to accept this instead of fighting it. Oscar-winning filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola warns us that “anything you build on a large scale or with intense passion invites chaos.” In other words, get used to it and get over it.”
"Working at something until it regularly works for you.”
"Vital few and trivial many.”
"Success requires action, and action requires thought. But”
"As you experience big, you become big.”
"The things which are most important don’t always scream the loudest.”
"If today your company doesn’t know what its ONE Thing is, then the company’s ONE Thing is to find out.”
"Based on my someday goal, what’s the ONE Thing I can do in the next five years to be on track to achieve it? Now, based on my five-year goal, what’s the ONE Thing I can do this year to be on track to achieve my five-year goal, so that I’m on track to achieve my someday goal? Now, based on my goal this year, what’s the ONE Thing I can do this month so I’m on track to achieve my goal this year, so I’m on track to achieve my five-year goal, so I’m on track to achieve my someday goal? Now, based on my goal this month, what’s the ONE Thing I can do this week so I’m on track to achieve my goal this month, so I’m on track to achieve my goal this year, so I’m on track to achieve my five-year goal, so I’m on track to achieve my someday goal? Now, based on my goal this week, what’s the ONE Thing I can do today so I’m on track to achieve my goal this week, so I’m on track to achieve my goal this month, so I’m on track to achieve my goal this year, so I’m on track to achieve my five-year goal, so I’m on track to achieve my someday goal...?"
"Since there is always another level to learn, mastery actually means you’re a master of what you know and an apprentice of what you don’t. In other words, we become masters of what is behind us and apprentices for what is ahead. This is why mastery is a journey. Alex”
"No matter how many to-dos you start with, you can always narrow it to one. Keep going. You can actually take 20 percent of the 20 percent of the 20 percent and continue until you get to the single most important thing!”
"Saying yes to everyone is the same as saying yes to nothing. Each additional obligation chips away at your effectiveness at everything you try.”
"Lacking a clear formula for making decisions, we get reactive and fall back on familiar, comfortable ways to decide what to do. Pinballing through our day like a confused character in a B-horror movie, we end up running up the stairs instead of out the front door. The best decision gets traded for any decision.”
"Distraction is natural. Don’t feel bad when you get distracted. Everyone gets distracted. Multitasking takes a toll. At home or at work, distractions lead to poor choices, painful mistakes, and unnecessary stress. Distraction undermines results. When you try to do too much at once, you can end up doing nothing well. Figure out what matters most in the moment and give it your undivided attention.”
"You can become successful with less discipline than you think, for one simple reason: success is about doing the right thing, not about doing everything right.”
"Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” —Alan Lakein”
"Mastery is a commitment to becoming your best, so to achieve extraordinary results you must embrace the extraordinary effort it represents.”
"The problem is we tend to act on what we believe even when what we believe isn’t anything we should.”
― Quotes from the book The One Thing by Gary Keller
The One Thing Author
Gary Keller is a prominent author, entrepreneur, and co-founder of Keller Williams Realty Inc., one of the largest real estate companies globally. His expertise in the real estate industry and passion for personal development converge in his best-selling book "The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results." In this transformative work, Keller emphasizes the power of focus and the significance of identifying the single most crucial task that drives meaningful progress toward our goals. He advocates for eliminating distractions and honing in on our priorities, allowing us to channel our time and energy effectively. By mastering the art of prioritization and consistently pursuing the "one thing" that truly matters, Keller asserts that we can achieve exceptional outcomes both professionally and personally. Gary Keller's book serves as a valuable resource for those seeking to optimize their productivity and unlock their true potential by embracing simplicity and focus in a world full of distractions.
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
