I will provide credit to Gary Keller and the book he wrote called “The One Thing.” I picked this book up at an airport and read it during a long flight. I do not remember many things in the book, but I did capture one critical thought that I have implemented in my life ever since I read this. Yesterday, I talked about how morning and evening prayer has served as a solid foundation for building all my other commitments. During my morning prayer session, I like to focus my mind on thinking through what would be the single most important thing that I could accomplish today.
If all else goes wrong, what is the one thing that I could do that would allow me to mark the day as successful? This is the question and thought that I ponder every morning. My goal is to come up with the single most important thing I could do to advance myself and be able to call the day a success. I would like to end my day knowing that, at the least, I accomplished something that made my effort worth it.
Once I come up with this one thing, I write it down. This is what I call my “365 Journal.” I write this daily objective down and then do my best to work on it whenever I have idle time. In essence, each day has an objective, and if I get that one thing done, my hope is that I can chalk the day up as a success. There are many tasks that you need to accomplish, and there are many conference calls and meetings as well. This one thing is not that. The one thing that is almost always focused on is your primary objective or great ambition you have. Honing in on this single thing daily will slowly magnify all other efforts toward your ultimate objective.
Come back to this one thing frequently throughout the day. Work on it when you can, and definitely do not allow yourself to quit for the day until that task is done. You may wonder, well, what happens if I do not finish? You can always pick this as your one thing the next day, but you may also want to recognize that when you close out the day, it is okay to fail. Failure is part of the process, and the method in which you end the day is intended to give yourself permission to fail and try again the next day.
Somedays, I do not have any gas in the tank. On other days, I am traveling or having meetings all day long. My ability to complete one thing is difficult. A strategy I use is to “at least do something.” Perhaps you cannot complete the task or even do it well, but you can try and at least make some progress before giving up the day. I have learned through the crucible that it is infinitely better to do something every day than nothing for a string of days and one significant heroic attempt at the end. If you want progress, then you need to be ok with the idea that small incremental improvements of a duration of time will always be better then trying to get everything done in one day.
In the end, the key lesson from “The One Thing” is not about perfect execution every single day. It’s about consistently showing up and focusing on that one critical task, no matter how small the steps may feel. Some days, you’ll have the energy and focus to crush it, and other days, you might just chip away at it. But the beauty lies in the consistency, the daily recommitment to doing something that moves you forward.
Progress, I’ve found, doesn’t come from grand gestures or heroic efforts once in a while—it comes from the accumulation of small wins over time. So, even if you don’t hit the mark every day, don’t be discouraged. Keep showing up, keep working on that one thing, and over time, the momentum will build. And on those days when nothing seems to go right, remind yourself: just doing something—even a little—makes today a step in the right direction.
In the long run, it’s this steady, focused effort that makes all the difference. And for me, this simple practice has become a cornerstone of how I approach every day. Because when I look back, I want to see a path marked by progress, no matter how small the steps along the way.
