The Other “One Thing”

You can’t say enough good things about Gary Keller’s book and principle The One Thing. Put simply, Keller says that to achieve success, you need to focus relentlessly on the “one thing that will make everything else easier or unnecessary.” Who can argue?

Yet for many of us there is another “one thing”: the one thing we need to stop doing that will allow us to get on to the one thing we should be doing. More often than not, the two “one things” come in pairs, the don’t and the do.

It may be, for example, that my highest and best place in life is as an environmental lawyer. The one thing for which I was born, and everybody knows it. But right now I’m a generalist practicing in a partnership of convenience with three other generalists, all of us taking whatever walks through the door.

A little real estate, a little criminal defence, a little matrimonial, an occasional slip and fall…. And in all these cases I do a good and commendable job. But more and more it’s just that, a job, and I feel less and less satisfaction.

According to Keller, I need to focus singlemindedly on learning (for example) environmental law, and thereafter on becoming the best and the best-known. And he’s absolutely right, except for one thing.

That other “One Thing” is the comfort and security of a steady stream of work which pays the bills and feeds the kids and makes me feel useful. But it’s also an excuse for not doing the important “One Thing”, that is, transforming myself into Canada’s Number One Environmental Lawyer.

But there’s a little more to it than that. It’s a rare life where there’s not a little slack and a little margin. And we use that slack and margin to provide the satisfaction which our job does not. Sadly, most of us waste that little slack or margin on stuff which will never pay returns, and more often than not, stuff which actually costs us.

So I get home at night after a grueling day at the office or in court, and I deserve a treat. So out comes the bottle. Or a joint, or two, or three. Or video games. Or mindless surfing. Or whatever…

Most of the time there’s nothing inherently evil about a drink or two or surfing the net until midnight, but “not evil” is not the same as “highest and best”. It’s this poor use of time that rather than paying dividends, burns up our capital.

Before I can get to Keller’s positive “One Thing”, more often than not I need to make time and room for it by dealing with the Bad One Thing which stands in the way of the Good One Thing.

There are a thousand and one ways to deal with the One Bad Thing, all the way from just smartening up, through Alcoholics Anonymous, through professional help. Every case is different, yet every case is the same in this way: you can’t really expect to win the race if your legs are tied together.

This simple piece is not about the “how”, so much as it is about raising the awareness. There are as many answers as there are questions, but it often helps if you have a guide.

If you like, you’ve got my contact info. Happy to be one pilgrim helping another.