The One Thing Quotes

“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.”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“People do not decide their futures, they decide their habits and their habits decide their futures.” —F. M. Alexander”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“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.

The ONE Thing shows up time and again in the lives of the successful because it’s a fundamental truth.

More than anything else, expertise tracks with hours invested.

The pursuit of mastery bears gifts.

When people look back on their lives, it is the things they have not done that generate the greatest regret...People’s actions may be troublesome initially; it is their inactions that plague them most with long-term feelings of regret.

Make sure every day you do what matters most. When you know what matters most, everything makes sense. When you don’t know what matters most, anything makes sense.”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“Multitasking is a lie”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“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.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“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.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“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.”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“Success is actually a short race—a sprint fueled by discipline just long enough for habit to kick in and take over.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“Your next step is simple. You are the first domino.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“Extraordinary results happen only when you give the best you have to become the best you can be at your most important work.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“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.”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“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.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“If everyone has the same number of hours in the day, why do some people seem to get so much more done than others? How do they do more, achieve more, earn more, have more? 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.”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“You need to be doing fewer things for more effect instead of doing more things with side effects.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“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.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“a different result requires doing something different.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“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.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“the majority of what you want will come from the minority of what you do.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“So, if you want to get the most out of your day, do your most important work—your ONE Thing—early, before your willpower is drawn down. Since your self-control will be sapped throughout the day, use it when it’s at full strength on what matters most.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“The key is over time. Success is built sequentially. It’s one thing at a time.”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“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.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“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.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“Voltaire once wrote, “Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.” Sir”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“We are kept from our goal, not by obstacles but by a clear path to a lesser goal.” —Robert Brault”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“What’s the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“Achievers always work from a clear sense of priority.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“Focus is a matter of deciding what things you’re not going to do.” —John Carmack”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“Even if you’re sure you can win, be careful that you can live with what you lose.”
― Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results

“Anyone who dreams of an uncommon life eventually discovers there is no choice but to seek an uncommon approach to living it.”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

“success is about doing the right thing, not about doing everything right.”
― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results