The One Thing
Contrary to popular belief, NO ONE is a good multitasker. In fact, it is impossible to focus on two things at once. (So the next time someone says to you they are a great multitasker, you can know internally that they’re fooling themselves into thinking they can focus on more than one thing.)
Instead, the process that is actually happening when multitasking is attention jumping from one idea to the next. While there is truth to the ability to compartmentalize and there can be speed when moving from one idea to the next, it is still just one task at a time. It also isn’t fully possible to do so seamlessly. I’ve shared the concept of attention residue on this blog before. It absolutely applies here.
Even when setting goals, the same idea is true. If you have too many goals, it is possible, depending on your history and abilities, to not succeed as hoped if you’re spread too thin or if one goal is more overwhelming than the others.
Gary Keller has written a book that addresses this common conundrum. It’s called “The One Thing”. The concept is simple: focus on only one thing and have that thing be the biggest and most productive thing you can accomplish. Based on the Pareto principle, the idea is that you should leverage your work focusing on the 20% of your work that will give you 80% of the results. Plan on spending an outsized amount of time on it as well.
On January 1, 2021, I weighed in at more than I’ve ever weighed in before at 215 lbs. It was not a weight I ever imagined I would hit and I decided that I would never let myself get that high again. Now, like many people, there were many things I wanted to focus on to accomplish this:
Count my calories.
Add in appropriate supplements.
Lift heavy weights at the gym.
Consistently do cardio.
Walk more.
Rest more.
Hire a personal trainer.
Decide on a workout plan.
Think healthier thoughts.
Incorporate healthier practices into my life.
All of these are great things to work on my body and all would contribute toward my health, but one in particular stood out: count my calories. Why? Because it works.
I’m an amateur health nerd. I’ve read many weightlifting books and joined multiple online bodybuilding communities. You wouldn’t know it given how I appear, but I was learning the correct principles along the way.
One of my goals has always been to have a visible six-pack at least once in my lifetime. And with all I’ve read, the message has been pretty consistent that it’s about diet more than it is about exercise. Presumably, we all have six-packs as it’s a genetic thing. It’s simply that our six packs are covered by a layer of belly fat.
I’ve not been willing to put in the work to make that happen until recently, although I gave it all the effort (I was willing to give) at multiple points in my 20’s and 30’s. Finally, upon hitting this peak, I knew it was a make-or-break time. I needed to put my money where my mouth was. And one principle about getting six-packs stood out above them all:
You cannot out-train your diet.
This was a theme from many of the programs I understood. With newfound motivation, it was time to put this all to the test.
Now, sure, there were multiple bullet points that I could have focused on, but I took a “One Thing” approach and focused soley on diet. Then, I added in the other pieces of lifting heavy weight, adding cardio, walking more, hiring a trainer, and the whole shebang.
Here are my results:
As you can see, I’ve done quite well for myself! The downward trend is clear.
You should also know that the yellow line is significant. Remember how I said to focus on one thing? Well, up until the moment of that yellow line, I did only one thing: focus on my diet.
No trainer.
No lifting weights.
No cardio.
No supplements.
No extra walking.
Literalleigh, all I did was focus on my diet. The results speak for themselves.
Are you having trouble getting something done? What’s the one thing you should be focusing most of your time on that will give you the biggest impact?
