Barış Erkent // Allianz Türkiye – Agile Coach
We are all trying to be efficient and successful. As we move towards our goals in life, are we asking ourselves the right questions? Are we setting our priorities right? A few inspiring answers are available in Garry W. Keller's book “Only One Thing”…
Businessman, entrepreneur and author Garry W. Keller makes suggestions that may be useful for many people and teams around the topic of setting our priorities with taking into account purpose and efficiency in his book titled “The One Thing”. Let me share the basic points...
Choosing focusing as a starting point
Extraordinary results come with the right questions. Focusing lies at the beginning of these questions. Because focusing sets up the path to extraordinary results by creating a domino effect.
Let's look at the two sub-questions under the focus:
1. The Big Picture Question: “What is my “only thing?”
This question can be used to expand your horizons, give direction to your career or company. Think about what you want to specialize in, what you want to give to others and society, and how you want to be remembered.
2. Small Focusing Question: “What is my “only thing” right now?”
Use this question as soon as you wake up in the morning and throughout the day. This allows you to focus on your most important work and maintain it. This is the question that determines your actions that will give you an advantage, where you can find support from others when you need it.
Living with a purpose
Our purpose determines our priorities, and our priorities determine the efficiency of our actions. How circumstances affect us depends on how we interpret them.
When we get what we want, our happiness gradually decreases because we quickly get used to what we get. Our sense of satisfaction from using our potential well also decreases over time.
Psychologist Martin Seligman believes that there are five elements that contribute to happiness: these are positive emotions and pleasure, success, relationships, connection and meaning. According to Seligman, the most important ones are to connect and find meaning.
Living according to priorities
Goals that are not priorities are powerless. The further a future reward is, the smaller is the current motivation of obtaining it. Connect today to your tomorrows. Visualizing the process, dividing a big goal into steps, helps you plan and put into action the strategic thinking you need for success. According to a research result, people who put their goals down on paper are 39.5 percent more likely to achieve them.
Living according to productivity
Effective actions change a person's life. We do something every minute of the day; we work, we walk, we eat, we sleep, we stand, we sit, we breathe... The question we should ask here is not whether we are doing something, but what we are doing.
When what we do is important, it will be that thing we do more than anything else that defines our life. Living according to productivity brings out extraordinary results.
Productive people block their time for their 'one thing' and then save that time as much as possible. They have connected the dots between consistent work over the time they have blocked and the extraordinary results they are looking for in a right way.
There are four enemies of productivity:
- Not being able to say no (When you say yes to something, you should be aware of what you are saying no to)
- Fear of confusion
- Bad habits about health
- An environment that does not support goals (No one succeeds or fails alone)
Three Obligations
It takes three commitments to achieve extraordinary results through blocking time.
First, you need to adopt the mindset of someone who is looking for mastery.
Secondly, you should constantly look for the best ways to do things.
Finally, you must be willing to be responsible for doing everything you can to achieve your 'only thing'.
While doing coaching, Keller often asks, "Are you doing this to do the best you can do, or are you doing it to do the best thing that can be done?". The way to master something is not only doing the best that you can do, but also to do it in the best way that it can be done.
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