What is the ONE THING I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?
In his book, The ONE Thing, Gary Keller calls this the Focusing Question. And answering that question is the key to simplifying and streamlining the hectic life so many entrepreneurs face.
Do you find yourself at the end of a very busy day wondering “am I really any further ahead than I was yesterday?”
Do you have a pretty good idea of where you want to go, but just haven’t quite been able to gain any significant momentum?
According to Keller, “Extraordinary results are rarely happenstance. They come from the choices we make and the actions we take. The focusing question always aims you at the best of both by forcing you to do what is essential to success – make a decision. But not just any decision – it drives you to make the best decision. It ignores want is doable and drills down to what is necessary, to what matters.”
However, before you are ready to ask yourself the focusing question, there are six false paradigms, six lies which most of us have bought into, that need to be dispelled.
1.Everything is important
2.Multitasking is the key to productivity
3.Successful people are disciplined
4.Willpower is always on will-call
5.A good life is a balanced life
6.Big is bad
Every good lie is actually mostly true with just enough falsehood thrown in to derail the believer’s intent. In his book, Keller unveils the insidious beliefs that hold so many of us back and then lays out the path to discovering the one thing that will catapult you to the successful fulfilment of your goals.
In my own life, this awareness has led me to eliminate a number of things I thought were helpful or even necessary to my endeavors. One example was the fact that I was trying to edit and write three different newsletters, each one aimed at a particular market segment. Now while writing is certainly an essential component of my vision and purpose, trying to write three separate newsletters meant that none were getting done in a timely manner. Consequently, none were yielding the results they should have been.
So here’s the deal, the newsletter you have so far come to know as Living Well will from now on be called Quid Pro Quis; which by the way, means “giving with no expectations”. Our content will continue to focus on implementing the Cross of Prosperity paradigms as well as expanding our individual potentials by pursuing the Cross of Wisdom. However you will also see more real life examples of social entrepreneurship in action from my own experience in the fields of dentistry and micro-franchising. As a dentist, I have long been an advocate of adopting “outside” business acumen to my profession, and now will be expanding to also do the opposite – bring lessons learned in the business of dentistry to the “outside” business community, in particular of course, to the social entrepreneurship community.
For any entrepreneur struggling with work overload like I’ve been, I highly recommend The One Thing.
For your peace and prosperity,
Dr. Lon Peckham provides comprehensive and wholistic dental care in Priest River, Idaho. He is a consultant certified in Lead Management and Choice Theory, Advanced Dental Implantology, as a Lifestyle Health Facilitator, and is currently pursuing certification by the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine. He helps Patients and Dentists successfully incorporate whole-health into their lives and practices.