A reader of this blog recently asked me, “What is your ONE Thing? I have a difficult time thinking of what my ONE Thing should be. What are some of your past ONE Things?”
I’ve read the book The ONE Thing and I even belong to their group coaching membership program. These resources have been invaluable for my own productivity.
My ONE Thing is growth. I do believe if you’re not growing, you’re dying.
Growth comes in many forms, doesn’t it? I think that’s why I like it so much. I can apply it to any part of my life.
Right now, in our real estate team, my ONE Thing is growing our systems to handle adding three or four new agents in 2020. That means building out a training system for new salespeople hires and building out a training system for the virtual assistant I know I’ll need to hire to support our Client Care Manager.
My lead agent joked with me and said that growth didn’t apply to losing weight because the idea is to make the number on the scale get smaller, not grow. I laughed and explained that by losing weight I would grow the amount of health I have. Better health is always worth pursuing in my opinion.
My past ONE Things have been to learn and implement a hiring process so that I could get great people on the team and help the business grow.
It’s also been to transition from one CRM to another that would help our transactions department provide a better customer experience thus helping the business grow through reviews and referrals.
It’s also been to educate myself about how to be a better coach so I can grow my list of coaching clients so I can help more Ops Bosses™ through all the things I know they’ll need as they grow their own personal development and their own real estate teams thus changing the world one, by one, by one, by one.
How can you discover your own ONE Thing?
Set aside time to really think about it. You may need to meditate on it, or you may need to journal about it. Ask the focusing question, or the variations of it: “What’s the ONE Thing I can do, such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”
Your ONE Thing has to be an activity; not the result you’re looking for. So while my overarching ONE Thing is growth, that’s not really an action. Building out training programs for admin and sales hires is.
If you have a copy of the The ONE Thing, go to page 114 and look at the seven circles. If you improved just one area, which one would have the greatest impact on your life? Pick one and ask the focusing question.
Then keep asking the question until you get to an activity that is so simple that you can do it easily and without resistance.
In building out our training programs, they first need to be written. I’m writing the one to train the new virtual assistant, and my lead agent is writing the one to train the new salespeople.
For me, blocking two hours three times a week on my calendar is one of the steps, but I know I need to go smaller. Putting those times on my calendar is easy enough, but protecting those time blocks can be difficult. So for me, my ONE Thing around building out a training system is to shut my door and turn off my phone notifications. Both of which can be done with minimal force from my fingers, right?
Do you see how small I had to go? I just took you from my ONE Thing being growth to my ONE Thing for business being shut my door and turn off my notifications before my time blocks for creating a training program.
I could take it a step further by doing a 66 Day Challenge. I get to put an X on the calendar for every day I follow through on my plan to shut my door and turn off notifications. Following the plan is what earns me the X. So even if I don’t plan to work on the training program a particular day, I still earn the X because I’m following the plan.
Essentially, your ONE Thing will be something you do daily or near-daily. My ONE Thing for my physical health is to text my friend Karelyn by 4:15 a.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. If I don’t, I owe her $10 per miss!
Why did I set that level of accountability around my ONE Thing for my physical health? Because before I put that in place, I was hitting the snooze button and not going to the gym. I was frustrated with myself for not doing the thing I wanted to do which was to go to the gym.
If it’s something important to you, you’ll put accountability in place to help you achieve your ONE Thing.
And so, dear reader, I hope this helps you on your journey to discovering your own ONE Thing. If you want my help with this process, email me and we’ll schedule some time to talk. egilbert@kw.com
