“If you try to do everything, you could wind up with nothing. If you try to do just ONE Thing, the right ONE Thing, you could wind up with everything you ever wanted."
The Domino Effect (Leveraging & Compounding in Action)
A single domino is capable of bringing down another domino that is actually 50 percent larger....
Leverage: using the least amount of energy necessary to obtain the greatest return (i.e.: only using a 1/2 domino to knock over a full-size Domino)
Compounding: using the gains from one investment to produce even bigger gains on the next investment (i.e.: use the first domino to knock down another 50% bigger, and then knock down another even 50% bigger than that, etc.).
“The key is over time. Success is built sequentially. It’s one thing at a time.”
Pareto the To-Do List
The Pareto Principle states that 20% of effort accounts for 80% of the resulting.
The problem is people spend all their time and energy on the 80% of things that produce 20% of the results instead of focusing on knocking the 20% domino.
That's why you must evaluate all the things that you could be doing and identify those tasks that will actually knock over the domino. And of those tasks, which one offers the greatest leverage? Hence the focusing question posited in the book:
“What’s the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”
Priority must be given to completing this task.
Time Blocking
The easiest way to ensure your One Thing gets done is by actively blocking out time on the calendar and protecting that time block at all costs.
"Most people think there’s never enough time to be successful, but there is when you block it. Time blocking is a very results-oriented way of viewing and using time. It’s a way of making sure that what has to be done gets done."
Clarify What You Want, Then Line-Up the Dominoes
Before you knock over the first domino, you need to define what is the ultimate domino you are trying to knock down (i.e.: What is the goal you are trying to achieve)? It doesn't make sense to topple dominoes that do not produce the ultimate results you desire.
So what is it that you truly want out of life? It may make sense to "Pareto" these goals to some degree as you can't do it all in life ( I can't be an expert at the guitar, a yoga master, fluent in 5 languages, work two jobs, raise a family, hang out with friend twice every week, read 5 books every week all at the same time). There is only so much time in life and you only have so much energy.
Once you have clarity on where you are going, trying to reverse all the steps to get there is a powerful tool (i.e.: Line-up the dominoes).
Even if you aren't completely sure of all the intermediary steps, setting a tentative course and then taking action is preferable to having no roadmap at all.
“Connect today to all your tomorrows. It matters.”