The Oxford Handbook of Happiness has a total of 79 chapters and more than 1000 pages. The Routledge International Handbook of Critical Positive Psychology has 36 chapters and more than 500 pages.
In setting up this site, my plan was to read them both cover to cover. It still is. However, it was an overwhelming amount of content and spending that long reading and planning would prevent me from getting started.
The One Thing by Garry Keller and Jay Papasan
So, I put the heavyweight books aside and read The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Garry Keller and Jay Papasan.
It is a self-help and productivity book that focuses on the concept of identifying and concentrating on the most important task in any given situation to achieve extraordinary results.
The core idea of the book is encapsulated in the question, “What’s the ONE Thing you can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”
Identify one critical task
My key takeaways from the book were the fact that multitasking is a myth. What is important is to identify the one critical task that needed to be done and focus all your concentration on that one thing.
Focusing on that one task creates a domino effect where completing it makes it easier to accomplish other tasks or helps to highlight that these other tasks are unnecessary.
Repeatedly switching from one task to another comes at a cost as your brain must reorientate to the new task.
Extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you make your focus.
The domino effect
Our time and energy are limited so it makes sense to focus on the one thing you can get done in that moment rather than spreading yourself too thinly across a range of tasks. Keller and Papasan advise us to “find the lead domino and whack it until it falls.”
The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks and starting on the first one. ~ Mark Twain
Build success sequentially
Crucially, Keller and Papasan make the point that success is built sequentially by doing one thing at a time. There is no such thing as an overnight success. Those individuals have spent months if not years building their skills. Having a passion for the topic also helps.
Passion for something leads to disproportionate time practicing or working on it. That time spent eventually translates to skill, and when skill improves, results improve. Better results generally lead to more enjoyment, and more passion, and more time is invested.
Busy does not mean productive
The authors make the point that when everything feels urgent and important, everything seems equal, but in fact it isn’t, and it is essential to prioritise.
Being busy does not mean being productive. It is therefore important to focus on the right thing and make that one thing your focus. Being disciplined to do this for long enough helps turn it into a habit, which then makes the process a lot easier and the journey more enjoyable.
When you attend to everything, everything gets short-changed.
Prioritise what matters most
Another reason for focusing on one task at a time is because willpower has a limited battery life. It is a mental muscle that does not bounce back quickly. Keller and Papasan therefore stress the point that we should make what matters most a priority and do it when your willpower is at its highest, which is likely to be early in the day.
Implementing new behaviours, resisting temptation and filtering distractions all diminish our willpower, and being aware of this helps.
Benefits to other areas of life
Approaching each day with the mindset of doing the one thing that matters most can also be translated into other areas of life, not just work.
The authors give the examples of identifying the one thing that can be done to ensure you exercise, to improve your relationships, to care for yourself better, to increase your net worth.
Does money buy happiness?
The success we can achieve from this approach, and from the hours put into a new venture, can result in success and monetary gain. But that leads to the crucial question: Does having money and material possessions lead to lasting happiness? The answer is no. Once we get what we desire, the happiness this brings eventually wanes as we get accustomed to what we have.
Happiness happens when you have a bigger purpose than having more fulfils, which is why we say happiness happens on the way to fulfilment.
The importance of enjoying the journey
Crucial, then, is enjoying the journey. The authors acknowledge that the word ‘purpose’ can feel heavy, and we may be unsure what exactly his means for us. They say it is simply the one thing you want your life to be about more than any other.
For me, it is writing about happiness and self-development, but it has taken half a century to realise this. But better to have reached this point than not at all and to enjoy the journey from hereon in.
Seeking inspiration in books
And the one thing I want to do right now to move this work forward, is to seek some inspiration from those who have overcome obstacles, successfully achieved results and enjoyed the journey no matter how challenging.
Which leads me to the book The Wim Hof Method which, according to the blurb, will help me master mind over matter and achieve the impossible …
