I drove up to Scotland yesterday as this week I’m exhibiting at the Ideal Home Show in Glasgow. During the drive, I finished the audiobook, The One Thing by Gary Keller. As the title implies, it’s a book about identifying, prioritising and then working on the one thing that will have the biggest impact on achieving your goals.

The book is a bit one dimensional and probably not worth rushing out to read. However, the point the author is making does have value. It’s a simple concept that ties together the action we take and the goals we have. It works as follows:

First, think through your goals and create a visual pyramid with a “someday goal” at the top, below this a “5-Year Goal”, then a “1-Year Goal”, then a “Monthly Goal”, then a “Weekly Goal” and finally a “Daily Goal” at the bottom. This process moves you from thinking about the “someday-dream-goal” and grounds it right back in a connected daily goal for the here and now of today.

Next thinking about this daily goal, ask yourself “what is the one thing I can do today or better still right now that will move me towards it”. This one thing must be the single most important, most significant and have the biggest impact on you achieving the goal. Once you have identified this one thing, then do it. It’s a simple concept, but I can see its power and effectiveness.

You then repeat this focus and deliberate practice of the “one thing”, asking yourself each day, and each moment what the one thing I should do right now to fulfil my goal.

I have applied this to Valentte recently in becoming focused on profitability. I’m a salesman at heart and have run the business based on achieving high sales at the expense of making profits. Sales are easy to measure and keep track of. We simply count the money at the end of a show or look at the total in our merchant account at the end of the day online.

Profits on the other had require me to do lots of boring book-keeping, and for too long, I have run the business based on estimated numbers rather than actual figures. This has been a recipe for disaster in the past and I’m determined to change this going forward. So, my one thing is to have 100% accurate, real and up-to-date figures for Valentte. I have begun weekly book-keeping, so fingers crossed!

What is your one thing?

I hope you will spend a few minutes today working backwards from your someday goal to imagine your yearly goal and finally to your daily goal. Identify your one thing and then take action. Having goals and dreams is no good unless you do something with them. Be brave, be disciplined and take ownership of them. You decide the life you live; you decide the work you do. Make every moment count!

Remember, we climb the mountain, not in giant leaps but one small step at a time.