The One Thing : The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results | Gary Keller | Book Review

“Work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls-- family, health, friends, integrity-- are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered.”

― Gary Keller, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results 

The One Thing is one of the bestseller self-help books by Gary Keller. This book was published in 2012. 

The One Thing simply asks you to focus on a single thing or task at a time. We always try to do too many things at once and we cannot possibly do them all at the same time.

Now there is no such thing as multitasking but even when you switch between one into another, you will not gonna get any results and this book will teach you to focus on a single thing at a time.

The ONE Thing teaches us the consequences of what happens when you actually don't focus on one thing and also the possibilities of what can happen if you do.

Gary Keller has given six lies between you and success,

1. Everything Matters Equally
2. Multitasking
3. Disciplined life
4. The Will power is always on will-call
5. A Balanced Life
6. Big is Bad

1. Everything Matters Equally

We all have that to-do list, when we look at it, it has goals for the day, week, month or year. But all of them are not equally important. 

We have given our priorities to every task. Some of them need to be done right now and some of them could be done after some time. 

This prioritisation helps us to focus on a single task. Not every task should be done at the same time.

2. Multitasking

According to Gary Keller, this is another lie we keep telling ourselves. There is no such thing as multitasking. You might be able to multitask at the same time, but you can't focus on all of them at the same time. 

3. Disciplined Life

Discipline is not a necessary thing in life, but we must have good habits developed inside us. 

Discipline makes you act in a specific way, remain this way for a long time and it will become a habit. 

If you want to be successful, then just develop good habits inside you. It takes around 66 days to develop a habit. It takes time but it is necessary.

4. The Will power is always on will-call

This is the biggest lie we have. When we tie our success to willpower without understanding the meaning of it then, we are moving toward failure.

If you don't want to be a failure, just focus on The One Thing throughout your day at a time.

5. A Balanced Life

According to Gary Keller, there is no such thing as a Balanced Life. In business work is dominant. Make your work time count. It should never be 50/50 of your work time count and personal time count.

Make your goals clear and prioritise your tasks and plan both sides accordingly.

6. Big is Bad

To achieve big success in life or to get your business bigger, you need to think big accordingly. Keller doesn't want us to lose the side of thinking big. Success requires action but it is only led by thinking big and having courage and commitment.

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones | James Clear | Book Review

“When you fall in love with the process rather than the product, you don’t have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy. You can be satisfied anytime your system is running.”

― James Clear, Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

Atomic Habits by James Clear is my most recent read. The reason I love it so much is that it’s about the little things that make a big difference. The author talks about tiny little habits that you do every day, and how these tiny habits compound much like money in a mutual fund. You don’t really notice the difference when you are implementing them, but then one day, it happens, you reach that goal, or you win that race. Like tiny little changes in your diet, and exercise that you do consistently. Nobody notices until “WOW” one day, someone says “You look great, how much weight have you lost!”

The introduction of Atomic Habits is what really inspired me to continue reading. The author, during his sophomore year of high school, was hit in the face with a baseball bat, which crushed his skull, broke his nose and shattered his two eye sockets. He was put into a medically induced coma. They didn’t think that he would ever play baseball again, a game that James Clear truly loved. He worked hard to finally return and make it to the varsity team his senior year, even though he only played a handful of games. Clear went on to college and was selected as the top male athlete at Denison University  and named wo the ESPN Academic All American Team. He attributes his incredible achievements to his focus on creating good habits.

The author explains that one of the secrets to creating successful habits is to make them irresistible. He explained that as humans when we experience pleasure, or when you anticipate pleasure you receive a release of dopamine. One of the ways to experience pleasure with a habit is to intertwine the habit with something you love to do. For example; maybe enjoy watching “The Wheel of Fortune” or any tv show for that matter, and you need to get in shape. You could set your exercise bike in front of the television and make it a habit that you will only watch television if you are riding your bike. It’s a win, win situation.

If you have a bad habit, and want to try to break that habit, one of the things that you can do is make that habit difficult to do. So, lets say you have a habit of going to Kwik Trip every night for supper, and you want to start eating better. One of the things you could do is change your route. When you leave work, take a different route home that doesn’t go past Kwik Trip. Seems simple right? Think about how you can make a habit difficult to do. We all want the path of least resistance, so if you can make it difficult to do, you’ll have a better chance of breaking that habit.

If you’re looking to build a better habit system, this is the book for you. You’ll learn the fundamentals of how small habits when done consistently can make a big difference. On top of it you’ll learn what to do to make those habits easy to accomplish by putting them on a path to least resistance. You’ll learn what “the valley of disappointment” is, and how so many people get discouraged. The book gives you tips on what you can do to break a bad habit too. The final chapter discusses the Cardinal rule of Behavior Change. What is immediately rewarded is repeated. If you can reward yourself for your hard work, there’s a better chance you’ll keep doing it. An easy read, a 5 star review, this book is for people that want to learn how to make a big difference in their lives by simply executing tiny changes consistently. 

Steal Like An Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You about Being Creative | Austin Kleon | Book Review

“Don't just steal the style, steal the thinking behind the style. You don't want to look like your heroes, you want to see like your heroes.” 

- Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative 

Art is hard. Really, really hard. And what makes it worth while as a form of expression is, in fact, how hard it is. Austin Kleon, author of the new book Steal Like an Artist, understands this. In his book, Kleon talks about the pressures that creatives face day in and day out. He understands and preaches what every creative type dreads to hear when it comes to the question of “how does one make it in the art world?” You have to actually work. His actually-doing instead of talking-about-doing approach to working towards creative endeavors is a beacon of light to the color-by-numbers art guides that are out there. Don’t believe him? Just ask the legendary creatives he quotes throughout the book: Jay-Z, Jim Jarmusch, Brian Eno, Kurt Vonnegut, Steve Jobs, and Mark Twain. They all have their unique insights, but they all go back to one central theme: you gotta work hard.

The title stems from Kleon’s and his quoted resources’ belief that there is no such thing as being original and that originality probably hasn’t happened in centuries. What he does argue for, however, is a breath of fresh air. Be influenced by your heroes. Do what they do and slowly but surely you’ll do it with your own unique voice, just like your art heroes tried to become their art heroes. Steal Like an Artist is a quick read, chalk full of daily reminders that what you are doing is a long, hard journey, but that that’s what makes the journey worth taking and how you become yourself and your art becomes your own. It also allows you to be human in the modern age, telling you to take breaks, do nothing, and network online because we need our down time if we want our active time to be any good.

This book is great. It’s good for yourself if you just need a little boost of encouragement, and it’s a perfect gift for a friend or family member who is fighting the creative fight. It’s great to just read and pass along. Steal Like an Artist is not telling you to reinvent the wheel, but to keep building your wheel and one day it will look like something beautiful and new.