The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results (Abstract of the book)

Never compromise your personal life for your professional goals – instead, prioritize your work time ruthlessly.

We all strive to achieve a “balanced life” – to divide our time equally between all of the things that matter to us – but we do this without stopping to ask why, and what it is that we are actually trying to achieve.

It’s understandable that we strive for balance because all of the demands in our work life and personal life seem so important, but in fact this vision of a balanced life is unobtainable and undesirable. If you try to do everything, you will end up short-changing everything you do, in both your personal and your professional life.

Author James Patterson encapsulated this dilemma when he said: “Imagine life is a game in which you are juggling five balls. They are called work, family, health, friends and integrity. And you’re keeping them all in the air. But one day you finally come to understand that the work ball is made of rubber – if you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls are made of glass.”

As the quote illustrates, we should never sacrifice priorities in our personal life when the pressure is on at work. The damage done may be irreparable. But if our personal life always takes precedence, how can we succeed professionally?

The trick is to prioritize your work time ruthlessly to focus on professional goals. In your personal life, neglecting any area can be perilous; but in your work-life, you have your top priority and everything else is negotiable. From time to time, lesser priorities will have to be minimized, be made to wait, or be managed by someone else until what really matters is done. This approach will allow you to focus on your most important work, giving it the concentration that is required to achieve great results.

Never compromise your personal life for your professional goals – instead, prioritize your work time ruthlessly.