The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

The Focusing Question is a central concept of Keller’s book because it is the basic means by which a person can prioritize effectively to achieve their goals. Keller formulates the question as, “What’s the One Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?” (106). Asking this question consistently and frequently will help you to put the most important tasks first and eliminate unimportant concerns, ultimately facilitating success. 

Keller notes that it is easy to get lost in the sea of tasks that may face you, and that it is natural to want to start tackling those tasks by asking yourself what you must do right now to work up to a long-term goal. However, to ensure that you keep on track toward achieving your goals, you must instead work backwards, starting from “a future goal and then methodically drilling down to what you should be doing right now” (149). Keller recommends first thinking about goals you plan to achieve someday and then proceeding to goals at five-year, one-year, monthly, and weekly levels. Finally, you can ask yourself what must be done at a daily level and then at the present moment. By asking the Focusing Question at each of these levels, you can prioritize in a way that makes achieving your goals more likely. 

By using the Focusing Question, you can arrive at what Keller calls a Great Question. Such questions, “like great goals, are big and specific” (120). That is, they are both aligned with long-term goals related to your purpose and particular enough to point toward achievable solutions. These solutions in turn typify what Keller calls Great Answers. A Great Answer is something new that requires you to get out of your comfort zone. Such an answer is possible but making it a reality requires pushing yourself—living “at the outer limits of achievement” (124).

Throughout The ONE Thing, Keller sets very high standards for achievement, believing that you must push yourself to be successful. He describes the concept of moving from “E” to “P” (meaning from entrepreneurial to purposeful) as a heuristic for assisting with goal setting. Rather than looking to do the best you can do (what Keller describes as the entrepreneurial mindset), you should aim to do the best that can be done (the purposeful mindset). By doing so, you can break through the “ceiling of achievement” and reach success (179). 

The ONE Thing is the leading concept of Keller’s book, defined throughout the text. The most succinct definition is the one the Focusing Question implies: the ONE Thing is that which, if you do it, makes “everything else […] easier or unnecessary?” (106). Keller stylizes the term by putting the word “one” in all caps to emphasize that you must focus to find not just something that is important, but something that is the highest priority. Thus, the ONE Thing unites Keller’s key ideas, including prioritizing, purpose, and pushing oneself.