MM#457--What's your One Thing?

Your reading list shouldn’t be a source of guilt. It should be a lever for real change. We explore how to stop juggling half‑finished titles and start using one book to solve concrete problems in your work and life. Guided by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan’s focusing question—What’s the one thing I can do such that by doing it everything else becomes easier or unnecessary?—we trade information overload for practical clarity.

We break down a simple, repeatable habit that turns pages into progress: pick one priority area for the month, choose one book that directly speaks to it, block twenty to thirty minutes a day, and capture three essentials—one key idea, one example or story, and one small action you’ll take within twenty‑four hours. This approach sharpens focus, reduces context switching, and transforms your reading from passive consumption into an active strategy for better decisions. Whether you’re aiming at leadership, productivity, health, finances, or relationships, narrowing your attention unlocks outsized results.

You’ll hear how to set a weekly intention for your book, craft a daily plan you can actually keep, and use each chapter to influence a real decision you’re facing right now. We share practical prompts, like shifting from “How can I read more?” to “What’s the one thing I can do this week with this book to move forward?” The result is less noise, more clarity, and a reading life that compounds into measurable wins. If your nightstand and Kindle are overflowing, this is your invitation to commit, focus, and finish.

If this helped you rethink your reading, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s drowning in their TBR, and leave a quick review so more listeners can find us. Then choose your one book and tell us what you’ll tackle this week.

Key Points from the Episode:

• go small to get extraordinary results
• why most reading feels busy but changes little
• the focusing question as a daily filter
• choosing one book that fits your current season
• a 20–30 minute reading block with intent
• capture one idea, one example, one action
• apply lessons to real decisions within a day
• repeat one focus area, one book, one weekly intention

Be sure to check out our show page at teammojoacademy.com, where we have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great resources

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Opening Quote
• 0:40 Go Small And Find One Thing
• 2:09 The Reading Problem We All Face
• 3:08 The Focusing Question Explained
• 5:07 Applying One Thing To Reading
• 7:11 Build A Simple Reading Habit
• 10:20 Choose One Book And Commit
• 11:38 Closing Invitation And Resources

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:07

Welcome to the Theory to Action Podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now, here's your host, David Kaiser.

SPEAKER_01: 0:25

Hello, I am David, and welcome back to another Mojo Minute. This will be an audio podcast, and as always, and as is our custom, let's begin with the opening quote. When you want the absolute best chance to succeed at anything you want, your approach should always be the same. Go small. Going small is ignoring all the things you could do in doing what you should do. It's recognizing that not all things matter equally and finding the things that matter most. It's a tighter way to connect with what you do with what you want. It's realizing that extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus. The way to get the most out of your work and your life is to go as small as possible. And when you go as small as possible, you'll be staring at one thing. And that's the point. And that is indeed the point. And that was a quote from Gary Keller in The One Thing. Gary Keller, along with Jay Papasson, wrote a book in 2012, The One Thing, The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results. Now you're probably buying books faster than you're finishing them. It's a common trait among most people. They stack up on your nightstand, in your Kindle library, in your Audible queue, if you're like me. Every time you see them, you feel that little sting. I should have be I should be reading more. So in today's audio podcast, the goal is simple to help you read a fewer books, but more deeply, and actually turn that reading into real change in your life and in your work. You see, I read 34 books last year. Pat on the back to me. But can I remember everything I read? No. So for you and for me to get there, we're going to have to lean on this big idea from the one thing by Gary Keller and Jay Popassan. Yes, I will say his name probably three more times because I like saying it, Jay Popassan, because they both want us to focus on the one thing. The central claim in the one thing is straightforward. Success doesn't come from doing more, it comes from doing more of what actually matters most. In just about every area of life, we find business, health, relationships. A small number of actions produce the majority of the results. But most of us, including you and me, live the opposite way, don't we? We spread our time and energy across dozens of low impact tasks. We feel productive because we're always busy. But the most important things in our lives barely move. When it comes to reading, as an example, the pattern's the same. We dabble in a lot of books. We start more than we finish. We rarely slow down long enough to apply what we've read. We don't put theory into action, do we? As the namesake of this podcast is. So the shift for this episode is simple. Instead of trying to read more, we're going to focus on the one high impact book at a time. And we're going to build a habit all around that one thing. Because at the heart of the one thing is the single sentence called the focusing question. Think of the question as your filter you can run through in reading life through that lens. Here it is. What's the one thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary? Or I would even add on to their definition, what would really put everything in focus? By doing one thing, and such by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary, or perhaps you'll gain a lot of clarity. Everything will become in focus. So let's break that down for reading only. One thing means you choose one concrete action. You don't read more, but you finish this chapter. You take one note that you can use later, perhaps in the margin. I can do means it has to be realistic. Something you can literally do today, not just a nice idea for someday. Such that everything else will become easier or unnecessary or more clear means you're looking for the kind of reading to move that that gives you clarity, that makes your future choices much, much easier. And it also makes other should read content less important. You know exactly what you have to do. So instead of asking how can I read more this year, which some friends have asked, we should ask, what's the one thing I can do this week with my reading that would make the biggest difference in my life and work? And that's the role today. Is to keep bringing you back to that question. So let's walk through like we're working out side by side. Imagine you have big goals that sound something like this. I want to be the kind of person who actually finishes important books and uses them to think better, work better, and live better. But here's how it usually goes. You pick up multiple books at once. Probably all good books. You read a few pages here, a chapter there, you highlight some, maybe save some quotes. Then when you look at your life a month later, not much has changed. Those books are still there, they still haven't been read. But let's twist this based on our application of today's episode. Let's apply the focus in question. You're gonna choose one book that truly matters for the season you're in right now. Maybe that's a book on leadership, extreme ownership, dichotomy of leadership, two great leadership books. Or perhaps one on focus or health or money or spiritual growth. The key is the one book should actually speak to your real and current needs. Then you gotta ask, what's the one thing I can do this week with this book, such that by doing it, everything else will be easier, unnecessary, or will give me clearer focus, clarity. For this week, your answer might be commit to this book only. Gotta be disciplined, can't be all over the place, gotta be focused, read this book. Read it perhaps twenty to thirty minutes, each and every day. Set aside time, put it in your calendar. Then capture three things each day. One key idea, one example, or one story that made it stick. One small action you could take that you gained from that reading. Then your daily question becomes what's the one thing I can do today to move this book that I'm reading to I'm using it? Let's put theory into action. Maybe today that answer is this. Read one chapter, write down one way it applies to read to my decision that I need to make on a project that I'm working on or a relationship I care about. So as your guide, I'm gonna keep you anchored on that one book, one chapter, one clear takeaway that actually touches your real life. We're gonna move step by step with one action. Start to sense a theme here, one thing. We're gonna keep doing one thing. Now let's build this into a mini habit. Here's a simple framework. Choose one priority area of your life right now. Maybe it's your career, your focus, your productivity, your health, your finances, your relationship. Pick just one. Just one, not five. Maybe all five need work. We're picking one. Let's pick one for this month. One month, one area of your life. Pick one book that directly speaks to that area. Not ten books, not ten books we're going to read someday. One book that clearly aligns with the change you want to make most. Then the focusing question: what's the one thing I can do this week with this book to move that area forward? Your answer might sound something like, well, finish the first three chapters and create a simple one page summary of what they mean for my life. Let's boil it down even more. Let's get one chapter. If one chapter is too hard, let's do one page. You can read one page. I have confidence in you. And then the daily focusing question. What's the one thing I can do today with this book? That might be read 20, 25 minutes after dinner. Then write down one sentence about how I'll use what I learned in this reading tomorrow. And then we're going to repeat that pattern. One focus area, one book, one weekly intention, one daily action. You'll slowly become the kind of person who doesn't just collect books, but actually integrates them into your life. If everything is a priority, nothing is. The same is true with books. If you try to read everything, you'll deeply absorb almost nothing. So in today's Mojo Minute, my invitation is this I am doing this. I am reading just one book until I finish that book. I am taking just one note per book. One nugget of wisdom. Asking the focusing question. So I'm eating the dog food too. So as we wrap up here on this episode, here's my invitation to you. Before you buy another book or start another one, pause and ask yourself what's the one thing I can do with one book that will make the biggest difference right now. Then choose that book. Set a small, specific reading plan for this week. And then what you'll find is that to build a flourishing life, like I have over the last three weeks, that that reading life that's focused and deep is genuinely transformative. It's genuinely transformative because it's one page, one idea, and one thing at a time. As always, keep fighting the good fight.

SPEAKER_00: 11:33

Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this theory to action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at teammojoacademy.com, where we have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo.