Jay Papasan Recap: The One Thing
10 May 2022 · 7 min
Jay Papasan, co-author of The One Thing, explains how to find your most impactful priority so other tasks become easier or unnecessary. He argues against the hustle economy, distinguishing real productivity from just staying busy, and treats life as a marathon rather than constant sprinting.
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It's recap time, folks. Each week I bring in an incredible guest in who's a game changer in the field. And then I take the time to re listen to that episode myself and share with you some of the key highlights. Now we were really fortunate to have Jay Papan on the last episode. Jay is incredibly well known as being the co author of the One Thing It's a Book I urge you to please buy. It's a game changing book. Over 2 million copies sold worldwide. I believe he's co authored several books and combined they've sold over three and a half million copies. He's a New York Times best selling author and also he's the Vice president of Keller Williams, the world's largest real estate company. So as you can imagine, there were some incredible takeaways. So my goal today is to share some of that gold in a few minutes with you so that you can apply that to your life. Now, before we get started, two things. One, please forgive me for sounding a little congested. I'm on the other side of COVID and getting over it, so it may be a little bit congested. Apologies. Secondly, I, as always, if you haven't done so, please can I ask you to leave me a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts? Or if you listen on Spotify, hit subscribe to the podcast. It makes a world of difference to the impact that I can make and I want to thank you guys. I'm sitting in the top 10 of Apple podcast charts consistently each week. In fact, this past week we just reached fifth. It's an all time high for us. A personal best here at the show. So I want to thank you for listening. That helps me help more people. So thank you very much. Okay, first big takeaway from Jay Papasan. Do life the Marathon way. I'll say it again, super simple. Do life the marathon way. So many of us are in sprint mode. Okay, how can I make 200,000 this year plus start a side hustle plus start a family. Plus get super fit. Oh, yeah. And start working towards that holiday home that we want to buy. Wow, that sounds stressful. That sounds really unachievable. But hustle is kind of applauded these days. We've got to stop applauding hustle. Working hard is great. Having a mission that you're obsessed with is great, but at what cost? That's a question I'm going to get you to ask yourself. I'm willing to go all in on this thing, but at what cost? You've got to ask yourself what you're willing to sacrifice. Are you willing to sacrifice your health, your relationships, your mindset? What are you willing to sacrifice and what are you not willing to sacrifice? So do life the marathon way. Next big takeaway is this. Don't mistake activity for productivity. Here's what Jay said. I look at really busy people with a certain amount of suspicion. So if that's you, if you're that really, really busy person, Jay would look at you with a certain amount of suspicion. And he said, you know, busy can sometimes be a place to hide. To hide from challenges, to hide from stressors, to hide from trauma. Busy's great at hiding all of that. And his advice was, you know, don't hide in a bunch of tasks. Say that you're all all in on a project. Don't juggle 50 balls in the air that are all meaningless. So when you drop two, you're like, no big deal. Juggle one ball and the chances of dropping it are slim because you're monomaniacally focused on that ball. So don't be busy being busy, and don't mistake activity for productivity. You know, he talked about the hustle economy. And you know, the hustle economy leads to a lot of regrets. Missed time in relationships, missed time and personal development. Missed time on intimacy, missed time on your health. You know, the hustle economy is something that we should not be feeding. Working hard, great. But playing hard is equally as important. Now, the whole concept of the one thing. This is the last big takeaway I want to share with you. The whole takeaway is to get focused on your priorities. So many of us dilute our priorities by committing to so many things. We say yes to so many things. But when you know what you're all in on and you say yes to that, it's so much easier to say no to all the other noise. Right? So there's one question, this question. I want you to write this down. This is the whole overarching theme of the book. The one thing, and it's right in the middle of the book. But as Jay actually said when we chatted, it should have been the very thing that started the book. But people like to be warmed up and intrigued. So it's in the middle of the book, but it's the whole essence of the book. Here, here is, it's called, it's called the focusing question. So what's the one thing I can do such that by doing it, everything else will be either easier or unnecessary? Think about that for a second. When you're trying to get focused on your priority and you ask that question, that's going to make a world of difference in the action that you then take. Let me say that to you again and please write it down. What's the one thing I can do such that by doing it, everything else will be either easier or unnecessary? Right there you create clarity on what your next step is going to be. You also are focused on impact. You're not going to just do something on your to do list because it needs to be done. You're going to look at what's the most impactful thing I can do that can help me get towards my end game. That is not just noise, it's not just a shiny object. This is a powerful step with clarity in the right direction, you know. So create time to get clear on your priorities so that it's easier to say no to other things. What are your priorities today? What are your priorities this week? What can you say no to? I'm challenging you right now. What can you say no to? So, folks, that's the wrap up from the J. Papazen interview. The one thing, if you haven't had a chance to listen to it, I know you'll love it, go back and check it out. For those of you in New Zealand, don't forget June 10th, I'll be having my High Performance Leadership Day in Christchurch. So if you're keen to come along, go check it out@jjlochlund.com. look forward to seeing lots of you there and between. Now, when I connect with you next, get out there and live your life on purpose.
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