The Amazing Power of One

This is a guest post from AgentSully of Life Learning Today.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by all the goals you want to accomplish? Do you find it especially difficult starting out on a new goal? This is where the powerful “Rule of One” comes to the rescue.

Change is hard. Changing many things at once can be overwhelming. And that’s where most people fail. They become overwhelmed mentally before they even start. A year goes by and their goals remain nothing more than mental laundry continually spinning around in their mind.

The “Rule of One” makes change easier. The “Rule of One” states that you install one new goal at a time. Once that new goal is on auto pilot, only then do you start on your next goal.

How Does the “Rule of One” Work?
Let’s say you have a list of goal that looks like this:

Start Aerobic exercise program.
Start strength training program.
Cut out processed foods. Eat more vegetables and fruits.
Do 15 minutes stretching a day.
Increase my output of work by 50%, i.e. writing, sales calls, coding, designing, etc.
Join a hobby group.
Take an adult education class.
Spend more quality time with loved ones.
Write a book.

Rank your goals in order of importance. This may be hard, but just do your best and then don’t look back. Starting with your number one, identify the action steps you need to take over the next week to start on this goal. Then begin.

If strength training is your number one goal, your action steps might be:

Research an “at home” strength training course such as this one from RealAge. (you may need to register which is free)
Plan the days/time into your calendar that you will do this.
Make a simple success chart for your wall. Draw a simple star for each day you complete your goal. (who says charts are only for kids!)
Do it! Start those first steps and build every day.
Share your success with others.
Plan a reward for completion of 30 successful days.

Focus on that One Goal until it is automatic. This could be a couple days, a week or even a month. Don’t agonize over your goal list. Have peace of mind knowing that you will get to all of them!

Failproofing Your Progress
Estimate the time it will take for this new goal to become automatic, then schedule in a reminder at the end of that time period to start on your next goal. When you start the next goal, set the next reminder and so on. In fact, in each reminder remind yourself to schedule the next one!

Greater Success than 99% of the Population
Most people set their goals on New Year’s Day and quickly forget about them. By using this simple goal-hack you will systematically and successfully reach ALL your goals. Maybe it will take you 6 months or a whole year to be working on and achieving all your goals. But imagine how great you will feel when you look back and see what you have accomplished. How exciting is that?! Stick to it. Slow and steady wins the race! Take a peek at Leo’s “My Story” page where he outlines his amazing accomplishments achieved by using the powerful “Rule of One.”

Please share YOUR goals, The One goal you will start installing today, and bookmark this post (delicious link) so you can come back to update everyone on your progress!

AgentSully write about life improvement tips at Life Learning Today. If you liked this article, check out her site and consider subscribing to her feed.

The Amazing Power of One

This is a guest post from AgentSully of Life Learning Today.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by all the goals you want to accomplish? Do you find it especially difficult starting out on a new goal? This is where the powerful “Rule of One” comes to the rescue.

The “Rule of One” makes change easier. The “Rule of One” states that you install one new goal at a time. Once that new goal is on auto pilot, only then do you start on your next goal.

How Does the “Rule of One” Work?
Let’s say you have a list of goal that looks like this:

Start Aerobic exercise program.
Start strength training program.
Cut out processed foods. Eat more vegetables and fruits.
Do 15 minutes stretching a day.
Increase my output of work by 50%, i.e. writing, sales calls, coding, designing, etc.
Join a hobby group.
Take an adult education class.
Spend more quality time with loved ones.
Write a book.

If strength training is your number one goal, your action steps might be:

Research an “at home” strength training course such as this one from RealAge. (you may need to register which is free)
Plan the days/time into your calendar that you will do this.
Make a simple success chart for your wall. Draw a simple star for each day you complete your goal. (who says charts are only for kids!)
Do it! Start those first steps and build every day.
Share your success with others.
Plan a reward for completion of 30 successful days.

Please share YOUR goals, The One goal you will start installing today, and bookmark this post (delicious link) so you can come back to update everyone on your progress!

AgentSully write about life improvement tips at Life Learning Today. If you liked this article, check out her site and consider subscribing to her feed.

Posted on 24 May 2007 in Habits |
Digg |
Del.icio.us |
Stumble |
Print

Comments (14)

rohit Says:

May 24th, 2007, 9:02 am

Great article, i have bookmarked it. Yes doing one thing at a time is important. A lot of people confuse multitasking with multiple jobs at the same time but it is more about focussing on one thing at one time. The idea of “auto pilot” is new to me but very well said, thanks leo for sharing such a lovely guest article, thanks agentsully

Henrique Says:

May 24th, 2007, 9:24 am

Hi,

The “Rule of One” has an important flaw, because it doesn’t deal with failures.

Suppose that your most important task is waking up early, and you know that you’ll need at least three weeks to get used to waking up at, say, 6h. If you always lose control of the time you wake by week one or two and start over, you’ll get stuck with your most important task. It’s possible that you won’t realize that you should stop trying to wake up early, else you’ll never accomplish less important stuff.
In “Rule of One”, there’s an artificial dependency of actions that may deadlock you: “oh, I won’t do anything because I can’t do the first thing”.

Lodewijkvdb Says:

May 24th, 2007, 9:59 am

I like the article. I have adopted this myself in a slightly modified way. When changing or adopting habits, I do it one habit at a time, or one skill at a time. I get all worked up to do lots of stuff and have to refrain from starting to much at the same time. One habit a month still is a staggering 12 habits a year, which is more than the average number of items on my (former) new years resolutions lists.

I don’t think it needs to be your most important goal to start with. It can also be very powerful to start with something fairly easy for the first two or three goals. This will get you in a habit of changing habits (kinda like a meta-habit) and will build confidence that you can change your habits or achieve your goals.

@Henrique
There is no failure, only feedback. If you can’t seem to achieve your goal, what feedback is that giving you? Do you really want to achieve it? The rule is not going to achieve something anyway, it’s all up to you.

AgentSully Says:

May 24th, 2007, 16:43 pm

Rohit - thank you for your encouraging comments.

Henrique - good point that we need to watch closely if something is working. If it’s not, we need to adapt how we are approaching it or perhaps modify the goal, go more slowly, get some outside guidance.

Lodewijkvdb - you stated just what I was after with the 12 months comment you made. Imagine how far ahead of your own personal best you will be after one year! That will feel good. Of course it is important to stop every once in a while to recognize and celebrate our successes or else we’ll just feel like we’re on a treadmill. :-)

Dee Says:

May 24th, 2007, 16:54 pm

Excellent post as always Sully :)
I could really use that kind of plan.. since I’m a very messy girl and I can’t seem to be able to adapt new good habits.

AgentSully Says:

May 24th, 2007, 17:12 pm

I suppose I ought to put my my money where my mouth is. My first goal to tackle will be to do areobic exercise 5-6/week, strength/abs/yoga 3x/week and 10 min stretch per day. Gonna use Joesgoals.com to track my progress. I’ll report back in a month.

Anyone else want to join me as a goal buddy? thx Sully

Leo Says:

May 24th, 2007, 18:09 pm

Hi Sully … first of all, thank you for your post. I love it, and it fits exactly my philosophy here at Zen Habits. I’ve written before about taking one goal at a time in a few posts, but never with this kind of depth.

Anyway, I’ll be your goal buddy! Actually, I have a Zen Habits May Challenge going on right now, where about 100 people signed up for a daily email to accomplish one goal in May. My goal (and a lot of others in the group) is to do exercise daily, and so far I’ve been pretty successful (I missed 2 days), and so have a lot of others. So I can testify that focusing on one goal really works. It’s hard, because we all want to do more, but to make a habit change work, you need to give it all of your focus.

But we’re going to have a June challenge, starting next week, so I suggest everyone sign up for that (starting May 31). Pick one goal, and stick with it for a month! The power of the group email really works too — ask anyone on the list.

hak Says:

May 24th, 2007, 19:24 pm

Competing in endurance sports over the past year has really taught me that lesson. Just take it one event at a time.

If that becomes too overwhelming, take it from one landmark to another.

And if that becomes too overwhelming, focus on putting one foot in front of the other.

And if THAT becomes too much, then turn completely inward and focus on one breath at a time.

If we spread our attention out to every possible opportunity or challenge in life, we will fry our circuits. At least I would!

hak

LA Says:

May 25th, 2007, 8:38 am

Good Morning Leo,

I’ve been following your blog for a couple of months and reading your post has become an early morning habit. Thanks for sharing your insights. This post is timely as I am about to make a significant change from partnered to single status, which involves changing my residence and a number of habits. I’ll be able to walk to work which I am really looking forward to.

I am using this life shift as incentive to implement many goals but I’ve begun to feel overwhelmed with how to start them all. It’s a relief to know I can begin with one or two changes when I move and go from there. THERE’S NO RUSH. It seems so simple, but sometimes you just need to hear it. Believe me I’ll be looking for inspiration here at ZH on a frequent basis.

Have a fantastic day.

AgentSully Says:

May 25th, 2007, 9:41 am

Thank you Leo! I’ll be joining the June challenge for sure!

Ken Says:

May 27th, 2007, 10:09 am

Awesome, I liked it a lot and I shared this page with my mom. I’m trying to eat less fat, and more healthy foods AKA fruits and vegetables, while mom is competing with her self to finish a politic book which is quite big. I”ll come back as soon as I -or mom- accomplish anything :D
Thanks, both of you!

Advanced Uninstaller Says:

June 1st, 2007, 12:56 pm

This approach is very interesting. Trying to accomplish one goal at a time ensures that you allocate enough energy to a goal.

This way you are never overwhelmed by the amount of energy that is required in order to accomplish a goal.

Chris Says:

March 21st, 2008, 23:11 pm

The Power Of One is a great habit to learn. On Henrique’s comment, taking things one step at a time is the key. Don’t rush it because it will never pull you through instead it will pull you back. Agreed we will tend to miss out a few times but that doesn’t mean we have to fret and hit our head about it.

I understand Henrique’s concerned in accomplishing the first task before going on to the next. But try to look at it at a positive way, I find that if the number of times you miss out is at least 5 times in a month, it’s still ok to move on to the next simpler one. At the same time, fine tuning the first one can still be done while doing the second.

Assuming the second task completes fast, you will not feel a heavy burden of doing 2 difficult tasks. If for any reason, the second task is also difficult, for me, I would stop at 2 tasks. No point carrying on to the third one and start suffocating oneself in a rush to finish everything.

The important thing is: Start to begin not begin to start

Sivaprakash Ragavan Says:

August 20th, 2008, 0:31 am

Good Method.

What do you think about the below method :

Link all your goals to one purpose and again the “Power of one” works fine. Literally link all your goals to one goal. It may not be that simple. But still, If you have done that, you never need any schedulers.

This may not suit every one.

I follow this.

Shiva.