When I was 20, I wish had someone told me “NOT” to chase everything I deem important at once. I was trying to be a top student, build a great career, find a suitable partner, improve my poetry and guitar skills. I was so inefficient that I struggled at everything in the beginning. Only when I started to prioritize, I became more efficient.
I have noticed this to be a common theme with most of the people I know. We all chase multiple victories and fight numerous battles. But the truth is, you only need to win once and do one thing properly, and everything will snowball in your favor.
You only need one successful business idea and you are financially set. Win heart of the right person once, and you will be loved forever. One hit song will lead to 100s of gigs.
If you are wondering why being successful once is such a big deal ? what about other goals ? Then answer is simple. Getting One Big Win, sets up a Domino effect in your favour, leading to further consecutive wins.
The Domino Effect
There are both practical and psychological effects forces behind the science of Domino Effect. Your first major success provides mental peace, confidence, skill, connections and credibility. This makes your subsequent goals easier to reach.
“Fortune Favours the Brave” - Your first big success, creates momentum and act as catalyst for your future goals. You now have tasted success, you feel more confident and you are hungry for more. This is crucial as this shifts your mindset from self doubt to determination. You are full of energy and is not afraid to face the next challenge.
“Success breeds Success” - It’s easier to trust someone who has already proven their skills before. Success validates your skills and abilities. Which further leads to credibility, and credibility open doors to new possibilities. For an entrepreneur, a successful venture will lead to further partnerships, investments, customers, etc.
“Success is a journey, not a destination” - You do not get your first win overnight. Atleast I didn’t get it. This means while you are working towards your goals, you will learn new things. You will work with various people and slowly grow your network. You now have built a solid foundation for your next goal.
Of course, the first domino alone is never enough to guarantee continous success. You need to be resilient, focused and adapt to grow further. But once you get that initial breakthrough, you can capitalize on it to go further.
The One Thing
So how can you effectively topple that first domino ? what is the mechanism to set yourself for success ? By identifying and relentlessly chasing after "The One Thing" at a time.
"The One Thing" is the title of a book written by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. It's a great read and helped me understand how to achieve success faster
I always thought I was great at multitasking, but in reality, i wasn’t. I was just copying what others were doing. At one point I didn’t even know what I need to focus on. With time I learned to cut all the noise and identified “The One Thing” I truly needed. My first goal was to land a job as an Tech Consultant. I chose this goal because I enjoyed connecting with people, technology and solving problems. Being a consultant was one of the ways I knew to solve various problems while working with different personalities.
Live life at your own pace and remember, life is not a race. You will get multiple opportunities to achieve your goal. Put all your resources towards your goal and prioritize it over everything else.
While working towards my goals, I realized the importance of being strategic about it. Once you are working on your goal, you should eliminate everything else which can distract or slow you down. I never got success at first try and most probably you won't either. Hence, you need to ruthlessly chase your goal. Retrospect what went wrong after each failure and learn from your mistakes. Improvise, evolve and try again.
Even the things like where you live, who are your friends, what kind of person is your partner will play a role in your life's journey. I moved to the biggest tech hub of India - Bangalore, found great mentors, and made like minded friends. Having such an enviornment helped me to stay true to my goal.
Conclusion:
Life is less complicated than what we make of it. Aim for that “Big Win” and stay disciplined. The Domino effect will take care of the rest.
Appendix:
If you don’t want to read the 140 pages of the book “The One thing”, then below are the key learnings:
(1) If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either
(2) Go narrow and deep. Ignore all the things that you could do, and do only the things that you should do
(3) Not all things matter equally. Find those that matter the most.
(4) You only have so much time and energy. When you spread yourself out, you end up being thin.
(5) No one is self made. No one succeeds alone. No one. There are many people, wishes and hundreds of situations that must fall in place for you to succeed.
(6) The line between passion and skill is often blurred. Passion leads to disproprotionate practise leding to higher skills leading to better results, which feeds passion further. This chain reaction spirals to extraordinary results.
(7) Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that dont. verything does not matter equally. Prioritise.
(8) Things that are most important do not often scream the loudest.
(9) Being busy is not enough. So are the ants.
(10) Multitasking is a myth. A human mind can focus on one task a time. Only involuntary tasks or automated tasks can happen in parallel.
(11) Task switching costs us valuable time to reach the same productivity level as we were, before we left the task.
(12) Select the right task, wotk consistently on it, make it a habit, and then you are liberated from having to monitor it ever. It is automated in your brain.
(13) Will power is not available on will. It keeps getting diminished through the day as you use it.
(14) Do your toughest task in the morning when your will power is at its peak.
(15) A Balanced life is a myth. The reason why we should not pursue balance is that magic happens, not in the middle, but in the extremes.
(16) To achieve extraordinary results, you must chose what matters mostand give it all the time it demands. This requires getting extremely out of balance in relation to other work issues. You may infrequently counterbalance to address them.
(17) No one knows their ultimate ceiling for achievemnt. Giving it a shot is the only way to get an idea.
(18) On the journey to achieving big, you get bigger. Achieving big requires growth, and by the time you arrive, you are big too !
(19) People who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the only ones who do.
(20) think big, Aim high, Act bold
(21) Keep your most important appointment with your No. 1 priority..everyday without fail
(22) Until your most important thing of the day is done, everything else is a distraction
(23) Turn off your phone, shutdown your email, close your beowser. Your most important work deserves 100% of your attention
(24) Focus is about deciding what things you are not going to do.
(25) When you strive for greatness, clutter is bound to show up because of your extremen focus on one thing. If a cluttered desk is an indicator of a cluttered mind, what, then represents an empty desk?
(26) It is only when you can visualise a bigger life, can you hope of living one.
(27) Whenever you look back at your life, the things that might cause you the biggest regrets are the things that you did not do. Your actions may be stupid, but it is your inaction that will cause you the regret.
(28) When you dont know what matters most, anything makes sense. The best lives aren't lead this way.