The One Thing

To ignite your life you must focus on ONE Thing long enough for it to catch fire. -Gary Keller

This post is based upon the premise of Gary Keller’s best-selling book “The One Thing”.

The assumption of this book states that; when you focus on the one thing that will give you the most results, you will find success.

I’ve contemplated this concept for the past two years. Thinking on and off what exactly I want to be doing and what I want the most results with.

I think with most people this day in age, we tend to have many things happening in our lives simultaneously and want to get them all done at a level we feel most proud of. However, juggling multiple jobs, family, friends, and going after your dream isn’t just ONE thing we want to do. I want to excel in ALL of these aspects. In the end, I have realized that I have under-excelled at every single one.

Amongst the items that the average joe takes on in their life, I decided to start multiple businesses. I did this for a multitude of reasons. I am a multi-million dollar producing real estate agent, a profit producing creator of my own pet sitting business, a landlord in the hopes to gradually build my real estate empire, and lastly my ambition to create this blog in hopes to aspire other like-minded individuals like myself.

Ugh. Yes, I am taking on A LOT. In the aspiration to succeed at all of the above, I can say that my social, family and dating life has taken a back burner. Each business is absolutely not getting the full reverie of discipline and work ethic it truly deserves. Nor is it seeing the results that I feel I am ultimately capable of achieving.

I have watched another realtor in my office, whom started around 6 months after I did, for the past few years. She has committed herself day-in and day-out ONLY to her real estate career and sky-rocketing her volume and income to levels I can only dream of at this day and time. Sure she may be tired each night, but she is CRUSHING her business and showing other agents who have been in the business for decades what someone can ultimately do when they set their mind to it.

How do I scale down or eliminate my other jobs that I have taken on, in order to excel at just ONE of these to that extreme? I started real estate, because I genuinely love helping others. The plus is that I can see so many amazing houses and help families buy what will be their largest investment. It’s a wonderful feeling. The commission checks are great, but you don’t get paid until a house closes and that could take months! So, I started up my pet sitting business to pay for my monthly bills while I am waiting on a check. And of course, I don’t want to constantly be running after the next sale my whole life, so I started investing for my end-game of passive income as a property owner and renting out my properties.

I feel as though I am in a Catch-22.   On one hand, I would like to deep-dive my real estate career and put everything else on hold. On the other, I’m broke! I do not yet have a savings to pay my bills each month if I do not have a closing. How could I possibly give up my second career that gets me by when I need it most? I know that I can’t be the only one in this position. This leads me to my on-going dilemma of The One Thing. It drives me bonkers to be quite frank. How long have I been in this position you ask, this is now my 5th year in the business as of this writing since I have left the corporate world.

SOMETHING MUST CHANGE!

Here I am squelched in anxiety over this dilemma. Meanwhile, getting nowhere and spinning in circles for the past 5 years.

Well, guys and gals, I have decided to currently put my passive-income strategy on hold until I have saved enough money for a nest egg and then some. I have also decided to currently eliminate any new business for pet sitting. I am going to focus on my ONE thing that will make everything I do in my life easier or unnecessary.

Maybe I will be posting infrequently, maybe I will still be watching a dog or cat from time to time, but my primary focus will be to ultimately expand my real estate career to a minimum of 5x the levels that I am currently achieving. I believe to the fullest that this can be achieved, as long as I endure and put the time in. I will update you as I go, with my results.

Let me know what you think or have done for yourself!

In case you’re interested in reading the book- here it is-