How to Achieve Extraordinary Results with The One Thing, Featuring Geoff Woods. | Yuli Azarch


Yuli Azarch Yuli Azarch | March 15, 2019 | No Comments on How to Achieve Extraordinary Results with The One Thing, Featuring Geoff Woods.

Geoff is the vice president of One Thing, a brand from a book with the same name. It helps transform results in life to many people, from entrepreneurs to business owners and employees. It also helps to increase productivity and focus.

The One Thing is the truth behind the achievement of extraordinary results.

What we discussed with Geoff Woods?

  1. Who is Geoff Woods?
  2. His background
  3. The truth behind extraordinary results
  4. The first lie of productivity
  5. Train and Restore your mindset to get refocused
  6. Truly life changing power habits
  7. Success is sequential, not simultaneous.
  8. How to stay focus
  9. Goal Setting like billionaires
  10. Goal Setting in practice
  11. Know your priorities
  12. Think bigger

Geoff Woods Background.

Before turning the book into a company he was working as a salesman in the health industry. Although things were going well, he felt something was missing. He wanted to wake up owning a massive business that delivered impact in the world and financial security for his family.

But the challenge was that he had golden handcuffs.

He had a good income and a great work-life balance. Nonetheless, two things happened over a week time: a colleague had a stroke and his company went through an organizational change, making him lose 40% of his income.

At that moment, there was enough pain that forced him to take action. Following  Jim Rhom’s quote “You are the average of the 5 people you spend more time with”, he looked around at his closest five people to realize that none of them had a massive business, delivered massive impact, or had financial security for their family.

Then, he started a journey to surrounding himself with people who he wanted to be.

He started his first podcast called “The Mentee” to document the transformational process. Ten months after, he quit his medical sales job and move to Austin Texas to partner up with Gary Keller and Jay Papasan, the co-author of the One Thing.

Then they turn the book into a training and coaching company.


The Truth Behind Extraordinary Results.

The surprisingly simple truth behind extraordinary results is that they do not come from doing more. They come from doing more of what matters the most. The challenge we usually have is that we all have too many things that feel we have to do, but there is not enough time in the day.

The secret lies on turning that on its head and focusing on doing the 20% of the activities that will produce 80% of your results. That is our foundational law. And then, we take it further into the next level and continue asking ourselves: what is 20% of the 20% that will result in 80%?

We question until we identify the last activity that acts as the lead domino piece of the system. So, when you touch that last piece the whole domino the whole set falls by itself.


The Number One Lie of Productivity.

The first lie of productivity is that everything matters equally.

People tend to go through their day reacting to everything that comes from outside saying yes and finish saying no to themselves. But the very simple truth is that until your priority number one is done, everything else is a distraction.

Research shows that people who create a time block for their “one thing” are three times more likely to get it done. But usually, people do not block their time for the things that matter the most.

In order to focus you just have to ask yourself, if doing the most important thing is the most important thing, why do anything else?

His personal experience tells that anyone needs on average around 66 days to get the habit running. But people tend not to decide their futures,” they decide their habits and their habits decide their future” quote from Alexander.

“If you want to be the type of person that gets extraordinary results, you need to become the type of person that thinks in order of priority.”

For that, the One Thing Company has created different powerful tools, like the 66-day challenge. This encourages people to focus on one thing for 66 days in order to adopt it as a habit. Habit could be as simple as checking your priorities every morning before checking your emails or asking yourself what your priorities are.

Geoff also introduced us to different powerful tools for getting clarity on your priorities.


Truly Life Changing Power Habits.

There are seven areas of our life that are constantly demanding our time. In order to live a fulfilling life, we have to learn to counterbalance our time between each one:

  1. Spiritual life.
  2. Physical health.
  3. Personal.
  4. Key relationships.
  5. The people around you.
  6. The job.
  7. Business and finances.

The idea is that you start with only one area of the seven circles and ask yourself: “what is the one thing I can do, such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary”. After finding an answer, you question it again and again until your answer is so little and simple.

One common mistake is to try to focus on adopting many different habits at the same time. That makes you set the bar too high. So, when you do not achieve your goals, you feel like a failure and you quit. The average of true life-changing power habits a person can adopt in a year is from zero to two.

“Start choosing one area and work on it in adopting a habit throughout 66 days, one thing at a time and make that the measure of success.”


Success is Sequential, Not Simultaneous.

“Doing one thing at a time, over time, leads to extraordinary results”.

Geoff recommends preparing longer time blocks better. Specifically, he would recommend blocking 4 hours of your day, or the majority of the time of your day, to the one thing that is going to produce the majority of the results.

It is important to think big and go small.

Get your thing done before anything else in the day for 66 days until it becomes a habit. The biggest mistake is that people think big in terms of their vision and their goals but then, they also try to act big by doing it all at the same time. Then, they feel like a failure and end up quitting.

There is no need to do many big things at once, but only that important one thing that will make a true impact on your life.

You can try to adopt small habits like asking yourself what is my one thing daily before starting checking your email? Just invest your time more in the things that produce the biggest results and do one thing at a time to achieve success.

How to Stay Focused?

The best way to stay focused, when we have all the social media tools, emails, and distractions bombarding us, is not being constantly responsive all the time. Instead, select certain time slots to revise your emails and social media messages and respond to them.

Ask yourself, “Do I actually need to open them and read them before doing my one thing?” If not, then, the best way is to think about them like rewards.

You will not own the right to open them until you move the ball on the thing that matters most, your one thing.


Goal Setting Like Billionaires.

The mistake people do when setting goals are that they set them looking forward. On the short term, people do not know the difference between priorities and distractions.

The way billionaires set goals is different, “the travel through time”. They imagine themselves having the life they dream, then they to turn back and trace how do they would have gotten there.

So ask yourself, “how do I visualize myself in 5 years? what do I need to accomplish in 5 years to be where I want to be?”

Then, you go backward and keep asking, what do I need to achieve in one year, in one month, in one week.  All of a sudden, you will see all the distractions versus the true priorities.

Geoff showed us the vision for his life in 20 years from now. He has various goals in different areas, and he has them organized in the different tools he introduced us (Resources at the end of post).


Know Your Priorities.

Geoff knows very well his priorities. So he blocks time for them in order of priority.

It is a big mistake to open your calendar and plan on the remaining time slots. Then, you are getting trapped into the number one productivity lie rule: you are treating everything like it matters equality.

It is important to view your planner first. When you start planning, if you see things that are there already, all of that is replaceable. Know your priorities in ranked by relevance and decide how much time you need to work on each of them. Know what is your 20% that will generate 80% of your results. The rest 80% that generates 20% of your results will get done when possible.

“In an organizational context, your one thing is not some else’s one thing. But you need to talk, to work on how you both can support each other to achieve your goals together.”

Think Bigger.

The biggest lesson or the biggest gift I learned from working with Gary is to always “think bigger”.

I have taken seriously the idea that surrounding ourselves with five great people and you will become the average of those five. That will allow to think bigger every time and get also bigger.

There are many ways anyone can start thinking bigger. You can just think bigger, by simply reading the “One Thing” book, listening to the one thing podcast, or going o to the website training tab.


Show Notes.

You can find more information on the tools mentioned in this show, below.

  1. 66-Day Challenge® Calendar
  2. Kick-Ass Guide® to Your Couples Goal Setting Retreat
  3. Your 411 (XLS)  Your 411 (word document)
  4. Develop your Purpose and achieve your goals.
  5. Kick-Ass Guide® to Goal Setting.


Thanks, Geoff!

To find out more about Geoff, find him through his OneThing website or through his The Mentee Podcast.


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