What Coaches and Mentors Can Learn from The One Thing
Trying to help a client work on every goal they mention at once is the specific trap The One Thing names, and it's an especially easy one to fall into when a client arrives with a long, genuinely important-sounding list.
The whole book, compressed
This edition works through 4 core lessons — take them one at a time, not all at once.
What's different for your conditions
Tap whichever ones sound like you. Nothing here is sent or saved — it's just for your own noticing.
0 of 3 selected
The core lessons, applied to you
The domino effect
Helping a client focus on one well-chosen goal, pursued with real commitment, can make several of their other goals easier to reach; trying to address everything at once for them rarely produces the same result.
A client leaves a session with five action items across five different goals, and follows through on none of them.
In your next session, help the client identify the one goal that, if achieved, would make their other goals easier, and build the session around that.
The focusing question
Asking a client what one thing they could do such that doing it makes everything else on their list easier or unnecessary cuts a long, well-intentioned list down to what actually matters most right now.
A client tries to work on everything they mentioned, spreads their effort too thin, and makes real progress on nothing.
Use the focusing question directly with a client this week, and help them commit to just one answer.
Time blocking to protect the one thing
A goal that doesn't get scheduled time in a client's actual life competes with everything else on their plate, and usually loses.
A client agrees to a goal in session but never blocks real time for it, and the goal quietly disappears by the next session.
Help your client block specific time for their one thing before the session ends, not just agree to it in principle.
Debunking the myths that get in the way
Helping a client see that trying to do everything is not the same as making progress, and that focus is not the same as neglecting their other goals, clears the way for real change.
Supporting a client's full range of goals and helping them focus on one aren't opposites — a clear plan for the one priority, with everything else acknowledged but set aside for now, serves them better than scattered attention across all of it.
Name one thing, honestly
What's the one goal your current client could focus on that would make their other goals easier to reach?
Good. Now look back at the "Try this" line under whichever lesson feels most connected to what you just wrote, and treat that as this week's actual assignment — not all 4 at once.
The practices from this edition
0 of 3 selected
Run this for seven days
Help your client block specific time for their one thing before the session ends, not just agree to it in principle.