The One Thing - Performance, Focus & Discipline

It's tough to navigate through life with so many things to do and want and so little time to get them. In this talk, Dishant speaks about the importance of a morning routine and makes a point of living a life where becoming less distracted must be a goal. Slowing down and beginning your day with just one thing to focus on will set you for high performance, productivity, success, and living a well-lived life versus living on a hamster wheel on distractions and overthinking.

Transcript

Good morning,

This is Deshant.

Welcome to this talk on the one thing.

Just before I begin my first ever talk,

I would like to thank Inside Timer for giving me an opportunity to practice and grow myself.

And to everyone who will listen to this,

I am very grateful.

Secondly,

I have a huge request for all the listeners.

Please provide me with some feedback on my talks and meditations.

I have only just begun as a mindfulness meditation teacher.

If you think a meditation or a talk was below par,

Then please let me know.

I think I can take it.

If you liked a talk or a meditation and it helped you see something different,

Then please let me know that as well.

I think I'd love to take that too.

I also welcome new ideas for meditations and talks.

If there are certain topics you'd like to have me cover,

I would be very pleased to do so.

It's listeners like you that make recording meditations and talks worthwhile.

Thank you.

That being said,

Let's begin.

So often than not,

Our mornings always feel rushed,

Almost as if we are on autopilot.

You either wake up in a terrific mood or this is just not your morning.

You feel angry,

Confused,

Grumpy and you know that this is just not going to be your day.

Honestly,

I've been there more times than I would like to believe.

But I am here today to show you that it doesn't matter how crappy and scattered you feel,

You can turn your day around by making some very minor adjustments.

So,

What are those minor adjustments you ask?

1.

Appreciation 2.

Intention 3.

Hydration 4.

Action 5.

Uninterrupted focus Now,

You're possibly telling yourself,

This guy is crazy.

I don't even feel like getting out of the bed and he wants me to do all that.

Well,

You're not in this alone.

We'll share the burden of high performance together.

Let me take care of guiding you with setting intention and feeling appreciation.

I will also make drinking water and add a focus exercise as part of the follow up meditation to this talk.

The only one thing you have to do is take action.

Now,

This is the one thing that is always in your control.

You can either choose to take action or not.

There's no coach,

No meditation teacher,

No meditation or a fancy motivational speech that can do the work for you.

You know the irony of this talk.

I'm writing this on a day when I walk up feeling extremely scattered.

I just knew that if I didn't do something meaningful today,

I would spy it down like a hot ball of lava.

This is what suffering really is.

Yes,

I woke up in pain and my mind was racing at a thousand miles per hour.

Mostly because I have an onset of muscle soreness from playing Warly Ball for almost four hours and due to lack of sleep.

Now writing this hasn't made me feel any better than I did when I woke up.

I can't control my physiology.

I can certainly affect it,

But control it?

Not so much.

But there is one thing I can do.

I can make sure that I do everything possible to aid rest and recovery so that there's less fatigue in my body tomorrow.

The first thing I did as soon as I woke up was I let myself be lazy.

And right on cue,

My thinking started to affect my mindset and my mood.

I had enough of my brain running around in circles,

So I did a 15-minute meditation on perspective.

Doing that meditation helped me get out of the bed and then my one thing became writing my first talk about the one thing.

I didn't know how to begin or what to type.

I just opened up a Word document and sat until something came to my mind.

You know,

Sometimes as a coach,

It is easy for me to say to my clients,

Hey,

Remember this is not your reality.

Your thoughts and feelings are always changing.

They are like clouds,

Impermanent.

They move along and lack solidity.

Just be the observer and not the experiencer.

No,

It doesn't feel like that all the time.

Certainly not the first thing in the morning when I wake up feeling grumpy.

You know,

These are the days when I think to myself that no amount of spiritual,

Personal growth,

Self-help or a non-dual perspective I have on anything really matters.

Because cognitively,

Mentally,

I'm just not at my best.

And to expect anything more than this would mean that I'm trying to produce something which within itself is paradoxical in nature.

And to claim that I can produce non-dual states of being at command would be like saying,

I can produce sugar cane from sugar.

It just doesn't work like that.

Being hard on yourself on days when you already feel low is the worst thing to do.

The practice of self-forgiveness and self-compassion is key to becoming a well-rounded holistic individual.

The only reason today I'm not binge watching some series,

Wallowing in self-pity and keeping myself distracted from what I feel is because I chose not to.

It was that easy.

There certainly are days when I just wake up and choose not to do anything so called productive.

To me,

High performance does not mean perfection.

It doesn't even mean what success traditionally means in our society.

But that's a talk for another day.

Now that we have covered the three aspects of our morning ritual,

Which are hydration,

Intention and appreciation,

I said the action bit solely depends on you.

I don't know if you noticed,

But I left the fifth aspect out,

Which was uninterrupted focus.

Now,

Uninterrupted focus is to be done after you've meditated and decided on the one thing you want to accomplish right now or today.

I'm not really concerned with avoiding distraction every second,

Every minute of every day.

Let me be very clear,

Until and unless you're a full-time practising monk or living somewhere in a cave in India,

The perfect uninterrupted day doesn't exist.

It's about figuring out what matters to you the most and when you're doing that one thing,

Just eliminate distraction.

The one thing idea comes from the book by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan called The One Thing.

I highly recommend that you read this book.

Now based on the goals you have in any area of your life,

Ask yourself,

What's the one thing I could do such that by doing it everything else would be easier or unnecessary than time blocked to make it happen?

It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that.

The amazing thing is,

When we ask ourselves this question,

We almost always just know it.

We instinctively know what matters most to us.

In case you don't,

Then look to the people who came before you did.

All the so-called new work and inventions are based on the shoulders of giants who came before you and were just as curious as you are.

There are chances that someone has already accomplished what you're trying to achieve.

And they might have shared how they did it either in a podcast,

A blog,

A book or an interview.

Begin there and dig deep.

Remember,

Become so good that they can't ignore you.

And this is really just one piece of advice.

You may begin by finding out the one thing that connects you to your company's one thing and become irreplaceable.

If you're an entrepreneur or an athlete,

You already know your one thing,

Take it to the next level by mastering focus and eliminating distractions.

If you're a student,

Then this is the time to learn how to eliminate distractions because you will eventually figure out your one thing.

And if you don't,

You are still developing a life-altering skill of focus and attention.

Guys,

Here's a fun fact for you.

Attention is the currency of the future.

Those who can are spending billions of dollars in advertisement and marketing just so they can buy your attention,

So that you consistently revisit their website or an app and basically just never forget about them.

Is it creepy?

Yes.

Addictive?

Definitely yes.

Can we do anything to stop it?

No.

But can we change our personal experience of it?

Yes.

You are the user.

You are their user.

Stop being used.

Can you see why people get addicted to drugs as well?

We just don't think that being addicted to alcohol or tobacco or being addicted to a game or social media or being addicted to sugar and gossip is as bad as being addicted to drugs.

And I will discuss the neuroscience behind addiction in a later talk,

But today I am inviting you to take back your focus,

Eliminate distractions and see how your life can change by making these tiny adjustments.

The secret is taking action.

That's the only secret of high performance and any success.

Take action now.

Thank you for tuning in.

I will see you in the one thing meditation.

Reviews

You did a great job for your first ever meditation. Congratulations on achieving a goal that you set. I had not heard of “The One Thing”. I’m going to go buy it. Thank you for sharing. Namaste

Excellent and exactly what I needed. I can’t wait to listen to this again. I appreciate you more than you know. Thank you!

Super excited for your work. Loved it!! Only as you asked for feedback & im really excited about your work, I can visualise how far you’re going-

Most loved: whole vibe of your work. “good morning” hope it becomes your go to catchphrase, I instantly relaxed! Hearing anecdotes/ experiences- comforting I’m not alone. And of course, the concept of 1 thing/ 5 steps.

Most helped me: simplicity of the just 1 thing message. 5 steps- knowing how to make tomorrow different.

Most suggest: save music for intro & outro , turn nature sound down, your voice & clarity audio up- difficult to hear clearly, & takes focus from your words. Tweak speaking speed & tone to a little quicker/more natural. Around -7:50 mark for a few seconds when you really relax was golden.

Choose one key idea per session. Too many other topics added in, I became lost & lost the original clarity of your message. Last 5 mins could be saved for another session.

From that, structuring the ideas more simply. I would say: slowly list 5 things, with a brief explanation of each as you go.

Then maybe a format like:

Introduce Anecdote of lazy morning- moment you found yourself in. thoughts & feelings you had. Choosing to do ‘just one thing’- listing the no., name, & basic description of step; giving your example of embodying that step; maybe a brief word on possible challenges to taking that step- giving your own example to back it up (e.g I felt shame, I wasn’t working) & a brief antidote (e.g I practiced self-forgiveness with ho’oponono meditation). Repeat for steps 1-5.

Then summarise all together.

I’m super excited to be joining for just 1 thing. You’ve already helped me and I’m most grateful, you are a joy to listen to and I can’t wait to hear the next session!