Happy February! I started Confessions of a Facilitation Artist and this Substack as a simple practice: show up for what I’m curious about. Over time, it’s become a place where my worlds of facilitation, art, and product leadership intersect with my love of self‑development and purposeful productivity.
Lately, I’ve been in a bit of an identity wobble with this podcast and newsletter. I love showing up here every week, but I’m still figuring out where it fits in my larger business, The Meeting Kitchen. Is this my one thing—or a beautiful side project? I don’t know yet, and I’m okay figuring that out in public with you.
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Why The ONE Thing, and Why Now
For February and March, we’re walking through The ONE Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan together. This isn’t a strict book club—you don’t have to be reading along—but each week I’m:
* quoting a few short passages from the book,
* sharing how they’re landing in my own work and life, and
* inviting you to experiment with them in your context.
The first three chapters set the foundation:
* The ONE Thing / Start Small
* The Domino Effect
* Success Leaves Clues
I first read the book two or three years ago and loved it. Its ideas quietly shaped how I think about focus, and then I drifted (as we do). Coming back now, I feel impatient because I know there’s deeper wisdom later in the book—but these early chapters answer a crucial question: why does a “one thing” even matter?
The book opens with this line:
“Be like a postage stamp—stick to one thing until you get there.” —Josh Billings
Most of us live in an idea‑rich, opportunity‑rich world. We have long lists of things we want to do, create, launch, and experience. That’s beautiful—and it also makes it hard (and a little scary) to decide what truly deserves our full focus.
The Power of Going Small
At one point, Gary Keller hit a breaking point and decided to go as small as possible with his focus. He writes:
“Finally, out of desperation, I went as small as I could possibly go and asked, ‘What’s the ONE Thing you can do this week such that by doing it, everything else would be easier or unnecessary?’ And the most awesome thing happened: results went through the roof… Where I had huge success, I had narrowed my concentration to one thing, and where my success varied, my focus had too.”
That’s Chapter 1 in a nutshell: the power of going small.
He defines “small” this way:
“Small is ignoring all of the things that you could do and doing what you should do. It’s recognizing that not all things matter equally and finding the things that matter most. It’s a tighter way to connect what you do and what you want. It’s realizing that extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus.”
Two phrases I keep coming back to are “extraordinary results” and “how narrow you can make your focus.”
We tend to assume that doing more will create more results. This book invites us to flip that: what if doing less and going all‑in on one meaningful thing actually leads to deeper, more satisfying outcomes?
In my Intention to Action Workshop I led last week, I borrowed directly from this. I invited participants to list everything that’s holding them back from acting on their intention. Then I asked them to choose one blocker—the one that, if addressed, would make many of the other obstacles easier or irrelevant. That becomes their “one thing” for the season.
People often say that simple step suddenly makes their next move feel obvious.
The Domino Effect
Chapter 2 introduces the domino effect as a visual for how focused action compounds over time.
Each domino contains a small amount of potential energy. When you line them up, that potential multiplies. But you still only need to push the first one.
In workshops, I’ll often ask:“What’s your first domino?”What is the one action that, if you did it first or did it consistently, would start knocking down a row of other tasks, fears, or excuses?
Here’s how Keller and Papasan describe it:
“When you think about success, shoot for the moon. The moon is reachable if you prioritize everything and put all of your energy into accomplishing the most important thing. Getting extraordinary results is all about creating a domino effect. Every day you line up your priorities, find the lead domino, and whack away at it until it falls. Over time, success is built sequentially. It’s one thing at a time.”
When I look at this Substack and podcast, I can see that domino effect. I started the newsletter in fall 2024 and told just a few friends and family. I committed to posting whether or not the audience was big. In January 2025, I added the podcast to challenge myself to speak more freely and show up consistently.
I haven’t had explosive growth. But I do have around 400 people who open, read, and listen regularly. That didn’t happen from one magic moment; it came from one post, one episode, one weekend at a time.
If you’re reading this and you’re not subscribed yet—but you’re curious about this book and this “one thing” experiment—maybe subscribing (or forwarding this to a friend) is your first little domino today.
Success Leaves Clues
Chapter 3, “Success Leaves Clues,” is about noticing the patterns underneath success.
Once you understand the idea of a one thing, you start to see it everywhere. The book points out that if a company doesn’t know its one thing, then its one thing is to figure that out.
Those are the questions I’m actively sitting with in my own work right now, and that I build into my new micro-course Deep Work Days:
* What’s energizing me?
* What’s draining me?
* Where could focus create a compounding effect instead of burnout?
The chapter also reminds us that no one is self‑made. It talks about mentors and role models—the “one person” whose influence is outsized in our story. Sometimes it’s the person who believes in you at the right time; sometimes it’s the one who lovingly challenges you to act.
Some of you have told me this podcast/ blog feels like a sort of mentorship space for you. That honestly means so much. I don’t see myself as a capital‑M Mentor, but I love the idea that this can be one steady, supportive voice in your growth—one domino, one episode, one post at a time.
The chapter ends with this line:
“The ONE Thing shows up time and again in the lives of the successful because it’s a fundamental truth. It showed up for me, and if you let it, it will show up for you too. Applying the ONE Thing to your work and in your life is the simplest and smartest thing that you can do to propel yourself towards the success you want.”
I’m here for that. I want more focus, more alignment, and more intention in how I spend this one life.
Your One Thing This Week
I’ll leave you with the question the book keeps bringing us back to:
“What is the ONE thing you can do this week such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”
Name it. Write it down. Treat it like your first domino.
And if meetings are one of the places where your energy leaks out the fastest, you might enjoy my upcoming FREE workshop:
Your Meeting Don’t Have To Suck! (Sign Up Here!)
When: Thursday, February 26th at 12 pm ET / 11am CT / 9am PTDuration: 90 minutes LIVE (interactive)Platform: Zoom (link sent upon registration)What to Bring: Your awesome self!
In the next post and episode, I’ll dive into the first two “lies” from Part 1 of The ONE Thing: “Everything Matters Equally” and “Multitasking.”
Until then, keep asking: “What’s the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”
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