Do you want to be successful in life? If yes, then you need to focus on your one big goal. Here are five reasons you are better off chasing one goal at a time instead of chasing small ones.

Distractions are all around us.

That’s the truth.

From the constant beeping of your phone to your nagging officemate who randomly pops up to your cubicle, this world is just filled with things that try to steal our attention.

Now, distractions can easily spill over to our goal planning. If you’re not careful, you are trying to do so many things that at the end of the day, you virtually didn’t achieve anything.

Sounds familiar? It should because I’m sure it happens to all of us. You and I are so pre-occupied with doing so many things that we end up doing nothing.

What’s the solution? Focus on your one goal. As Gary Keller puts it, focus on “The One Thing.”

I recently started reading the book, “The One Thing” and so far, it is giving me a fresh perspective in life. Setting one big goal undeniably comes with various benefits.

So, in this post, let me share with why you should focus on your one goal rather than many goals. Read on to learn more!

Do you like what you are reading? Get more book recommendation lists plus inspiring self-help blogs straight to your inbox by subscribing below:

Reason no. 1: You’re not designed to handle multiple tasks

Multi-tasking is seen to be a skill of the gifted. Unless you have the gift to do different tasks at the same time, you probably won’t do better with this technique.

Most people are not designed to handle multiple tasks and there’s a good chance that you’re one of them.

Research after research shows that multi-tasking is not the key to efficiency, but rather it prevents true productivity. By switching to and fro from one task to another, focus is divided. Multi-tasking is damaging rather than helping especially when the tasks at hand are unfamiliar to you and even complicated.

Another reason that multi-tasking does not work in most of the time is that we have limited memory. Our mind can only do so much. Unless you have a superhuman brain, your mind can’t handle an overload of tasks simultaneously competing for your attention.

Reason no. 2: Focusing on one goal saves you time and energy

When you divide your time and energy among different small tasks and goals, what happens? Practically, you finish only a little of each task and goal. As a result, you waste time and energy instead of saving them.

Imagine as well the time you waste every time you switch from one task to another. Though it might be minute, when combined together, it can become significant.

In the end, when you have one goal in mind, you can simply focus all your energy achieving it and completing the task at hand. It ensures that you efficiently use your energy and time.

Reason no. 3: You can’t be best at everything

Because of our natural competitiveness, we want to be the best or at least good at a lot of things. We seek recognition and get the title of being a “jack of all trades.” However, as what most people say, we have become “masters of none.”

Unless you focus on your one thing – your one big goal – you won’t become the best or at least get better at your craft. Like our mind, you also have limited time. You can’t simply spread yourself so thin to the point that you fail to become a master of your field.

So, the solution stands clear once again. You need to accept the fact that you can’t be the best at everything. Rather, focus on one thing and you should become better at what you do.

Reason no. 4: It’s stressful to have many goals

Imagine if you have a lot of things to do within the day. The mere thought would even make you stressful already. You have meetings to attend to, finish reports, write a 5,000-word blog, go to the gym, bring the children to the ballet class, and do the groceries, and a lot more.

Let’s face it: you can only do so much within the day. Elon Musk, who was notoriously known to work over a hundred hours every week, is a good example.

It is true that he has accomplished a lot within his lifetime. He runs SpaceX, Tesla, and other multi-million companies. But in the midst of these accomplishments, his health starts to deteriorate and his family and social life suffer.

While a good amount of stress is good for us, you need to be careful not to go overboard. If you try to accomplish a lot of goals all at once, you might end up stressed out, unhealthy, and even isolated from your loved ones.

Reason no. 5: You get things done

The most important reason why you should focus on one goal is for you to get things done. If you only have one thing and one thing alone to accomplish within a given period of time, then you dramatically increase your chance of achieving it!

That’s the power of your “One Thing.”

The best accomplishments in this world didn’t happen because a person had a lot of goals. It happens because of the conscious effort of putting all his mind into what he is doing and focusing all his energy into achieving one goal.

Since you are simply doing one thing, the quality of your work inevitably improve sand soon enough, you get to finish the masterpiece of your life!

Concentrate on one goal

Now that you know the reasons why you should focus on one big goal rather than small ones, I’m sure you can have a better understanding of how many high-achievers attain success in their lives.

In line with this, I would like to recommend the book, “The One Thing” by Gary Keller. It has attained high ratings and positive reviews from thousands of its readers. I highly endorse this book as it offers the importance of knowing your one thing in life, the benefits of focusing on one thing at a time, and how you can achieve extraordinary results by focusing on your one BIG thing.

---

Featured book…