Let’s face it, you’re addicted. We all are. We’re addicted to the new way of doing things. The quicker we do things, the faster we receive information, the better. But at what cost? What do we miss out on when we opt to read a “Top 5 ____, You Won’t Believe #3!” article instead of actually diving in on a topic that matters to us? Here at The ONE Thing, we think the answer is simply: a lot.
Listicles (articles designed around a list) are a lot like junk food for the brain. They’re designed to keep us stimulated. They provide us with clear, broken out points, and give us a sense of when things are going to end. Our brains are drawn to them. What we sacrifice with this model is deeper understanding and mental exercise. When we don’t make our brains work, we don’t really gain any of the benefits for our efforts.
This is the exact opposite of proficiency and what we teach here at The ONE Thing. If you’ve read The ONE Thing, you know that our greatest results come from time spent on a task. It comes from dedication, and a path with clear goals that build off of one another into something extraordinary. That means if we line up all of our goals as if they were dominoes, our path to excellence is just a matter of knocking over each domino one at a time until we achieve our ultimate goal. But it isn’t easy.
Accomplishing your ONE Thing is work. The path toward success is laden with lazy land mines, distraction grenades and focus busters that try to pull you off track. And there are a lot of blog writers, YouTube channels, podcast hosts, and directors out there who will use those weapons against you. They don’t do it because they’re evil. They do it because they need your attention to survive.
If you’ve ever clicked on clickbait headline — “These Five Success Tips Will Make Your Jaw Drop!”, for example — you already know that they leave something to be desired. They’re usually a little shallow and fail to walk us through the tools we need to take on our problems. If you’ve ever wondered why anyone would spend time creating content like that, it’s because they don’t depend on your success, they depend on your attention. The more people that click on an article, the more valuable it is for advertisers. Plain and simple. And while we’d never knock anyone for being successful, we will say that the current model for content creation just isn’t for us.
We’ve tried it, and we’re sorry for that. But we want to be different. Here at The ONE Thing, we don’t want to distract you. We want to help you. That’s why we’re moving our blog in a new, better direction.
An Older Way of Doing Things
If a blog post we write isn’t a topic that can serve you, we want you to be able to figure that out from the get-go. If the headline doesn’t make it clear, then we want you to understand it from the first paragraph. If the first paragraph doesn’t make it clear, then we’ve failed you. That’s because our greatest concern is for YOU to succeed. Not to keep you from your ONE Thing.
Instead of going for short and sweet, we’ll be delivering articles that are long enough to be complete. We don’t want to give you a taste of a topic, we want to be able to serve you the full course meal. Ideally, when we write about a topic, we want it to be written well enough that you won’t have to read anything else. That means we’re going to shoot for instructive, insightful and intuitive articles that are worth the time you invest in them.
Following the mantra of “measure twice, cut once”, we’ll be spending more time on our posts. That means instead of looking forward to two posts a week, we’ll be moving to one a week. Like we talk about in The ONE Thing, more isn’t always better. If we chase two rabbits, we won’t catch either one. That’s why we’re turning our focus to one topic a week. One week, one topic—ONE Thing.
If you haven’t gotten it yet, we’re warning you that our new posts are going to be longer. Comprehensive rarely means short. But don’t fear. If you’re worried that you won’t have time to dive into our new blog content, we’ve got a suggestion for you.
Digesting Longer Blog Content
In order to get the most out of our new content, you’ll need time to focus on it.
The worst feeling in the world is reading something, getting distracted, and instantly forgetting what you just read. That’s why, at the top of each blog post, we’ll give you a brief recap of what each post covers. That way, you won’t ever have to worry about getting lost if your focus is taken from you. But most importantly, it’s important that you time block any article you want to read.
Instead of running the risk of distraction, remove yourself from the possibility. Schedule a few minutes of personal development time in the morning or afternoon, and make our blog a part of it. If reading time doesn’t fit into a time block, bookmark it and save it for later. Or if you want, you can print it out and keep it around when you have a minute to read. Longer doesn’t mean less digestible. The posts will still be broken up into chunks, giving you the ability to read them piece by piece or all at once.
We’ll Need Your Feedback
All in all, we’re excited about trying something new out, and we’re really excited to see how it will impact our growing community. But if it’s going to work, we’re going to need your help.
Every article won’t be perfect, but if one doesn’t quite hit the mark, let us know why by leaving us a comment of sending a message to us on our Facebook page. Or if you want to see a “definitive guide” or how-to on a topic related to your success, let us know, and we’ll do our best to cook one up. Don’t be shy, we’d love your suggestions. Remember, we’re here to help!
To a new direction,
The ONE Thing Team