What’s Your ONE Thing?

I’ve always liked the basic premise behind Gary Keller and Jay Papasan’s book The ONE Thing. We have a tendency to make long lists of everything we need to do, when sometimes we’d be better off figuring out what matters most and starting there.

One of the questions they ask in the book is essentially this: What’s the ONE thing I can do that will make everything else easier—or maybe even unnecessary?

It’s a good question. And it got me thinking about our homes.

Most of us can walk through our house and pretty quickly come up with a list of things we’d like to change. A room that needs painting. A closet that needs cleaning out. Landscaping that’s gotten away from us. Furniture we’ve had forever. A kitchen or bathroom we’d love to redo someday.

But what if you forgot about the whole list for a minute and asked yourself:

What is the ONE thing I could do that would make the biggest difference in how I feel about my home and how I live in it?

It might be really simple. Clean out the garage. Get rid of some clutter. Rearrange a room that has never quite worked. Create a comfortable place to sit outside. Put a chair by a window where you can have your coffee in the morning.

It might cost nothing.

On the other hand, your ONE thing might be something you’ve been putting off because it is an investment. New flooring, fresh paint, air conditioning, new windows, a kitchen remodel, or finally fixing the outdoor area you’ve talked about for years.

One of the principles in the book is the domino effect. One thing leads to another.

I think that happens in our homes all the time. You clean out one area and suddenly you feel like tackling another. You paint a tired room and realize you don’t need to replace everything in it after all. You make the lanai more comfortable and start spending more time outside.

Sometimes a relatively small change makes a surprisingly big difference.

And maybe your ONE thing isn’t about changing your house at all.

Maybe it’s using it differently.

Have friends over even though everything isn’t perfect. Eat dinner together more often. Sit outside at the end of the day. Make a place for the grandkids. Open the windows and enjoy the trade winds. Use the room you’ve been saving for “special occasions.”

After all, our homes aren’t just something we own. They’re where a lot of our life happens.

In real estate, we spend plenty of time talking about what a home is worth. Price per square foot, improvements, condition, location—all of those things matter.

But there’s also what your home is worth to you.

So instead of making a list of ten things you want to change, maybe pick one.

What would make your mornings better? What would make your home feel calmer? What would make it easier to have people over? What’s the thing you’ve been saying you’re going to do for the last three years?

That might be your ONE thing.

Start there.