The ONE Thing

37:58

Stop Trying to Find Your Purpose. Ask This Question...

The ONE Thing ·

2026/10/05

StrengthsFinder 2.0 author Tom Rath on why the hunt for purpose makes people anxious, and the questions he asks instead. His new book is named after it: What's the Point?You've been told to find your purpose since high school. You're still waiting for it to show up. The word is the problem. Most of us hear it and tense up, as if purpose has to descend from the heavens on a sunny day every ten years. Tom's books have sold more than 10 million copies. Five months before his newest book

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30:04

Before You Set New Goals, Decide What to Let Go Of

The ONE Thing ·

2026/09/28

How to simplify your busy life before setting new goals.You raised your hand for a committee years ago, and now it’s just draining time and energy every week. It’s out of alignment - and it’s almost goal-setting season. That work project that seemed like a great idea at the time is still eating your week, and nothing new fits. Before you add another goal to the list, you have to pause and find the space for it. On August 1st, Jay Papasan left Keller Williams after almost 26 years, and he’s

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41:44

15 Truths for Business & Life: Inbox Zero, Hustle...

The ONE Thing ·

2026/09/21

Winners never quit. Clear the inbox. Outwork everyone. You've followed rules like these for years without checking them.Charlie Munger kept a latticework of mental models so he'd make better decisions. Jay Papasan keeps his own in a notes document he carries around. About 88 entries so far, written down so he's less likely to keep repeating the same mistakes. You're most likely to hurt yourself, Jay warns, when you're anchored to a truth that may not be true. So he puts fifteen of his own on

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32:00

Why Your Business Feels Unpredictable (and how to fix...

The ONE Thing ·

2026/09/14

You work all day and your results still swing month to month.One month you're unstoppable, the next the pipeline is empty and you can't understand why. Jordan Freed says your business has a first down: one repeatable action that makes everything after it predictable, and most of us have never named ours. In this episode, Jay sits down with Jordan Freed - head coach at The ONE Thing and Jay's own former coach. He says he has never coached a real estate professional who hit their listing number

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29:04

Success Is Boring (and how to show up anyway)

The ONE Thing ·

2026/09/07

You know what you should be doing every day. But most days you find a reason to make them tomorrow. Then the year ends looking exactly like the last one. Motivation was never going to carry you through work this boring. The people who show up every day set it up so that skipping costs them something.Jay Papasan edited Mia Hamm's book at HarperCollins. The story that stuck with him had nothing to do with the World Cup. It was wind sprints alone in a park in the off-season heat, and the note her

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39:36

Ex-Google Leader: How to Actually Grow Into Your New...

The ONE Thing ·

2026/08/31

If you've ever taken a new job or a new title and kept feeling like the old you, Shannon Anderson-Finch has a name for it: the gap between a change and a transition. Most people try to skip it.Shannon spent 15 years at Google and Deloitte, where she was named Coach of the Year, before starting her own practice. She now coaches new VPs at a large retailer and a first-time hospital president through that same gap. Her model runs in the wrong order: an ending, then a messy middle where you're

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19:32

Type 2 Work, and The Hidden Cost of Convenience

The ONE Thing ·

2026/08/24

We spend a lot of energy trying to make life faster, easier, and more convenient. But what might we lose when we remove too much of the hard? Jay breaks down the “fun scale,” from Type One Fun that feels good in the moment to Type Two Fun that feels difficult while you’re doing it but becomes meaningful in retrospect. Then there’s Type Three Fun: hard experiences that never seem worth it. The difference often comes down to three things: choice, completion, and connection. Did you choose the

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42:38

Building a Burnout-Proof Business with Mallory Rowan

The ONE Thing ·

2026/08/17

Mallory Rowan was building a successful powerlifting apparel company, competing at a high level, and finishing university when her body finally forced her to stop. A routine doctor’s visit revealed that she had been living with pneumonia, but the warning signs had appeared long before: irritability, emotional exhaustion, unexplained health issues, and the growing feeling that she was no longer herself.Mallory joins Jay to share what it took to recover, ask for support, and separate her identity

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42:40

How Not to Know: The Science of Uncertainty with...

The ONE Thing ·

2026/08/10

Simone Stolzoff, author of How to Not Know, joins Jay to explore why our search for certainty often leads us into three traps: comfort, hubris, and control. They discuss how replacing those instincts with growth, humility, and acceptance can help us move forward without having every answer.Simone shares practical ways to build your tolerance for uncertainty, including introducing small doses of randomness into your routine, looking to your past for evidence that you can handle difficult

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44:55

You’ll Never Get On Top of Everything (And That’s...

The ONE Thing ·

2026/08/03

There is no such thing as the perfect productivity system. No matter how optimized your day is, or how many AI agents you have running 24/7, the harsh reality is that you’ll never truly be caught up. And that’s good news. Oliver Burkeman wrote The Guardian's psychology column "This Column Will Change Your Life" for years before his four books on time and ambition. Four Thousand Weeks was an instant New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller, and his follow-up, Meditations for Mortals, is one of

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26:50

Put Down The Business Book. Read Fiction Instead

The ONE Thing ·

2026/07/27

Look at your bookshelf. Business books, biographies, the ones everyone said you had to read. Now be honest: how many did you finish?Jay Papasan should be the last person making this case. He's spent 30 years in business books - first as an editor at HarperCollins, then as coauthor of multiple award winning & bestselling nonfiction books. And this week he's telling you to put the business books down and pick up a novel. Because somewhere between Gordon Gekko and hustle culture, business people

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50:56

The Science of Excellence: How To Master Your Craft,...

The ONE Thing ·

2026/07/20

The version of success you’ve been sold is really just stress with better branding.Brad Stulberg has spent 20 years researching and reporting on the top 1% in their field - Olympians, powerlifters, bestselling authors - and has written 5 books on what he’s learned, including Peak Performance and his newest, The Way of Excellence. In this episode, you'll learn: - Why work-life balance fails - Whether your obsession with work is fueling you or burning you out - Why hitting a goal you've

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46:07

How to Reinvent Yourself: A 4 Step Framework for...

The ONE Thing ·

2026/07/13

Jay Papasan talks with Steve Kamb, founder of Nerd Fitness and author of How to Try Again, about what it takes to change course. Steve shares his PACT framework: Pause, Accept, Change, and Try, and explains why real change often feels messy before it feels clear. Together, Jay and Steve explore identity shifts, false expectations, the myth of “normal,” and how small experiments can help you move toward a life that fits the season you’re actually in. Know someone who may find this episode

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19:05

A Deep Dive on Our Most Impactful Coaching Tool

The ONE Thing ·

2026/07/06

Get The Someday Letter Worksheet: https://linkly.link/2ld7z Most of us are comfortable setting annual goals. But what happens when you look 10 years into the future and let yourself dream without boundaries? In this episode, Jay Papasan shares one of the most powerful tools used in The ONE Thing coaching program: the Someday Letter. It’s a simple but deeply clarifying exercise that asks you to write a letter to yourself from the future, describing the life, work, relationships, values, and

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41:19

Change Your Relationship with The Gap (In Business...

The ONE Thing ·

2026/06/29

High achievers know the gap well: the space between where you are and where you want to be. It can drive growth, but it can also become a source of fear, avoidance, and self-judgment. In this episode, Jay talks with five-time entrepreneur and executive coach Hannah Soto about the three ways business owners and high achievers often relate to the gap. They chase it, believing fulfillment lives on the other side. They hide from it by staying busy, over-planning, or avoiding the next scary step. Or

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27:38

Getting Unstuck: How to Fix the 3 Most Common...

The ONE Thing ·

2026/06/22

You already know what to do. So why is it so hard to do it consistently? In this episode, Jay Papasan breaks down three patterns that keep entrepreneurs and high achievers trapped in the gap between knowing and doing. First, we often think we’re clear when we’re really being general. Second, we chase new information instead of mastering the system we already have. Third, we let the 80% masquerade as the 20%, allowing urgency, inboxes, DMs, and other distractions to pull us away from the work that

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26:35

Social Accountability 101: How Peer Pressure Can Help...

The ONE Thing ·

2026/06/15

You know what to do. You start strong. You have the system, the motivation, and the goal. Then, a few months later, you’re right back where you started. What happened?In this episode, Jay Papasan breaks down one of the biggest reasons high achievers struggle with consistency: they try to go it alone. The solution is social accountability. Not someone forcing you to follow through, but choosing to be accountable to your goals by bringing the right people into your process. Jay shares three simple

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30:03

How to Build Resilience (Before You Need It) With...

The ONE Thing ·

2026/06/08

Resilience is often treated like a personality trait. You either have it or you don’t. But Valorie Burton sees it differently: Resilience is a personal system you can build before life demands it from you. In this episode, Jay Papasan sits down with Valorie Burton, CEO of the Coaching and Positive Psychology Institute and author of Rules of Resilience, to unpack what it really takes to bounce back. They talk about the three parts of resilience: adaptive skills, protective resources, and

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24:26

The Isolation of High Achievers: Why All...

The ONE Thing ·

2026/06/01

High performers are often great at building businesses, serving clients, supporting families, and chasing big goals. But there’s one thing they tend to neglect: friendship.In this episode, Jay shares the story of a lonely night in a Nashville hotel room that became a wake-up call. He realized he had been leaning on too few people and needed to intentionally rebuild his support system. With the help of his coach, Jay began “re-engineering his village” by identifying the qualities he wanted in

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35:35

High-Stakes Communication: How to Negotiate...

The ONE Thing ·

2026/05/25

Have you ever walked away from a conversation wishing you could go back and say it differently? According to Phil Jones, that doesn’t mean you have a communication problem. You may have a moment problem. Phil, author of the bestselling book Exactly What to Say, joins Jay to talk about the word choices, principles, and preparation that help people show up better in high-stakes conversations. He shares how a simple body of work grew into a global brand, why so many people give up on their greatest

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