A few years ago, a Fortune 100 client asked me to design a new leadership training program.They already had one and had spent several years training people in it, but now they wanted a new one.Because the current one wasn’t having the impact they wanted.I asked to see the old one.While I’d love to say my leadership ideas are far superior, I thought the ones they were using were equally good.Don’t start from scratch, I pleaded with them.You’ve already spent years spreading the word, inculcating the language, and socializing the concepts of the old leadership methodology.People are familiar with it.Don’t get rid of it.Reduce it to its essence.What’s the one thing that will have the greatest impact on your leadership?After some thought, they concluded that if managers communicated more with their employees, it would solve the majority of their issues.Great, I suggested, focus all your efforts on that.Let everything else go.Brandon, a friend of mine, called me, disheartened, after his business didn’t work out.He decided to take a few months off before starting his next venture, and we discussed how he should spend his time.It turns out that Brandon is dyslexic and has always had difficulty reading.That’s unusual advice from me.Usually, I tell people to forget about their weaknesses and focus on their strengths.But in Brandon’s case the dividend will be huge.If he can tackle reading, not only will it open doors for him, but he’ll also conquer the one thing he thought he couldn’t do.That confidence will change everything else in his life.A large retail chain with stores all over the world developed ten Gold behaviors they wanted all sales associates to exhibit.Things like greet each customer, ask customers if they want an accessory at the point of sale, measure customers for a good fit, and thank each customer for shopping at the store.Stores in which sales associates exhibited all ten behaviors saw a substantial increase in sales.After some time, the corporate office sent in mystery shoppers to see how the sales associates were doing.On average, the associates were displaying nine of the ten behaviors.I asked the project lead if they had seen a change in sales as a result of this 90 percent success rate.After a short inspection of the data, it turned out they hadn’t.So we looked to see if the associates were each missing different behaviors or if they were avoiding a specific one of the ten.You don’t have ten Gold behaviors, I told the project lead, you have one.Measuring customers for a good fit is your one thing. That was the one thing the salespeople could do differently to make more sales.We instructed the sales associates to focus solely on doing that one thing.Then, naturally, you will start to incorporate others.And, with time, you’ll find that your life moves in a purposeful direction.Because the moments add up to days, the days add up to years, and the years add up to your life.Making sure that your days and moments are guided by what you want to accomplish with your years means each moment will reflect the life you choose to live.So you’ll know you’re getting the right things done.It all starts with your one thing.