Thursday, August 21, 2025

Each Day, Find That One Thing That Matters Most

If you know what that one thing is, it simplifies everything and makes it much easier for you to focus on accomplishing what’s most important

Blogs National

By André van Heerden, Communications Director

I was recently talking to my cousin in New Zealand through a video link. She just had her first child, and my family and I were so excited for her.

During the call, she shared a little video tour of her small home. She said, “You’ll have to excuse the mess. We’ve given up!”

We had a good laugh, but I thought it was pretty clear that she hadn’t in fact given up. She had just shifted her priorities. Her life was now all about looking after her new little boy, who was clearly adored and well looked after.

Similarly, I remember coming home to my wife after work many years ago. She was at home with our first two children, and she said, “I wanted to get the laundry done, and some cleaning, and dinner ready, but I don’t know where the day went.”

As I looked at our smiling, healthy girls, I could tell that the day had been spent taking care of our number one priority: our children.

In both instances, for my cousin and for my wife, they had found and determined the most important thing about their jobs, and based on that, how to spend their days. And despite knowing that there were other things to do, as long as that one thing was taken care of, the day was a success.

In the 1991 movie City Slickers, three middle-age men embark on a cow-rustling experience to try to figure out what would make them happy. Curly, their no-nonsense, tough-as-nails, cattle rancher guide, overhears the three talking and asks, “Do you know what the secret of life is?” He holds up one finger and says, “This.”

Mitch asks, “Your finger?” Curly replies, “One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that, and the rest don’t mean sh*t.”

Mitch questions, “But, what is the one thing?” Smiling, Curly answers, “That’s what you have to find out.”

In my manager role at work, and even when I’m coaching soccer, I’ve come to learn that clarity of purpose and goal for any job or activity is the key to success and fulfilment. With work there might be a lot of competing responsibilities, but what is the one thing to take care of that would make the day successful? With soccer, what is the one thing to do that would make that position or game a success?

When I was working as a film director, I had the privilege of working with cinematographer Jiri “George” Tirl. Because of our low budgets and tight schedules, we were always working against the clock, trying to get as much done as possible.

One day George was working with our gaffer who had wanted to do a complicated lighting set-up for an upcoming scene. But we needed a simpler one to save time. The gaffer was frustrated but the set still looked good, and we got what we needed: the ability to tell the story and move on.

George gave the gaffer a big smile and told him, “Walk away smiling.” The main thing had been achieved.

John Carmack, a pioneering video game developer, noted that “focus is a matter of deciding what things you're not going to do.” And philosopher, psychologist, and author William James wrote that “the greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”

Trying to do too many things is going to result in frustration, burnout, and likely poor results. It often doesn’t matter how much we get done, but what we get done.

For CLAC, that one thing is representing our members. We may have many different services, like training, jobs, retirement, benefits, member rewards, and our Guide magazine, but above it all is the imperative to make sure we’re standing up for our members at work and helping them in the best ways that we can.

For each day, in your work, in your life, and for your relationships, do you know what the one thing is that means the most? For each of these areas the answers might be different. But if you know what that one thing is, it simplifies everything and makes it much easier for you to focus on accomplishing what’s most important, and then walking away smiling.

Each Day, Find That One Thing That Matters Most

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