Do One Thing Well

Post written by Leo Babauta.

Im often asked how you can start doing work you love how you can make a living doing something youre passionate about.

I dont profess to have all the answers, but the answer for me has been fairly simple:

Do one thing really well.

People want a more comprehensive answer than that, but in my experience, if you learn to do this, the rest will follow.

I write about simplicity. Thats all I do. Over the last 4 1/2 years of writing Zen Habits Ive found success by focusing on that alone, and stripping away everything else that gets in the way. Ive removed comments, I dont do much social media (except for fun), I dont do much email, I dont sell ads, I dont do consulting. I write about simplicity.

By doing this one thing over and over, Ive gotten much better at it. Good enough, anyway, for people to want to read my work, and as the audience for my work has grown, so have the opportunities to make a living in a non-spammy way. The ways I monetize (print books, ebooks, online courses) are less important than how Ive grown the audience.

Do one thing well.

Its really that simple. Narrow down what you do, and do it repeatedly. Learn, grow, improve, read, watch, do it some more. When youre really good at that one thing, people will want to pay you for it, or to learn how you do it.

It takes a lot of focus and practice to get good at doing one thing, but Ive found that if you truly love it, its not really work. Its play. And I never complain about playing at something I love.

Blogging Bootcamp

If youre interested in learning about blogging well and how to do the one thing that matters in blogging Im happy to help. Im offering an online course on blogging: How to Skyrocket Your Subscriber Count.

The course starts today (July 16) and today is the absolute last day to register.

Its three weeks of learning how crea! ting gre at content will help you reach more people, and how to do that effectively. I hope youll join us!