E91: Finding Your Focus: The One Thing That Moves You Forward

In this solo episode, Delores reflects on a simple yet transformative idea — choosing the one thing that truly moves you forward. 

She shares how reading The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan inspired her to strip away distractions, focus on her education business and mentoring, and create momentum in her art career. 

Through personal stories about hiring help, planning ahead and letting go of multitasking, Delores invites fellow artists, handmade sellers and digital creators to embrace a more focused, intentional approach to business.

Key Takeaways

•  Focusing on one primary goal creates momentum and clarity. 
•  Modern distractions like emails and social media quietly erode creative energy; deliberate focus helps reclaim it. 
•  Planning, writing tasks down and hiring support free up time for the creative work that matters most. 
•  Ask yourself: “What one thing, if done consistently over the next 90 days, will make everything else easier or unnecessary?” 
•  Align projects and decisions with your core objective; if something doesn’t serve the one thing, delegate, delay or say no. 
•  Progress comes from doing the right thing at the right time, not from doing everything at once. 

Ready to simplify and find your one thing? 

Listen now to hear Delores’ story and share this episode with a creative friend. 

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting us — your encouragement keeps Creative Juggle Joy going and helps us bring more uplifting conversations to artists and creators.

Transcript

Delores Naskrent: [00:00:00] Hey there, my friends. It's Delores here again, and welcome back to the Creative Juggle Joy. Today, I wanna talk about something that comes up again and again in my Thrive meetings and in my mastermind group, and quite honestly, in my own business, my every day, and that is focus. Not the kind of focus where you try to do 100 things perfectly, but the kind where you figure out the one thing that truly moves you forward.

This idea really hit home for me after I read a book that was recommended through one of the groups that I'm in called The One Thing, and it's by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. It is such a simple concept, but it is so powerful. I wanna talk to you about how it's shaping my year, [00:01:00] my planning for 2026.

Yes, I can't even believe I'm saying 2026, but yeah, here it is. I wanna talk about it so that I can explain a little bit about how it can change your planning, too. I think most of us can relate to this. If you're anything like me, you start the week with a long list of goals, creating new art, posting on social media, updating your shop, maybe starting a new class.

But by Friday, you are exhausted. You've maybe touched a little bit of everything, but it feels like you didn't finish anything. I've been there, honestly, and I've heard this from so many people who do craft sales, people who do wholesale, people who do product-based businesses. I've done all of those things, and I've licensed my art.

Each of those paths has taught me something, but it also made me realize [00:02:00] that if I'm chasing everything, I can't seem to gain traction anywhere. I have tried to do too many things at once one too many times, and I'm at the point now where I am trying so much harder to stay in my zone. So these days, I'm still licensing my art, but my heart and my focus are on my education business.

Building it, building courses, mentoring artists, and of course, creating systems that make art careers more sustainable. That is my one thing. When I give it my full attention, everything else, from product sales to licensing, seems to benefit naturally So let me talk a little bit about that first for a second.

The One Thing is about time management.

But not just any [00:03:00] time management, it's about focus management. So focus and time. It's about taking time to focus. Gary Keller, who is the co-founder of a company called Keller Williams Realty, realized that people who achieved the most weren't doing more. They were doing less, but they were doing it better.

Jay Papasan helped bring research and storytelling to the idea, and they worked so well together. Together, they asked that one core question: "What's the one thing I can do such that by doing it, everything else becomes easier or unnecessary?" It is such a powerful shift because once you know what truly drives results, you can stop reacting to everything that tries to pull you away.

They talk about all of the [00:04:00] modern distractions, the constant stream of emails that you're getting, all the text- texts, all the meetings, and how saying yes to too many things quietly erodes your creative energy. And man, I have felt that. My business has been pulling me in so many directions in the last couple of years.

And as creatives, I think this is especially hard. There's always something new to try, a new course, a new trend, maybe a new platform or a new app, somebody teaching something in a different way. We think we're being productive, but sometimes we're just busy. In my thrive group, this comes up all the time.

We talk about that challenge of staying focused on one goal when it feels like everyone else is sprinting in different directions. But what I've learned just [00:05:00] by really observing all of these people who have been in my circle of education in the 40 years that I've been teaching, plus just from what I've learned with watching myself as I move through all these different stages, I've learned

with focus, it's actually what creates momentum. When I stopped trying to juggle 10 things at once and started pouring my best energy into the teaching, that clarity changed everything. Yes, focus created the momentum. Students started to find me. Collaborations started to happen naturally. And I started to feel...

I think I've been feeling this for a few months now, I've felt much more aligned rather than scattered. [00:06:00] One of the favorite things that I read in this book is about the domino effect. So every big success is built on a series of smaller and focused actions, each one knocking down the next. So that's why I have put everything down on paper.

Honestly, this year I've been putting that idea into practice in a big way. So this year has been about really building a good foundation. I have done a lot of planning, so this full year I have run all of the things that I kinda started the year before, and I've tried to redo the key things that I wanna keep doing year after year.

And in order to give myself time to do that, I needed to start hiring people. And I know you all know that I've had Kaylie, who obviously does these [00:07:00] podcasts with me quite often. I had her as really my first hire. So she was somebody I put in place more than two years ago, I think. And hiring her and putting her system, which is the whole marketing part of it together, was step number one.

Since that time, I have hired many other contractors. Some of them are people that I work with month by month. Some of them are people that I work with as I need them. And I've had help with personal assistants, with virtual assistants. I've even hired somebody to help clean my house. And another person that has also made a big difference is somebody helping me with setting up my Airtable systems.

So now I have a personal assistant who will help me maintain those Airtable systems. [00:08:00] And with the help of my daughter, who does most of my rough editing for me, I think I've put together a pretty good team. And really, that process alone has been probably the most transformational thing that I've done.

So the act of writing everything down, first of all, was one of the ways that I was able to finally see- What was on my plate. So taking the time to map out last year, and then adding to it, keeping a really good record in my planner of all of the different tasks that I did, really working on my schedule, and backwards engineering, if that makes sense, every deadline.

I felt pressed at almost every deadline, so what that taught me is I really needed to have a [00:09:00] longer runway. So that's one of the things we're working into our 2026 plan. We built that plan now on paper, and that reflects exactly what's going to happen over basically the next 18 months. It's a plan that will take me out of this year and into the next one, help us throughout the year, and then carry us into the following year, where we're gonna probably have to make adjustments here and there.

But oh my gosh, what a difference. It's like my business has a brain outside of mine. That structure helps me have space to think and to create. It's how I protect my one thing, which is the teaching, the projects, creating everything for all of you wonderful people because I'm No longer trying to hold everything in my own head.

Believe me, [00:10:00] that is absolutely impossible at this point. So hiring support has also forced me to let go of some of the control, and that's not always easy for creatives, right? We're so used to doing all of the things ourselves, but having a team has given me time to focus on the parts that truly matter, so the creating of the lessons, the recording of the classes, the mentoring of students, the project creation, so the illustration work, all of that.

It's not about outsourcing everything, but it's about recognizing that my energy has a limit, and I can't spend all of my time managing all of the tasks. If I do, I never get time for that real creative work. And I really enjoyed reading this book because... And I'm actually partway through reading it again because [00:11:00] it's taught me a lot about habits and how consistency really beats intensity.

So that's true whether you're running a business or you're building an art practice. Believe me, routine and repetition is your friend, not your foe. I have found that having support allows me to be consistent and not frantic for once. So if you're asking yourself, "Okay, yeah, but how do I figure out what my one thing is?"

Here's an exercise that I personally love. I ask myself, what is that one thing, if I focused on it for the next 90 days, would make everything else easier or unnecessary? Just think about that for a second. I'm gonna repeat it. What's the one thing that if I focused on it for the next 90 [00:12:00] days would make everything else easier or unnecessary?

And I didn't make this up. This is from the book, okay? I want you to take some time to write down all of your goals. It could be your art sales. It could be your social growth. It could be licensing or classes or building your email list, and then look for the power or the engine that powers the rest. For you, maybe it's building your portfolio or it's growing that email list, participating and collaborating.

Maybe it's finishing that one course that you keep pausing. Whatever it is, make that the centerpiece of your week. Use whatever systems you need like Airtable or a notebook or a journal and keep yourself accountable and just take emotion out of the chaos. Now, [00:13:00] for me, this year it's been about simplification.

Every decision and every project and every collaboration that I'm going to be doing in 2026 has to align with that focus on education and artist empowerment. If something doesn't fit that vision, I'm gonna either say no, delay it, or hand it off to somebody. And I'm saying it and as the words are coming out of my mouth I'm thinking, "Ugh," "Can I do this?"

It really is something new for me. It's new for me to be even able to say this, but you know what? It feels so good to say it too. It's freeing. It's the reason I can be more creative again because my energy is going into what truly matters. So I want to know what is your one thing?

What is the focus that deserves your time [00:14:00] and your heart right now? It's hard to just sit back and think about these things. It really is 'cause we get so busy with our day-to-day stuff we just- forget that we should be thinking about these things. So I'm just here to remind you, and I would love to hear from you.

You could share your thoughts with me on Instagram at DeloresArtCanada or come and meet with us at our Thrive meetings on Tuesday at 6:00 Central. I'll have the links below here. Tell me what you're focusing on and what distractions you're letting go of. And you can download my free goal planning guide.

I have that available for anybody who wants to actually get to work on this. I have a workbook that you can use. And if this episode gave you some clarity, please share it with a creative friend who [00:15:00] needs just that little bit of permission to simplify too. Remember, progress doesn't come from doing all of it.

Honestly, it doesn't. I have tried it all. Trust me. Progress comes from doing the right thing at the right time with intention. You just really need to take some time and listen to your heart, really think about this. Keep creating, keep juggling, and most importantly, keep finding joy in the process.