501. 5 Principles from The ONE Thing Every College Student Needs

The ONE Thing

NOVA Media

Entrepreneurship, Business, Careers

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s graduation season—and whether you’ve got a child, a niece or nephew, or just a young person in your life heading to or already in college, you’re probably wondering how to best support them in this new chapter. In this episode, Jay gets personal. He walks through the highs and lows of his own college years—from social misfires and major indecision to joining the rugby team and becoming a double major in French and English. But more importantly, he shares what we wish college students learned… and what they actually do. Back in 2015, the ONE Thing team interviewed 15 students from across the country who had read the book and tried to apply its principles. With a little coaching and a few worksheets, they surfaced six core discoveries that can serve any young adult stepping into independence: Lay a Future Foundation – Even a vague purpose provides powerful direction. Set Mid-Term Targets – Clarity around “where you want to be when college ends” helps shape present-day decisions. Make a Success List, Not a To-Do List – Prioritize ruthlessly, especially when everything feels urgent. Think Big – Sometimes we create unnecessary limits. Big goals can make hard things feel smaller. Time Block for Willpower – Willpower isn’t on will-call. Structure your calendar to match your energy. Clarify Core Values – Use your values as a compass for choices, especially when you're on your own. Whether you're a parent, a mentor, or a recent grad yourself, this episode will inspire you to share the tools of focus, goal setting, and intention with someone who needs them most. Challenge of the Week: Identify a college-aged person in your life. Then go to the1thing.com/college to download the free college guide. Consider giving them a copy of The ONE Thing and the Core Values Deck as a graduation gift—and don’t just give it. Follow up. Ask if they’d like to go through it together. Help them put these tools into practice. *** To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: the1thing.com/pods. We talk about: Why “figuring out your ONE Thing” matters even when you’re young The halo effect of getting clear on your goals Why willpower should be scheduled, not summoned Links & Tools from This Episode: The ONE Thing College Guide The ONE Thing Core Values Deck Episode 483: Are You Using This Simple Tool to Make Better Decisions? Free Resources Want to be a guest or share feedback? Email [email protected] or send us an audio note at Speakpipe.com/the1thing. Produced by NOVA

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Jay Papazan and this is The One Thing, your weekly guide to the simple steps that lead to extraordinary results.
0:18.4	Hey there, One Thing, gang. It's graduation season. Maybe you have a college-age child about to leave high school and go off to college. Maybe you have a niece, a nephew, or just someone young and special to you that's heading off to college. Or maybe you have someone that's already in college and has headed back. I wanted to ask the question this week,
0:37.9	how can we serve our college-aged loved ones with the one thing? You're here, you're listening,
0:44.6	you're living the book, you know what it means to find extraordinary focus and understand
0:50.7	what your future looks like and you're working backwards from it. You understand the
0:54.9	principles of this book. How can we pass some of those lessons along to the young people in our
1:00.1	worlds? That's the question we're trying to answer this week. So I think it was around 2015,
1:05.1	2016. We asked the question, what does a collegeage student need from the one thing to really thrive
1:12.0	in that environment?
1:13.1	And we reached out to our network, and we identified 15 students from freshmen to sophomores
1:18.6	to seniors that had read the book who were trying to apply the book and were willing to be interviewed.
1:24.1	And we did a little bit of a before and after with them, after a little coaching
1:27.9	and after a few worksheets, to develop the college kids guide to the one thing. And this week,
1:34.2	I'm going to share the lessons we learn from that. Let's just dive straight in.
1:39.9	Well, let's kick things off, and I'll tell you a little bit about my college experience.
1:51.0	It might be an object lesson and what not to do. I showed up in college. My hero at the time was a fictional character named Sherlock Holmes who knew everything about everything, which is not physically
1:55.4	possible. But I really didn't want to make decisions in my college career, and I wasn't very good at managing
2:02.0	to the social life. I went to school at the University of Memphis. A lot of my friends were
2:07.1	across town at Rhodes, and as I was trying to figure out where my social life would live,
2:12.7	about half the weekends or more, I was driving across town to hang out with my friends at their
2:17.3	college instead of developing relationships at the one I was driving across town to hang out with my friends at their college
2:17.8	instead of developing relationships at the one I was at. I think the people at Blockbuster
	...

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