Today we’re going to play a game for when you feel overwhelmed and disheartened.  You choose a task, clean my kitchen, or you’re given a task, write two thousand words on Thomas Jefferson, and you think mm oh, that’s, how am I going to start?  What do I do? I don’t have the focus.  I’ll wait till I have more time on the…

But in fact it was Thomas Jefferson who wrote ‘do you want to know who you are? don’t ask act. Action will delineate and define you’ Which is inspiring if you want to discover who you are but it sounds a bit highfalutin if you just want to clear enough mess in the kitchen so you can pour yourself a bowl of cereal.

In fact it’s great advice and yes I know Thomas Jefferson had servants and slaves so he didn’t have to clean his kitchen or remember where he left his cell phone.  Back then the cell phone was a string and a key and the kite apparently…

So the game we’re gonna play today is do one thing.  However small, do one thing, take one step.  You’re gonna play this game whenever you’re feeling overwhelmed or if I should God, 2,000 words mm the whole kitchen.  Just do one thing one, thing one small step.  Spend ten minutes scanning Jefferson’s Wikipedia page or two minutes… whatever you can manage.  Maybe start a document titled Thomas Jefferson.  Jot down three thoughts that you have.

Your kitchen? Total disaster? Just one thing, get the gooey frying pan soaking in the sink and hot soapy or just you know lay it on the floor so your dogs and cats can do the pre-rinse for you.  One step.  I know this sounds ridiculous but I’ve used this strategy to start creating every television program and every full-length video in our shop.

Warning resist the urge to get all Noble and vow to clean the entire kitchen. that’s all or nothing thinking and that’s why we often end up with nothing done.  Doing one small thing may feel futile but it often leads to a second and a third and a little momentum. Just do one thing one simple thing, whatever you can manage, however small and then notice where it lead.