When you just need to take the next step

It’s been almost a year since we moved to our six acre farm in the country.

Technically I don’t know if I can call it a farm, because aside from two very spoiled dogs, we still don’t have any animals, and aside from a few herbs and an avocado tree, we’re not really growing anything either. We do have a barn though!

But I haven’t given up on my dream of having chickens and a few cows and a full garden full of fresh produce, or my big vision of creating a place where people can gather.

It’s a place that my husband Chuck and I talked about and searched for years before we finally found it. We had this dream of a home that could become a legacy for our kids and their kids and future generations—a place they’ll always want to come back to. We wanted to create a place where everyone is welcome, a sanctuary from the world where people can be restored. 

And after talking and dreaming about it for so many years, it felt almost surreal to finally find it.

Over the past year, we’ve made a ton of progress. We gutted the ramshackle guest house and created the sweetest little space for people to stay. We refurbished the scary pool area and turned it into a backyard oasis. I created a storage room in the garage. And now my latest project is finally decorating the living room, which up until now has just been our “staging area.” I’m hoping to have it done in time for Thanksgiving.

But friend, big dreams don’t always happen fast.

And while a year in, I still love this place as much as the day we bought it, I’ll be honest—sometimes it still feels a little overwhelming when I think about all the projects we still have yet to do.

On really bad days, it feels like we’ll never get there.

And I won’t lie, there are moments when we wonder if we made a huge mistake.

Were we crazy to take this on?

But that’s when we go back to the vision that we wrote out together. We re-read it, and remind ourselves of what we believe our future can be.

And then we remind ourselves that we don’t have to take all the steps right now, we just have to take the next step.

Our project board helps with that. 

Yes, it’s a little old school (and you can accomplish the same thing with a Trello board if you prefer to do things digitally), but we’ve found it so satisfying to create sticky notes for every task and then move them across the board as we complete things.

But it also helps us to prioritize and stay focused on just the next few things instead of getting overwhelmed by the dozens of projects we haven’t even started yet.

And if you too are feeling overwhelmed by a list of tasks that feels too big to manage, I can’t recommend it strongly enough. Honestly, it’s been our savior this past year—the thing that we just keep coming back to, again and again. It keeps us on the same page. It keeps us focused. And it helps us celebrate every accomplishment, no matter how small.

Henry Nouwen once said, “you can’t see the whole path ahead, but there is usually enough light to just take the next step.” Along those same lines, John Tesh advised to “focus on the step in front of you, and not the whole staircase.”

In other words? Action is the antidote to fear.

It’s something that I’ve written a lot about in my book Do It Scared®, but it also applies to overwhelm. Because often overwhelm and fear are closely connected. But taking action—even the smallest step—is almost always the cure. It builds your courage and confidence for the next step, and the next one after that.

And so, my challenge for you this week, is to take one small step towards your bigger goal. Do something, anything, to get you just a tiny bit closer to that thing that you want. Then hit reply to this email and let me know what you do—I’d love to cheer you on!

Live with purpose, friend, and have a joy-filled week!

xoxo, Ruth

P.S. Speaking of tiny steps, we’ve added one to our Thinlicious program! It’s a 10-Day Sugar Detox challenge, and it really is the smallest step you could take towards achieving your bigger health goals. If you’re interested in joining our first-ever cohort, which starts next Monday, you can sign up here.

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