Burning Beneath

“It’s hard to stay focused on the task at hand.”
That sentence sums up the battle I’ve been facing daily. My mind doesn’t walk—it races. It jumps ahead to the next phase of the project before I’ve even completed the one in front of me. One moment I’m planning the immediate step, and the next, I’m off thinking about alternative approaches, better strategies, ways to make it more effective, more impactful. I start reimagining the entire project—what could be, what should be, what might be better—and without realizing it, I’m no longer grounded in the present. I’ve leaped far ahead to the finish line when I haven’t even laced my shoes yet.

And then comes the overwhelm.

It hits hard. Everything feels tangled, the excitement blurring into anxiety, and I find myself needing to pause. To breathe. To recalibrate. I remind myself, sometimes forcefully, to return to the now. To the one step that’s in front of me.
Just this step.
See it clearly.
Prepare for it.
Plan it.
And give it my full attention—for the entire day, if needed.

But oh, what a battle it is—especially when you’re working on something that means the world to you. When you’re building a dream you’ve carried for years. When the vision feels so alive in your mind that you can almost touch it, smell it, breathe it in. That hunger to bring it to life can be both your greatest fuel and your biggest distraction.

And then reality knocks. It reminds you of the limits. Time. Money. Energy. The weight of financial constraints can be sobering, and in that moment, the vision gets tested. That’s when I have to slow down, breathe again, and remind myself: Patience.
This is a process. A journey.
One step at a time.
No matter how badly I want to sprint, I have to walk.
With discipline. With focus. With trust.

So here I am—buckling down once again, committing to the work in front of me, and holding onto the belief that eventually, this dream will stand tall. Not just as an idea, but as a living, breathing creation.