Day 1: You cannot build on top of Overwhelm

Before anything beautiful can grow, we need space to think, to feel — space to even notice what you want.

Apr 01, 2025

In the 1911 classic The Secret Garden, Mary Lennox doesn’t enter the garden with a plan. She finds the key by accident — she finds the door by chance.

And what she discovers inside is not a pristine blank canvas waiting for her, but a wild, tangled space that has been neglected for years — ivy curling over the walls, brambles thick underfoot, leaves from long-past seasons matted against the soil.

Before she plants a single thing, Mary starts by brushing aside what’s dead and overgrown, making room for the garden to breathe again.

And we begin the same way, because:

You cannot build something meaningful on top of overwhelm.

You just can’t.

You can’t move forward in a meaningful way when every step feels weighed down by half-finished projects, by perfectionist pressure, by the noise of everyone else’s strategies and expectations.

And yet… we try. We push ourselves to build things before we’ve made space to even think. We create ambitious plans that we don’t have the energy to carry out — I know it’s not just me.

We chase the next thing with minds clouded with clutter.

Your next project doesn’t start with a logo, a color palette or the perfect domain name.

It starts by clearing the ground.

Before anything beautiful can grow, we need space to think, to feel — space to even notice what you want.

Day 1: A Brain Dump

Today, we begin with a brain dump — but think of it more like giving your mind a place to exhale.

Open a notebook, a doc, the notes app on your phone — whatever’s easiest.

Spend a few minutes listing everything you feel like you “ought to be doing” right now — without judgement.

Social platforms, email ideas, products, potential collaborations, unfinished tasks, courses you’ve saved but haven’t opened, potential offers or products.

All the “I’ll get to that soon.”
All the “this needs a proper plan.”
All the “I can’t think about this right now, but I can’t quite let it go either.”

Today, write it all down. Let your list spill over.
Don’t filter. Don’t organize.

You’re not here to fix anything yet, you’re just giving your mind a place to exhale.

Your attention is finite.

Your energy is not endless.

Every unacknowledged open loop drains you quietly. And when your internal space is full, there’s nowhere for your brilliant, inspired ideas to take root.

So today isn’t about doing more — It’s about making space, and noticing how much you’ve been carrying — mentally, emotionally, creatively.

Let that awareness be enough.

You don’t have to fix it all today.

Just see it, give yourself grace, and breathe.

That’s the first step to lightening the load.