At night, while winding down, I play a mobile game called Infinity Loop. The game is simple. The screen fills with a mess of disconnected lines and curves that I have to untangle. I have to rotate each piece until they all connect with no loose ends. Early levels are easy, but as the screen fills with more and more shapes, it seems impossible to figure out on first glance.
There’s an old proverb that says you can eat an entire elephant… but only one bite at a time. Infinity Loop works the same way. The only way to solve it is to ignore the whole mess of shapes and just tap one piece. Then another. And another. Eventually the connections click, momentum starts to build, and next thing I know I’ve completed the puzzle. As long as I start tapping that screen, no matter how difficult it seems at the start, I eventually solve the puzzle. Every. Single. Time.
Break Through the Fog
Most creatives freeze because they’re staring at the whole problem. The entire project, the big career step, the giant unknown. And the brain panics because it’s trying to process the entire puzzle instead of the next piece. But clarity is rarely seen before movement begins.
Have you ever walked out onto an intensely foggy environment? The fog kind of sits there blocking everything in front of you. It isn’t until you start taking steps that you start seeing that fog react to your movement, and start to dissipate.
Momentum is the thing that shapes direction. Once you stop obsessing over the forest and touch a single tree, the path becomes clear in front of you.
Take a Step
Overwhelm doesn’t mean the challenge is too big. It usually means you’re trying to solve every part of it all at once.
Refresh a portfolio. Pitch a new idea. Raise your rates. Learn a new skill. Shift careers. Build a system. Improve your craft. None of that is a single action. It’s made up of dozens of tiny, sequential taps.
Paralysis happens when you treat the cluster as a single task.
But everything changes when you shift from macro to micro. Clean up one file. Rewrite one paragraph. Fix one page. Send one email. Learn one technique. Adjust one layout. Complete one concept. Momentum is what turns abstract into the doable.
Most people don’t get stuck creatively, they get stuck mentally. Action unlocks clarity. Clarity unlocks the next step.
Start Small, Stay Moving
Whatever you’re wrestling with right now only feels impossible because you’re holding the whole puzzle in your head. Break it into pieces. Choose the smallest one. Start with that. Let momentum do the rest.
You don’t need to finish the entire thing today. You just need to start. And if you keep tapping one piece at a time, the connections will come together. The shape will emerge. The problem will loosen. And eventually, the thing that looked overwhelming becomes solvable. Every. Single. Time.
If this resonated and you want help figuring out where to tap first, reach out to me. I always respond.
More of My Thoughts
