I finally did it. After weeks of looking at my back garden, I decided to tackle clearing it out. Reclaiming it as a garden, rather than just give it over to the weeds. And what weeds there are. I don’t even know what most of them are. I just know they’re nasty. Tall, matted root structure, and aggressive. Some even have huge thorns, and other are vines that twist around branches of what would otherwise be lovely bushes, choking the life out of them.

So now that I’ve decided to do this, where do I start? This garden is about 75 feet long and 10 feet wide. And though I’ve made it somewhat easier by putting shrubs in there, the weeds have completely taken over. See?

(c) Kathleen Thompson    Are there actually plants underneath all that?

Have you ever had a project that felt so huge that you didn’t know where to start? And every time you looked at it, you just felt overwhelmed? Or wanted to shudder? Or call 1-800-gotjunk? If you’re downsizing and have to purge a lot of stuff, it can feel that way. If you’re starting a large project it can feel that way. So many moving parts. So much to get done. It can be hard to know where to start.

Sometimes it’s obvious. You can’t do thing B until A is done. Like I can’t plant new plants in my garden until it’s cleaned out. But….the cleaning out part’s going to take a very long time. And it’s that part I needed to decide where to start, take a deep breath, and dig in.

In the end, it didn’t really matter where I started, so I picked the middle. I decided to work my way to the right first to the end, and then go back to the middle and go to the left. I figured I’d see the middle better (or maybe that was just how I explained it to myself). So, here goes nothing, I thought, as I got started.

I felt like those explorers in the Amazon jungle. I probably could have used a machete. Instead, I had lopping shears, a pitchfork, and shovel. It was slow going. Sweat pouring down my face and arms. Scratches covering my arms too from those nasty prickers. But hey, at least I had made a dent in the middle of the garden.

It doesn’t look pretty. In fact, it looks ugly right now. A big space with nothing in it except the little ground-level weeds. Because, oh yeah, I didn’t get all the weeds. I only got the tall ones. The little ones are still there, defiantly looking at me every time I go outside.

But it’s progress. And that’s what matters. My garden isn’t going to turn from a nasty weed jungle to gorgeous with the click of my heels. It certainly isn’t Instagram-ready.

But it is progress. That’s what I’m focusing on. And every day that I have the opportunity to go outside and work, I just focus on what’s next. Do the work. Keep plugging along. Which is how projects get done. Whether they’re short or long. It takes getting up every day and doing the work.

As Roger Love says, “”I do the work every day and look for the magic. The work is more likely to make the magic happen.”

If you’ve got a project that feels like my garden, take heart. It’s probably not as overgrown as my garden. And even if it is, just start. Anywhere. Chip away at it little by little. You may see only a hole at first. Slowly but surely you’ll see space open up. Possibilities. Creative ideas will come out of the space you create. Just like in my garden.

Do you have a project that’s dragging you down just thinking about it? Leave a comment about how you might get started.