When You Don't Feel Like Eating an Elephant, Read it a Bedtime Story

Find inspiration and motivation in uniquely "you" ways when your situation is daunting

Have you ever found yourself faced with a colossal project, feeling unequipped and overwhelmed at the mere thought of it? The weight of the task can be paralyzing, but I'm here to share a strategy that has proven to be a catalyst for getting things moving in my life. By identifying a small task within the project that brings you joy, you can ignite your motivation and pave the way towards accomplishing even the most daunting goals. A few weeks ago, I took on the monstrous task of planning and organizing a classic car show at our church, something we’ve never done before.

The task at hand is immense—a classic car show that needed careful planning, coordination, and attention to detail. While the car show was my idea, I’m not someone that relishes the organization or execution of my ideas! I’m a good CEO and a very average project manager. As a creative who likes to cast vision, the thought of organizing an event of this magnitude and detail seemed overwhelming in scope and underwhelming in pleasure. However, instead of succumbing to doubt and fear, I decided to leverage my passion and skills to find a starting point that resonated with me.

Inspired by the idea of the car show, I recognized the opportunity to channel my enthusiasm into creating a children's book. I thought if I could write a story that kids could identify with and point them to their Creator, it would be a great free gift to kids from our community that might attend our car show. The story revolved around an old truck named Earl, who, against all odds, entered the car show with rusty trepidation and fear of rejection. This project within a project allowed me to combine my love for writing, try my hand at illustrating, all the while giving me a sense of purpose and direction amidst the chaos of event planning.

Now if you look up on Google “how to plan a car show,” none of the results are going to say, “first, write a children’s book.” But in the following nights and weekends from my home studio office in our backyard, as I delved deeper into making the book, I discovered that my enthusiasm for the car show grew exponentially. Each designed page fueled my motivation to tackle the more daunting aspects of organizing the car show back at my church job. By engaging in this smaller, enjoyable task, I experienced a renewed sense of energy and drive to tackle the greater challenges that lay ahead.

Life is full of challenges that may appear insurmountable at first glance. It is during these moments that we must dig deep and recognize the unique gifts and talents we possess. Finding a small task that brings us joy within a larger project can act as a stepping stone, igniting the fire within us and propelling us forward. Don’t let self-doubt paralyze you.

By embracing our passions and leveraging our skills, we unlock the potential to accomplish incredible feats, especially as we share our vision with others! Showing others my early designs got them excited to participate and join into other parts of the car show. This experience of organizing a car show has transformed from being a monumental task into a labor of love simply by starting on a children's book in my free time, enabling me to infuse my creativity into the project and ultimately find momentum and success back at work at the church. Similarly, you too can harness your gifts and talents to tackle seemingly impossible undertakings.

Remember, in the face of daunting projects, seek out that one task that excites you, that makes you come alive.

It doesn’t matter that it might not excite others, it just has to excite you.

Embrace it, nurture it, and allow it to become the catalyst that propels you towards achieving goals you’d otherwise pass on. Use the gifts God gave you and let them shine through as you tackle the challenges that lie ahead.

If you don’t have the appetite for it, no advice for eating the elephant is going to work.

Sometimes you just have to write and read the big guy a bedtime story.

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If you’re a paid subscriber in the U.S., I want to send you a copy of Earl Goes to the Car Show at no extra charge as a “thank you” for supporting my writing and creating! Watch your email in the next week for more details on how to supply your shipping information!

If you’re not a paid subscriber and want to get a copy, consider subscribing! At $5 per month, you can sign up for one or two months and get an $8.95 book for your kids, grandkids, or story time at your church all for supporting our writing and creative projects at Hungry Planet (our publishing company.) And more books are in the works for subscribers!

Lastly, know of someone with a classic car who attends car shows and might want to share God’s love with kids that come to see their restored beauty? Send them the link to this post! I created Earl Goes to the Car Show as an outreach tool and these little books can be bought in bulk.

Let me know what daunting task you’re facing; maybe we can come up with a fun starting point together! Or, share a story of how you took a unique approach to tackling a not-so-fun task list, all in the comments.