17 Oct
2026
Some weeks, problems don't arrive one by one. The bill, the health scare, the argument and the deadline all show up together, and your mind tries to solve all of them at the same time. That is usually when people freeze or run. There is a better way, and it starts with a piece of very old advice.
When Jonathan Anthony Burkett was a little boy in Westmoreland, Jamaica, his grandfather, Arnold Burkett, held him on his lap and gave him some of the most important advice of his life. Jonathan called him “Doctor,” his neighborhood nickname. As Jonathan recalls in his memoir Neglected But Undefeated, Doctor told him: “Do not run from any man or problems or else many more may come your way. So face them all, one at a time.”
Jonathan would need those words. In the years that followed he dealt with seizures, nights without a home, hospital stays and, in January 2006, brain surgery. He didn't solve everything at once. Nobody does. But “one at a time” gave him a way to keep moving when everything felt too big.
There are two parts to that advice. The first is: don't run. Ignoring problems tends to multiply them. The second is just as important: one at a time. You are allowed to stop trying to carry everything in a single trip.
When everything hits at once, your brain treats every problem like an emergency. That's exhausting, and it makes it hard to think clearly. The first move is simple: write everything down.
Take a sheet of paper or open a note on your phone and list every single thing that is weighing on you. Big and small. The rent and the dentist appointment. The friend you need to call back and the form you keep forgetting. Don't organize yet. Just empty your head onto the page.
Many people find that the list, once it's written, is shorter than it felt. Even when it isn't, seeing it on paper turns a cloud of worry into a set of separate items. Separate items can be handled.
Now go through the list and give it some order. Here is a simple process you can use:
That last step matters more than it seems. Giving yourself permission to set something aside, on purpose, is very different from avoiding it.
Big problems stay frozen when the next step is vague. The fix is to shrink it until it's something you could finish in under an hour. Send one email. Make one phone call. Fill out one page.
After his surgery, Jonathan wrote down a short list of goals: a good job, a roof over his head, getting his health back, and above all being ready for a family. “I wanted to be ready for a family, because that’s what my heart craved the most.” None of those goals could be finished in a day. But a short list made it possible to wake up and know which direction to walk.
Once you finish one small step, notice it. Then pick the next one. Momentum is built from finished steps, not from perfect plans.
Not running is not the same as doing it all yourself. Part of facing a problem is asking who can help with it. A friend can sit with you while you make the hard call. A counselor, pastor or trusted elder can help you see the list more clearly. Many problems, from bills to health questions, have someone whose job is to help you sort them out.
Rest belongs in the plan too. A tired mind makes every problem look bigger. Sometimes the most productive thing you can do on a hard night is sleep and look at the list again in the morning.
In the introduction to his memoir, Jonathan wrote, “I know that I have made it through trials, so now let me see if I can make it through challenges.” You have made it through hard things before, too. This week is just the next set of challenges, and you only need to face the first one.
Before today ends, write your list, pick one item and take its first small step. That's it. Tomorrow, pick the next one.
If you want to read the full story of how Jonathan kept facing his problems one at a time, you can find Neglected But Undefeated on his Books page. For more of his words on getting through hard seasons, visit his Quotes page.
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