DOMINO: THE ONE THING

🎬 “L’Etranger” & “House.Roc Real Estate Entertainment” present
DOMINO
Starring Filipa Rodrigues Abreu

A story about the divine piece that holds it all together.
When the system collapses, faith takes over.
And the One Thing — at last — falls into place.

Written by Filipa Rodrigues Abreu

I once answered every call — from clients, lovers, family, friends, bosses, managers, — until it started to sound like static. I am an actor turned dream architect, chasing meaning through beauty, systems, and control. But when the line went silent, I was forced to confront the voice that never stopped speaking.

I was a big girl now, with a License and a Title. I had books to read and deals to close.

I got my hands on this book called The One Thing and it’s full of post it notes and scribbles. The idea that there’s one clear domino that sets everything else in motion. One thing that, if I could just get right, would make everything else easier or unnecessary. Gary Keller’s line, word for word, has echoed in my head for years:

Got it!

I made a calendar and then another. I blocked time for Calls. Who am I calling? IDK. But they said calls take priority.

It wasn’t in the calls. I paced my one bedroom apartment like a detective on duty.

I was sitting with The One Thing open on my desk, highlighter in hand, the page asking that impossible question again—
What’s the one thing that makes everything else easier or unnecessary?
I tried to make it discipline. Then focus. Then routine. Then silence. Writing?

I quit my day job for a year to stay home and fully answer this question. What’s the ONE THING?!!! (yes i am that insane).

I would cram my days with activities, from recording videos to writing, to fighting, long gym sessions. I Meditated and did Yoga. I wrote. I drew.

I created my own “Goal Setting System.” I changed friends. I changed my diet. I had coaches and mentors and some days I would just stay in bed all day.

I wanted to push through it. I wanted to hold the plan together.
But something in me cracked—the thin place between control and trust. I keep rearranging the blocks, thinking one of these combinations will finally hold:
less phone, more sleep; more focus, fewer people; no media, MORE MEDIA. all meditation.

And still, something in me rebels. The more I tighten my day, the less of it feels alive.

“What’s the one thing you can do such that by doing it, everything else becomes easier or unnecessary?”

These words echoing in my head like a scream into a dark well. It sounds like clarity. It feels like pressure. No matter how much I moved, nothing ever really aligned.

I finally put the book down in anger and bewilderment:

AM I THE ONLY FOOL WHO DOESN’T HAVE THE ONE THING???? - i screamed into the void.

The answer that came wasn’t peace. It was memory…

I was never a cool kid so I had no reputation to maintain. I didn’t care about other people’s opinions so much back then — a mindset I invite myself to return to frequently.

Back then, my ONE THING was simple: It was God.

I would talk to Him like He was listening. And He was.

Relationship to the Divine is not very acceptable in society. Even if they claim open mindedness. You will be seen as a liar, heretic, witch or just plain insane. Best to keep everything looking as normal as possible. Morning and night, in the privacy of my bedroom and of my heart I would pray in silence for all the things I wanted from God. I would sit in the back of my church just looking at the image of Jesus, bleeding and suffering. An image that no doubt can be frightening or traumatic. I would often wonder, at the age of 5 and 6, looking up at an image that took center stage. A picture of pain, suffering and humiliation. Blood, lacerations and emaciated look… But the eyes, only kindness, love and acceptance.

It would send me into a tailspin of confusion. I would look up to that cross and cry of shame… What have I done? What will I do… what sins was I fated to commit? I worried for Him, perpetually suffering…

The rest of my time, I would navigate life as a teenager as best as I could.

Sex, drugs and rock and roll were in every kids mind. Dating, clothes and parties. Another nuisance I must contend with. I didn't do a good job blending in. Most of the time, I would dismiss parties, reject alcohol and wear my sister’s hand me downs. I don’t remember wearing makeup and boys… arghhh the thought of them STILL repulses me. I was fully absorbed in my dreams of becoming an artist, a bohemian wealthy movie star with a plethora of adventures, stories to tell and an eager audience to entertain.

In what world was I living in? I don’t know… My mother would ask me the same, frequently.

“Acting is not a job, being a movie star is not a plan and going to America is not for people like us.”

The older I got, the harder it was to remain in faith. So I gently but surely let it go. Using my connection to God as a cosmic wishing well that I did not visit unless I needed something… God would always come through anyway, and it removed the need to look like a freak. I started dating, wearing makeup, smoking… I become a human in all my glory. And that felt good.

God became a distraction…

I got married, bought a house, got divorced, lost my house. I started a career in Real Estate and I couldn’t pull a deal for all I tried. I put so much effort. So much labor, So much work. Years of hammering the same idea into different shapes — thinking if I could just find the right system, the right rhythm, the right routine, the right version of me, everything else would fall into place. The more I chased my “one thing,” the more things appeared. New goals. New habits. New reasons to delay peace.

I thought I could discipline myself into happiness

Early mornings that still felt hollow, work that looked meaningful but wasn’t peaceful, silence that was terrifying, positivity that was mostly performance. I told myself I was being intentional, but really I was terrified that if I stopped moving, everything would collapse. If people could see the Truth, they’d see nothing but a clown.

Somewhere in the middle of my carefully timed life, GOD stopped letting things work without Him.
The emails stopped mattering. The grind stopped impressing. The likes and the views felt boring. Dating was a distraction, clothes an imposition. Parties, Networking, office meetings…
My car didn’t start, received an eviction notice, death in the family, thousands of miles away, I had no closings on the pipeline and my broker hated me with passion.

I finally broke.

And then I understood. The one thing wasn’t a task. It’s HIM.

The One Thing isn’t a productivity book to me anymore. It’s a parable I’ve lived and wrestled with for years. I kept trying to make the “one thing” something manageable — something measurable. Something I could take to the bank.

Jesus has walked beside me since those early years in Portugal, while I tried to make sense of a calling that didn’t fit any box, any job, any version of success that could be explained at a dinner table.

HE was the quiet one in every room that told me to keep going, to hold the thread when I had no map, to trust the invisible architecture of my own faith. Just waiting for me to stop forcing the motion.

Because when that piece — when He — is in place, everything else starts to fall in divine order. Not all at once. Not dramatically. Just quietly, beautifully, inevitably.

You remember the sound of God’s voice before you tried to make it profitable.

When you walk with Jesus, you don’t push the domino. He does.

He sets the order, the pace, the gravity. And when that piece — His presence — is in place, everything else falls into divine alignment. You remember Who held you before the strategy, Who called you before the calendar, Who whispered before you even knew what words were.

Now, I live differently.
My work, my art, my stories — they’re all a way to stay close.
They’re not my ONE thing. They’re what happens when the ONE thing moves through me.

The One Thing isn’t what you do: It’s Who you walk with while you do it. Jesus knew what sins I was going to commit: to put Him in a drawer like a dust collector. He forgave me anyway…

“What’s the ONE thing you can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”

To Follow HIM.