GNT #167: Back in the messy middle

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read time: 1.5 minutes

On Friday morning last week, I had a prep call for a fireside chat I'm doing at a women's event.

The topic is navigating the messy middle. That uncomfortable stretch of any long project where you're in deep and not yet close enough to see the finish line. I'd been planning to use our airplane build as the central story. 3.5 years, 2,300 hours, working rivet by rivet in our garage. And that middle phase where things just felt so hard.

About halfway through the prep call, I had a strange realization.

We finished the airplane 11 years ago. But I was back in the messy middle right now. I was literally describing my own life.

I have a current project I've been building since January. I believe in it enough that I keep protecting time for it even when everything else is asking for my attention. It's in the hardest stage. The part where I'm trying to put words to something that only exists in my head. Reaching for a shape I can't quite see yet. Asking myself: is this right? Will this work? Is it worth it?

After the call ended, I sat in my chair for a minute.

I had just spent an hour preparing to help a room full of women navigate exactly where I am right now. There's something a little disorienting about that. And something clarifying too.

The advice I was preparing to share with them: shrink the finish line, go back to your why, consistency over perfection. I needed to hear every word of it for myself.

Here's what's actually keeping me going when the doubt gets loud:

What I'm building is what I wish I had when I started.

That's enough of an answer.

The grace and patience we're willing to offer someone else in the middle of a hard season, we often withhold from ourselves. We treat our own messy middle as a problem to solve instead of a season to move through.

I know I'm not the only one sitting in that chair right now.
 

Takeaway

If you're in a messy middle, one question:

What would you tell a friend who was exactly where you are?

If you want to email me back and share it, I'd love to hear it.

I'm always rooting for you. See you next week.

-Colleen

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