Ah....the messy middle..... going through change or a transformation is like organizing your closet.....
You walk in and everything is there, but it feels difficult to find what you need, or you may have features or talents that you're not even using. It feels difficult to navigate, let alone wrap your brain around what the future state might look like. You then decide to tackle that project (or work on yourself), so you hire someone to work with and they have you pull everything out - it can be easy to feel overwhelmed by 'all of it.'
I call this the messy middle. It can be uncomfortable. But when you pick up one item, see if it's working for you or not, and start to organize in a way that makes sense for you (better serves you, makes you more efficient and effective), it begins to take shape. You can see the progress and when you arrive at the end, it brings such a sense of relief. You have alignment again.
When I walk into an organization needing to go through a change or when I work with an executive that is looking to level up, there is a point in our time together when it feels like there isn't progress, or worse yet, if feels messier than when I arrived. This is when I ask them to be patient - with themselves, with others, with me - because this is the messy middle when we've emptied the closet and now we have a methodology that we'll follow to get to that end state.
You see, transformation can't happen without some things changing. And while it may not make sense in the moment, it will start to feel like there is progress happening.
Have you ever felt that way? Like you're in the messy middle of life or an event? What has worked for you to get grounded again so that you can see the progress?
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