The Messy Middle

I have to start with an apology. Last week, I missed you. Life was life-ing, as it does, and I've been living inside a stretch of constant unfamiliarity. That takes something out of you. When everything around you is new, your brain doesn't get to coast. It runs diagnostics all day long. There is no normal setting right now for me, so I am creating little spaces of time that feel comfortable.

If you've been feeling it too—the foggy thinking, the shorter fuse, the blank page that used to have something to say—I see you.

That's not a flaw. That's what adaptation costs.

Here's what I'm doing with it. I'm letting myself treat messy as information instead of failure. I'm borrowing support where my capacity is thin. I've been relaxing a bit and allowing myself to use AI to outline, to draft rough first passes, to sort the jumbled notes in my head into something I can actually use. I'm giving myself the grace to figure it out without the pressure to have it all figured out, all at once.

That's hard! Hard for someone who likes to know exactly what to expect.

Some days I feel like I'm in a bubble. Less social. More inward. Totally not my usual. I've started calling it cocooning instead of isolating.

And I think that distinction—the word you choose for the season you're in—is everything.

Small steps toward a new normal. Not a sprint. An emergence.

All of you are at your own "edge" of becoming something different. Maybe it's a contemplation of a big change, maybe it's a frustration with a current situation, maybe it's trying to recapture a former energy, maybe it's a mindset shift, maybe it's digging in to commit (or re-commit) to structure and goals we set back in January.

Wherever you are on that edge, you don't have to leap. You just have to lean. That's enough for right now.

Journal Prompts:

• What edge are you standing at right now? Describe it like a place—what does it look, feel, or sound like?

• What is the unfamiliar thing that's draining you most this season? What would it mean to call it a transition instead of a problem?

• Where have you been treating messy as failure? What would change if you treated it as information instead?

• What is your real minimum right now—not the aspirational one, the honest one? What would it look like to honor that?

• Think about a time you were in a cocoon before. You didn't know it then. What came out the other side?

• What word are you using for the season you're in? Is it the right one? Does it need to change?

• Where are you waiting for permission to begin—and who, really, has to give it?

Affirmations:

• I am not behind. I am between.

• Messy is not a sign I'm failing. It's a sign I'm moving.

• I give myself permission to do this imperfectly and keep going anyway.

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Office Hours:  No more office hours this month. This is for Editor's Circle Coaching Members as well as any Guided Revision Coaching Members who would like to touch base between scheduled coaching appointments. HERE is the link to schedule a 30-minute slot

The Weekly Draft: happens every Sunday evening at 7pm at this link. Come prepared to reflect on the past week and draft the upcoming week. It is meant to be a heads down, co-planning time, with me being available to share strategies and/or answer questions. Join me HERE