The Messy Middle

You know the messy middle too, don’t you? That crazy part of life, I mean painting, where, after you start out feeling hopeful, even confident, and ready to conquer the world. You are painting away without a care in the world and then…things seem to go a bit wonky. If you’re not careful, you start to feel that hopeful confidence start to slip away, ever so unnoticeably at first. But then you realize doubt is creeping in. Because it all seems a bit hopeless now, and not at all what you had in mind. Maybe it would be best to just give up. Because what were you thinking heading down this path in life, I mean painting.

The thing is, there is almost always a messy middle and that’s where you need to dig down deep and call on your fearless confidence and keep forging ahead. Because you can do this, I know you can. This messy middle may be the middle of a paining, or even several paintings in a row that are not what you had envisioned. And that’s where the growth happens.

Embrace the messy middle, because that’s all it is—a middle, a place to learn, and grow and feel uncomfortable. And that’s okay. In fact it’s fabulous. Because in the end it will be totally worth it. Somehow, almost magically, things turn out just the way they were meant to. And always remember, if it’s still not what you had envisioned, you get the chance to try again, and again until it happens.

Enjoy the process and let it inspire you to continually keep learning and growing. It’s a fabulous journey, even the dreaded messy middle!