Something that has been popping up for me recently is how the messy middle happens in our business, and how we can have these big goals and dreams of where we’re heading but find ourselves in that middle space where we’re a little bit scared (or a lot scared) about what we actually have to do to get to those next steps.

Sound familiar?

I know that I’m at this place a lot of the time in my business and I know others are feeling the same, and I want to talk about what we can do to not necessarily get through it but to manage it while we’re there.

So, What Is The Messy Middle?

Do you know that part of your business where you’re starting to scale, maybe you’re adding team members, and figuring out how to pay these new people when before all you had to worry about was paying yourself?

And it’s a bit scary because you know that to grow you have to invest in the people that are going to have your back because you’re only human and can only do so much work?

Or, maybe things are flowing but they’re not easy yet, but you know that they can get there, and so you’re visualizing what it could be like if it were easy and what you’d be doing in your day to day and you want to get there so bad.

I don’t know about you, but I personally do not want to be working 80 hours a week! I want to be able to pay myself and have a million-dollar revenue business and in order to achieve that I have to push outside of myself and push past these boundaries of thinking that I can do everything myself because there’s no way I can physically produce that amount of work if it’s just me in.

Now beyond revenue goals for your own business, you might be trying to figure out not only what your overall vision is, but how to make it happen, and how to create a sustainable business.

Through many of my hardest challenges, one of the biggest things that helped me get through it was just not wanting to go back to working for somebody else. This was huge for me. I always say how much better things are – even when they’re the worst! What 9-to-5 job would let you sleep under your desk if you were having a really bad day and needed to take a time out?

You, Magnified

Going into business for yourself makes you look in a very magnified mirror and it makes you understand every single weakness of your soul and being. Being in business for yourself is just like one giant personal development project!

Remember that it’s a marathon, not a sprint: some days you just have to keep going, or it might be week by week of a complete rollercoaster of wondering whether you’re going to hit your goals, and just doing whatever it takes in order to bring income in because there is no alternative, right?

Let’s Talk About The Hustle For A Minute

I hustled for way too long and even though I feel like I have hustling moments while I’m working through some of this stuff even now. I have the end goal to make it easy and I’m not telling myself that hustle has to happen because we can always reframe and remind ourselves at least not to glorify the hustle. Nobody should be physically working themselves to death like I’ve done in past lives – I can remember pulling all-nighters regularly, working 18-hour days regularly, working full-time and running my business, doing grad school and working and running my business!

Even now that I feel things are easier in life and business I still don’t feel free of that hustle all the way, even though I know deep down that it only leads to burnout.

Working Through It

Part of the messy middle is working through the things that you need to work through, but also reserving space to listen to your intuition and to listen to those nuggets of wisdom that come to you – it can be hard to listen to it through the noise, but I’ve learned through this journey that sometimes we need to slow down and wait for those glimmers of hope and stop questioning why you haven’t reached a certain goal yet.

I’ve sometimes had to literally tell my ego and fear “thank you, I know you’re trying to look out for me, but I don’t need your help right now, what I really need is to sleep, like I know you’re trying to help but it’s not helping so please stop.“

This is where journaling can really help to separate the story from the facts and, if it is true, what can I do to fix it. Journaling allows me to take the ego out of it and just write a few things down that are milling in my head and get them onto paper where I can really see what is true and what isn’t.

I think a lot of us do this thing where when we have that ego or that resistance or the fear we sometimes build it up into something bigger than it actually is. If we could journal about it and actually just be like “this is what you’re afraid of” we can break it down and step into that next step and really explore the different options.

There’s something so powerful about owning your crap and putting it on paper because it can help you be a little more objective about the thoughts you’re having.

Getting through that messy middle I really think is going on that emotional mindset journey and figuring out the things that are holding you back inside yourself and then working past it. It’s crazy and it takes a very brave and curious soul to do it, and it’s definitely not for the faint of heart.

Having said that, if you don’t like going to work at eight o’clock every day, it’s 100% worth it!