Getting Comfortable With The Messy Middle
Right now, I have about six different projects underway and they all are at varying stages of beginning, messy middle and completion.
I have a retreat sales page to write, a video from Lady Elliot Island to edit, Odyssey to launch, private coaching clients to support, sketches and paintings I want to work on, videos I want to film and people I want to connect with.
It’s a lot.
This is on top of preparing for a watercolour workshop next weekend, hosting the Creative Hearts Community and Flourish, restoring our Queenslander home, maintaining our yacht and travelling.
It’s a lot.
And if I listened to purely my thoughts, I could believe I have too much on, that I’m falling behind, or that I can’t handle it all.
But I’ve built these things over time in a layering process. I’ve added one element after another, once I’ve built the foundations for the one before it. And weaving these parts of my life together is what makes it feel rich, and fulfilling and keeps me interested.
I know I don’t have to complete all of them at once. I can use pacing - moving through time in a linear fashion - and give my attention to each of those things. Not all at once, but sequentially and in what actually feels like a leisurely fashion.
A beautiful part of the creative process is it helps us to build our capacity to be in the middle of the mess. To embrace uncertainty. To trust the process. To stay attuned to our own inner impulses, curiosities and delights.
The practice of letting go of control, while at the same time taking action to shape the outcome, is a dichotomy that any artist and Creative Heart know well. Being able to tolerate the discomfort of not knowing how something is going to turn out and being able to find engagement and momentum in the process regardless, is a skill we can build.
Creative Hearts know it well because they have experienced this predictable route so many times.
Having an idea.
Playing with their materials.
Making mistakes or happy accidents.
Responding to what is unfolding in the present time.
Caring for their body’s needs.
Persistence.
Playfulness.
A process that warps and weaves and doesn’t follow the exact route in their mind’s eye.
Dissatisfaction.
More persistence.
Adjustments guided by their personal aesthetics or concepts.
Finally leading to resolution and completion.
They have trained themselves to trust the process. Not freak out when the paint tubes are strewn on the table and the painting is looking like a hot mess. Not abandon ship when the deadline is looming and the project hasn’t come together yet. Not doubt their aesthetic when someone else doesn’t like what they have created.
Those creative muscles are built in the studio, in the darkroom, on the blank page. Every time we create, we are becoming more familiar with the process of all creation, and that includes creating a life that feels enlivening, energising and challenging, in a good way.
Because if everything feels too easy, we can become stagnant and begin to feel despondent. We need challenges to overcome. We need to trust we have the capacity for growth. We need to get comfortable with the messy middle.
It’s part of every creative process.
And it’s why I’m so, so excited about Odyssey. It is a space that not only supports your experience of navigating through the messy middle, but it also invites and welcomes it. Because if we are to find what lights us up at this stage in our lives, we are likely going to need to embrace some uncertainty.
Some projects will take longer than we’d anticipated and we will need to exercise our capacity to have loose ends, projects in progress, unfinished business, and things not tied up neatly in a bow. On the other hand, it’s possible we may be astounded by how quickly some things come together and we will need to adjust our expectations and support systems accordingly. Change, transformation and voyaging are messy.
But so worthwhile.
If you would like support as you embark on this next voyage of your creative life’s adventures, someone to be your sounding board, a place to process and reflect, and receive encouragement, tools, shared experience and guidance from, then I warmly invite you to join Odyssey. It is an intimate 10-month group coaching program that is designed especially for Creative Hearts who are longing to discover or recover their inner sparkle, inspiration, motivation and courage to expand their world.
I would love to connect with you if it feels like a yes for you. We can hop on a call and discuss any questions you have and check to see if it really is aligned with what you are looking for and see if we work well together.
You may like to ponder this: what is your relationship with the messy middle? How can you support yourself to move through the unknown while at the same time staying strongly connected to yourself? What might help you to soothe your nervous system and increase your capacity to explore something new?
As always, be kind to yourself and nurture your creativity.
With my warm wishes,
Nicola xx
About Nicola Newman
I'm a Creative Business Coach, Award-Winning Artist & Mentor for Creative Hearts who want to flourish, flow & prosper.
My passion is inspiring and supporting Creative Hearts to trust their inner wisdom and carve out a life that’s personally meaningful and fulfilling to them.
I share practical, evidence-based tools for Creative Hearts seeking to improve their lives or businesses. My work draws from acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), mindfulness-based techniques, body-based practices, and neuroscience -- and my own creative living adventures -- among other approaches.
My mission is to support Creative Hearts to:
Dissolve creative blocks, develop a loving relationship with themselves, nurture their creativity and reframe the beliefs and patterns that keep them from following their heart and making the creative contribution they would love to make in the world.
My approach is to embrace gentleness, playfulness and self-care to navigate self-doubt and instead cultivate deep self-trust so you can truly enjoy the creative process, bring together your body of work, make money doing what you love and leave a creative legacy you’re proud of.
Let’s pour a cuppa and get to know one another, shall we? :) Read more about my story here.
