Have you noticed that when things are messy, we can be so focused on simply surviving them that we can’t see the opportunities right in front of us.
I see this all the time with those I support and I’ve lived it myself. Messy has shown up again and again across my career, each time bringing something valuable I couldn’t have learned any other way. We misread the signals. Opportunity is literally knocking, and we’re so consumed by what’s directly in front of us that we can’t hear it.
Here’s what I mean by magic.
It isn’t some grand, obvious sign that everything’s about to work out. It’s smaller and stranger than that. It’s the boundary you finally draw, or the clarity that shows up only because things fell apart first. The version of you that gets to emerge precisely because the old way stopped working. Magic in the messy middle isn’t the absence of mess. It’s what the mess makes possible, if you’re willing to look for it instead of just white-knuckling through.
That’s the shift. Not “how do I get through this” but “what is this trying to show me.”
Here’s what that looked like for three clients recently.
A new creative path, and a client who won’t respect it. A client of mine had just leapt into a new career. One that was creatively fulfilling in a way her old path never was. Then a client began crossing every boundary. In the name of keeping the peace and finishing the job, she doubled down. The signal she almost missed: not every client is worth fighting for, not everyone can be made happy, and boundaries exist for a reason. She wrapped the project and rebuilt the structure around every agreement going forward.
Ready to rise, buried in a staffing crisis. Another client was ready for their next level of leadership, right as their team hit a staffing shortage. They poured everything into keeping people happy, not realizing the current approach was the very thing that needed to change. The signal: this was their moment to be heard. They reframed the crisis as the best possible time to rethink everything, brought leadership a vision for the future to make sure new hires would actually move the business forward.
Following a founder whose rhythm made no sense. A third client was doing everything to keep pace with the founder, but the process was unpredictable and the business was paying for it. The signal: knowing what’s actually theirs to fix, and understanding what’s really keeping them there. If the things outside their control never get addressed, no amount of effort will make it okay. They chose to separate.
Three different messes. Three different signals. But the magic was always there, waiting to be noticed instead of survived.
If you’re in a messy moment right now, ask yourself: what am I so busy surviving that I can’t see?
The stories above reflect three of the six archetypes in my Messy Middle Archetype Assessment™. Naming your messy season is the first step towards working through it. If things feel messy right now, take the archetype assessment and find out which season you’re in. I welcome the opportunity to explore your results with you.