The Middle
The hardest part isn’t always the bottom.
At the bottom, everything is obvious.
You know you’re down.
You know something has to change.
There’s a kind of calm there.
It’s the middle that gets you.
The climb back.
Where you’ve made some progress,
but not enough to feel it.
You’re no longer where you were,
but you’re nowhere near where you want to be.
And most days look the same.
You show up.
You try.
You push.
And at the end of it,
it feels like you barely moved.
No breakthrough.
No moment you can point to.
Just effort.
Stacked on top of effort.
I’ve felt that in business.
Working hard.
Fixing things.
Moving numbers in the right direction.
I’ve felt it in life, too.
Doing the right things.
Showing up for the people I love.
Trying to grow.
And still feeling like I’m giving everything I have
for inches.
That’s the middle.
Not failing.
Not winning.
Just grinding in between.
That’s where it gets dangerous.
Because nothing feels urgent anymore
but nothing feels finished either.
It’s easy to lose momentum there.
Easy to start questioning if it’s even working.
But the middle isn’t empty.
It’s where strength is built.
Where patience gets stretched.
Where the version of me that can actually handle the top
is being formed.
Even when it doesn’t feel like it.
So I’m learning to respect the middle.
To keep moving
when it feels like it’s not moving me.
Because most people don’t fail at the bottom.
They stop in the middle.
And I don’t want to stop here.
Where have you felt stuck in the middle lately?
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