You’re ready to give up. To quit. To put it back in the box that it came from. You’re tired. Dejected. Frustrated. It’s just not coming together as fast or as easily as you had planned for. ‘Why aren’t I there yet?’ is a phase on an endless loop in your brain. This is nothing like what it was supposed to look like. And it’s for sure not what you signed up for.

You’re just So-Over-It-Already.

So you’re going to quit. Seems like the easy option. Makes sense really, doesn’t it? Cut your losses and all that jazz. I mean come on, you say, I bet it didn’t take her this long. Her business is so successful. Her life/project/job/insta feed/business/insert-crazy-comparison it is-statement-here looks so perfect .

And then you say this:

I just don’t think I’m ever going to get there. Wherever there is.

And this:

It’s just so freakin’ hard.

And even this:

I’m such a bloody failure.

Ah yes.

Welcome to the middle.

Your journey, your path, your project. You’re in the middle. And the middle sucks. It’s when the glossy exterior of the new exciting project has worn off. Not so glossy now though, is it? No more shiny silver object. Just dirt and mud and grease stains.

The middle is hard. It’s where the real work is. The hard work. The churn and burn and grind. It’s where the sweat is required. The kind of sweat that drips annoyingly, ticklishly down your face while you’re in a painfully tough yoga pose and there’s no way to reach for the towel to wipe it off.

The middle sucks. It’s true.

But here’s what’s also true. The middle is where the magic happens. It’s where you do the things you think you cannot do. Where you pull out all the stops. Where the unthinkable can happen.

It’s Stephen King publishing his breakthrough novel Carrie after dozens of rejections. It’s Serena Williams’ excruciating work that was the path to her becoming the best athlete on the planet. It’s the artist’s fifteenth canvas attempt painted over white because it was terrible, before the masterpiece happens.

Here’s the thing that nobody tells you about the middle.

The middle is the path. The middle is the point.

So don’t quit. Keep going. Rest when the flow isn’t coming. Hustle when the grace and ease has abandoned you. Dig deep when you need the grit to see it through. Learn to rest and to allow. Pray if you need to. But don’t quit.

Just know that this is the middle. That the middle can be all kinds of horrible. That it will in fact, suck: guaranteed. But know also that you can find all kinds of magic as you show up for that journey. And that you have to dig to find the gold. So dig as deep as your path requires.