With any creative endeavor, whether it is organizing your home, crafting something beautiful, writing a book, or even our own personal growth, there is always a messy middle. Amid the raw material in our hearts or in our hands, if we can imagine and keep building, step by step, word by word, action by action, we will have something – or be someone – that our future self can behold.

This can look like many things: An empty drawer with contents strewn about while we decide what to keep. Materials that don’t yet look like anything functional. Words scribbled down on notecards. The uncomfortableness when we first say no. Or first say yes. Or start a new habit.

Embrace the messy middle. Love the messy middle. But don’t stop there.