Who hasn’t felt the pain (annoyance) of indecision?  Who doesn’t know what it’s like to not know (fear) what to do next?  Whether the decision is big or small, sometimes the weight of making a choice can paralyze us.  When it comes to people pleasing behavior, anxiety, or mental health in general, when we are used to a specific action (like people pleasing) anything outside the norm will feel uncomfortable, and that too can make us feel paralyzed.  Other times we feel the weight of needing to be perfect in order to take a chance or make a choice.  We weigh and look for every possible outcome, trying to find the right one.  What does that do?  That keeps us right where we are. There comes a point when we feel in our soul that staying where we are isn’t working.  The idea isn’t to be perfect, it’s to make moves.  We eventually have to accept that we can’t continue as we have been.

When it comes to messy action, it’s about making progress toward our goals no matter what.  It’s understanding that any step forward is positive, any lesson we learn helps us move forward as well.  It’s about failing forward.  I will be the first to admit that this isn’t something I’ve perfected, it’s not even something I’ve gotten accustomed to.  But it is something I’m aware of.  Awareness is key.  When we have a goal, that means recognizing our strengths and our weaknesses and whether or not those weaknesses and getting really honest about what actually holds us back.  Sometimes we have to recognize that we are what holds ourselves back. 

Messy action is about taking steps and knowing that taking that step will almost be guaranteed to be messy.  And that is ok.  Like finding the staircase by taking the first step, we find our way simply by moving.  Perfection doesn’t matter, how other people feel doesn’t matter (as long as we aren’t maliciously hurting them), other people’s opinions don’t matter, and accepting that our opinion doesn’t really matter either.  Sometimes we just have to make the move.  We have to learn the dance as we go.  It can be scary and it can feel overwhelming, but once we find our rhythm, an incredible flow comes that we couldn’t have imagined.  That flow is where the magic is, the flow is where the movement is, and movement toward a goal (no matter how small) is progress.