If the path is MESSY, congratulations. You’re on it.
Anything worth achieving takes effort. Any dream worth realising requires a questing. Any objective you want to make real in the world, will demand some courage.
If you've started down that path, have worked for that outcome you can see in your mind's eye, you will already have experienced the chaotic nature of this thing we call life — particularly if that dream requires partnerships, collaboration, co-creation and vulnerability as so many do.
You will have understood that this stuff is very MESSY.
When confronted with messiness, your instinct might be to:
Try to make it orderly
Exercise as much control as you can
Clamp down on your emotional reactions
Positive think yourself into a transcendent state of denial
Lash out at others around you who you interpret as creating the blocks
Project your inner fears onto the world and people in your life
Get down on yourself or your team and imagine you are 'doing this wrong'
Tell yourself you're a failure
Linger in the feeling of stuckness and use it as an excuse not to try
Do I sound like I know what I'm talking about?
That's because at some point I've done each and every one of the things above
If you're experiencing any of the above - congratulations. You're on the path.
And it's important to know:
An imperfect path is still a path.
A winding path is still a path.
A spiral path is still a path.
An undulating path is still a path.
A weedy, overgrown, thorny, is still a path.
So how to deal with the messiness?
That's what I'm calling The Story Shaman Way:
Be curious about everything
Get creative and don’t be afraid to play and experiment
Take courageous action, no matter how small
Hold compassion for yourself and others, every step of the way
The path is messy, yes. But it can also be joyful. Your joy can connect you to the medicine you're here to provide to the world.
Do that and you’ll realise… the messiness was always the point.