One of the biggest factors in success seems to be the willingness to be messy in public.

Now, I rather dislike being messy. But in public?!

Perish the thought!

Being messy wastes time, leaves me scattered, and it can spur knock-on effects that pointlessly whittle away even more time. It's dreadfully inefficient!

But whether it's career aspirations, relationships, or this here creative sort of thing, messiness isn't optional.

Mitigating messiness is a wonderful tool for optimizing "knowns," the stuff and processes that don't change much. Or, at least remain static for a durable time.

But once you introduce sufficient uncertainty, i.e., most "life" things, messiness can only be countered by tolerating it, not taking it out to the back forty and burying it.

But this is a post about mess! "Where's the mess Teach?! We listened to your lecture. How about you give us the spilt tea!"

Yes yes.

The mess is that I'm considering changing the blog theme. Again. Slightly. 🙄

And yet, outside of some minor redecorating, and a different title and tagline, nothing would change.

So, as usual, most of the "problem" lies in sparring with the "supposed to's," rather than something substantial. Poetically, the tea is...figura-tea-ve.

"I'm not supposed to be changing themes when I should be focused on publishing." "I should have had it right from the start^[1]." "I shouldn't make horrible puns like figura-tea-ve.^[2]"

I don't want this post to be entirely self-absorbed though. There is an extremely helpful takeaway buried in this melancholic navel gazing.

To start, it's just plain nicer when our stuff, our relationships, and our narratives are tidy. And tolerating mess, for those of us that don't sadistically revel in it, isn't fun. But messiness is also a banal, normal, humdrum reality of life.

Nobody has it all figured out. One man's mess is another's realized perfection. And in whatever context you've got things sorted, you're as hopelessly mired in mess in another.

As such, focusing on "messy" is an excellent replacement for many of the more subtly sinister options we employ in dealing with the "supposed to's."

Being messy is a transient state that can be addressed. It's inevitable.

And whilst Guilt and Shame et al. are also inevitable parts of life, we emotionally bust out the weighted knuckle dusters to messiness' kid gloves when they're in the ring.

So, when you can, use the transient state of "being messy" as a far more forgiving framework over guilt, shame, etc.

Sometimes, when we really screw up, they're warranted. But most of the time, we're just being a bit sloppy. And that's okay.