Magic happens in the mushy middle

You have to be there to experience it

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Today's tip is that magic happens in the mushy middle.
With any long term project or habit, motivation can dip
when both the starting line and the finish line are
not in sight. But I have found that magic often
happens in the in between places.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
It is best to be there for it. Longtime listeners
know that I am a big fan of year long projects.
This particular year, I am listening to all the works
of Bach. I am also writing a sonnet every week
at the rate of two lines per day. This episode

(00:56):
is first airing in July, and all that New year
energy for new goals is long swept into the past.
We are also nowhere near December, where the prospect of
finishing starts to exert its own pull. Long term projects
can occasionally suffer from some malaise in performance. Let's just

(01:20):
say that a few of my recent sonnets have been
fairly pedantic. I rhyme the words eyes and surprise, and
that wasn't even the worst of it. Persisting in the
mushy middle is hard, but I try to remind myself
that magic often happens in the mushy middle. You have

(01:41):
to be there to experience it, and so you commit
to continuing to just be there. For instance, I was
listening to BWV one eighty one the other day, which
is my one hundred eighty first Bach Church cantata. There's
a lot of cantatas, some are more workaday than others.

(02:06):
But then there was this thrilling, aggressive violin line thrown
in there where the violinist plays more than one note simultaneously,
which is always pretty cool. And then there was a
glorious brass fanfare. A few moments after that. I sat
up in my seat listening just a little glimpse of magic.
There is no way I would have listened to BWV

(02:29):
one eighty one if I wasn't going through all the
works of Bach. It is not a particularly famous cantata,
unlike say the Christmas oratorio. Oh, people aren't performing it regularly.
But because I am listening to all two hundred plus cantatas,
I listen to that cantata and I heard those wonderful

(02:50):
strings and trumpets. I am trying to keep this in
mind with my sonnets too, because I keep writing two
lines a day, I keep completing a sonnet every week.
Some are not particularly inspired, and so it is tempting
in the middle of a week where I can see
that the sonnet is going nowhere to stop. But then

(03:10):
sometimes I come up with an image, or an interesting rhyme,
or just an interesting line. I might be able to
use that elsewhere, and it wouldn't have happened if I
had just stopped. You never entirely know when the good
stuff is going to happen, so you just have to
keep at it. Sure, magic might be possible at the

(03:34):
beginning or the end of anything, but it can happen
in the middle too. You write a draft of an
article that is not particularly insightful, but one line in
the middle sparks a new way of thinking that you
then pursue in your next work. You go to worship
services most weeks, and many aren't that memorable, but then

(03:55):
one week something just opens up new ways of understanding.
I am not saying you need to stick with anything forever.
Many things do just run their course. But if it
is a mostly positive force in your life, and it's
never too onerous, it might be worth persisting even if

(04:16):
things are a bit ho hum. You never know when
magic will happen, but it is good to be there
for it in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening,
and here's to making the most of our time.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,
or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura
vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app,

(05:03):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.