We measure our lives in milestones. It’s important to celebrate the biggies, graduating from high school and college, getting married, our first job, having a child, or starting our own business. These are major markers along the path and it’s important to recognize them because they remind us where we’ve come from, where we’re going, and who we want to be. But I think celebrating what isn’t so readily recognized as a major achievement is just as important. These are the things that require us to dig a little deeper in order to grasp their importance, the courage to leave a job that stifles, releasing old habits that zap our energy, or ditching the self-effacing inner dialogue that keeps us stuck. That’s why celebrating the half, those in-between times on the road to our goals, matters just as much. Halfway points are markers of less defined progress that shapes the life that is yet to come.

I suppose we’ve gotten out of the habit of celebrating the halves. It was big back when we were kids, when we weren’t just six, we were six-and-a-half. The half made us a bigger, smarter, more defined. Turns out we had it right to begin with. The halfway point is not just as an accomplishment but also mid-transformation. We aren’t the same as when we set out on the journey but we haven’t fully integrated our next incarnation. At the halfway point we are fully engaged with the necessary work that gets us closer to what matters, and that holds mysterious power. I think of this now because this post marks a halfway point between my 100th and 200th blog. The first one hundred was about getting out everything I was sure of, but heading towards two hundred there is a shift into lesser known territory. So here I am at the halfway point immersed in the work, not knowing where it’ll lead, but it feels just as momentous as beginning or arriving.

This power of the half is less concrete, but it holds the tipping point to achieving our dreams and desires. What was is morphing into what will be, unseen avenues that had been previously unavailable begin to open. And although we have to begin somewhere we also have to hang in long enough to wrestle part of the mystery from the darkness. The halfway point recognizes what we are doing that’s turning a glimmer of insight into reality. Celebrating these in-between times is an acknowledgement of the hard won victories that go into birthing a life that is deeply creative and truly authentic. The halves remind us we’re getting closer to our essential self.

The halfway point requires a conscious decision about what we let into our lives. And although we make these decisions everyday, somehow the halfway point highlights the importance of the decisions already made and lays the foundation for what’s to come. In truth every point matters, every day is important, every minute or hour we spend cultivating the things that have the power to fill our lives in meaningful ways all count. And we can celebrate them all, even the confusion, the insecurity and uncertainty, and the places where we flail and sometimes fail. All of these matter because they point us to our true north. The halves are the building blocks of bigger dreams that lay beyond what we originally imagined. So here I am at the half! One hundred and fifty posts ago the voice languished, now it’s unstoppable. What will the next half bring?

So give yourself a cheer at any halfway marker, it’s how we remember we’re heading in the direction of our dreams.

kb