The Mess Of Us

09/30/2026

Brandon has started getting his pictures out there again!
Check some of them out here ⬇️⬇️⬇️

RiehlsHorizon

09/28/2026

Field Note #09: Progress Is Allowed to Look Messy

I think we have a very specific picture of what progress is supposed to look like.
Forward.
Consistent.
Disciplined.

Preferably with a cute morning routine and a water bottle we're actually remembering to drink from.

But actual progress?
Seems a little less organized.

Sometimes you take three steps forward and one back.
Sometimes you handle something beautifully on Monday and completely lose your s**t over something smaller on Wednesday.
Sometimes you fall back into an old habit...
but notice it faster.
Sometimes you still get overwhelmed...
but recover sooner.

Sometimes the boundary is shaky.
The routine falls apart.
You need a break.
You change your mind.
You have a bad day.

And none of that automatically puts you back where you started.
Because progress isn't only measured by whether the hard thing still happens.

Sometimes it's measured by what happens next.
How quickly you notice.
How differently you respond.
How you talk to yourself afterward.
What you no longer tolerate.
What you understand now that you didn't before.
What takes you hours to recover from instead of days.

That's progress too.

Maybe not the pretty kind.
Maybe not the kind that makes a great before-and-after photo.

But it counts.

You don't have to start over every time you wobble.
You're allowed to keep going from right where you are.

09/25/2026

09/25/2026

Look What the Mess Made.

At the beginning, it rarely looks like progress.

It looks like dirt everywhere.
Pieces pulled apart.
Plans changing.
Hard conversations.
Half-finished attempts.
Questions you don't have answers to yet.
Things that used to fit suddenly... not fitting.
And when you're standing right in the middle of it, it's really easy to think:
I've made an absolute mess of this.

Maybe you have.
But look a little closer.
Because somewhere in that mess, you might also have made...
More room.

A better boundary.
A different plan.
A decision you've been avoiding.
A little more confidence.
A clearer understanding of what you actually want.
A version of yourself who knows something she didn't know before.

We spend so much time measuring progress by how tidy everything looks afterward.

But some of the most important changes in our lives don't leave everything neatly put back where it was.
They're not supposed to.

Sometimes the evidence that you've grown is that you can't put everything back the way it was.

So before you rush to tidy up every loose end...
Look around.

Something might already be growing in the dirt.
The mess wasn't the end of the story.

Maybe it was where something new finally had room to begin.

09/23/2026

Sometimes You Have to Pull It Apart.

There’s a particularly rude stage of fixing something where it looks significantly worse than when you started.

You empty the closet to organize it...
and suddenly your entire bedroom is covered in clothes.

You start sorting the finances...
and now there are statements everywhere and numbers you would have preferred remained mysterious.

You finally have the conversation...
and things feel more uncomfortable than they did when nobody was saying anything.

You start working on yourself...
and somehow become aware of seventeen things you were blissfully unaware of before.
Very inconvenient.

But sometimes you can't actually see what you're working with until you pull things apart.

You have to empty the drawer.
Ask the question.
Look at the numbers.
Say the thing.
Move everything around.
Figure out what still belongs.
Figure out what doesn't.

And tolerate that awkward middle where nothing has found its new place yet.
That doesn't mean you made things worse.

Sometimes things look messier because you're finally looking at all of it.
You don't have to put everything back together today.
For now, sort one piece.

Keep what fits.
Question what doesn't.

And give yourself some room to figure out where everything belongs now.

Some messes aren't breakdowns.
They're things being rearranged.

09/22/2026

Don’t Clean It Up Too Fast.

When something gets messy, our first instinct is usually to fix it.

Smooth it over.
Find the answer.
Make the decision.
Organize the chaos.

Get everything back to normal as quickly as possible.
Because mess is uncomfortable.

But sometimes, rushing to clean everything up means we miss what the mess was trying to show us.

The argument might be showing you something that hasn't been working for a while.

The overwhelmed schedule might be showing you that you've taken on too much.

The pile of half-finished ideas might be showing you what you're actually excited about.

The routine falling apart might be showing you that the routine didn't fit anymore.

The uncomfortable feeling might be asking for your attention, not your solution.

Sometimes you need to sit in the middle of it for a minute and look around.
What's actually happening here?

Not:
How do I make this go away?

But:
What can I learn from this before I do?

You don't have to live in the mess forever.
You don't have to romanticize hard things.

And you certainly don't need to create chaos just so you can grow from it.
But when the mess is already here...

Maybe don't grab the broom quite so fast.
Sometimes clarity shows up while you're still sorting through it.

Are you someone who needs to fix things immediately, or do you need time to sit with them first?

09/21/2026

Field Note #08: The Mess Isn’t the Enemy

We spend a lot of time trying to get rid of the mess.
The messy house.
The messy schedule.
The messy feelings.
The messy relationships.

The messy middle between where we were and wherever we're going next.
We want things sorted.
Answered.
Organized.
Resolved.
Preferably colour-coded and put into cute little baskets.

But sometimes...
the mess is where the work is happening.

Think about any room halfway through being renovated.
It looks worse before it looks better.
Everything gets pulled out.
You find things you didn't know were there.
Nothing is where it belongs.

And for a while, you wonder why the hell you started this in the first place.
Life can look like that too.
Having a hard conversation might make things uncomfortable before they become clearer.

Changing a routine might make your week feel chaotic before you find what actually works.
Setting a boundary might create tension before it creates peace.
Starting over might feel less stable before it feels like freedom.
Learning something new might make you feel completely incompetent before you feel capable.

Mess doesn't always mean something is going wrong.
Sometimes it means something is moving.
The goal isn't to create a perfectly tidy life where nothing uncomfortable ever happens.

It's learning which messes are worth walking through.
Because sometimes the thing keeping us stuck isn't the mess itself.

It's everything we're doing to avoid it.
So this week, we're getting our hands a little dirty.

09/17/2026

Make the First Step Smaller.

Sometimes we aren't procrastinating because we're lazy.

We've just accidentally made Step One approximately the size of Saskatchewan.

Get healthy.
Fix my finances.
Start the business.
Clean the house.
Go back to school.
Figure out my life.

Ma'am.

Those are not steps.
Those are entire construction projects.
No wonder you're standing there staring at them.

What if you made the first step almost ridiculously small?
Not get healthy.
Fill your water bottle.
Not fix my finances.
Open the banking app.
Not start the business.
Write down the idea.
Not clean the house.
Clear one counter.
Not figure out my entire life.
Decide what you need today.

We have a habit of thinking the first step needs to prove we're serious.
It doesn't.
Its only job is to get you moving.

You can take another step once you get there.
And another after that.
You don't need enough courage for the whole mountain this morning.
You just need enough for the next few feet.

So tell me:
What's something you've been putting off, and what's the smallest possible first step?

09/16/2026

You’re Allowed to Be Bad at It.

There’s an awkward little stage at the beginning of almost everything where you are, quite frankly... Not very good at it.

You don't know what you're doing yet.
It takes you twice as long.
You ask questions that feel obvious.
You make mistakes.
You change your mind.
You look at someone who's been doing it for five years and wonder why yours doesn't look like theirs after five minutes.

And somewhere along the way, we started treating that like evidence that maybe we shouldn't be doing it.

But being bad at something new isn't failure.
It's the entry fee.

The first workout might be ugly.
The first video might make you cringe.
The first attempt might flop.
The first boundary might come out shaky.
The first draft might be terrible.

Do it anyway.

Because you don't get to become experienced without first being inexperienced.
You don't get the hundredth attempt without making the first.
And you certainly don't have to be impressive while you're learning.

Tonight, give yourself permission to be a beginner at something.
Mess it up.
Learn something.
Try again.

You aren't supposed to be good at something you've barely had the chance to practice.

What's something you're good at now that you were absolutely terrible at when you started?