You weren't made for the middle.

Not halfway committed. Not "kind of" trying. Not one foot in and one foot out.

The middle is where potential goes to die. Slowly. Quietly. Almost invisibly.

I know because I lived there for five years.

Here's what nobody tells you about the middle:

When you fail, you learn. You get feedback. You grow.

When you're all-in and struggling, you're building something. Skills. Resilience. Self-trust.

But when you're half-in?

You get nothing.

Just time slipping by. Your self-trust eroding. Another year gone and you're exactly where you started.

That's worse than crashing and burning. At least failure teaches you something.

The middle just robs you.

I see it every day. Men with talent. Men with potential. Men with everything they need to build something real.

Stuck in the middle.

One foot in what they say they want. One foot ready to bail.

That's not commitment. That's testing.

And testing never works.

This week, I'm going to challenge you.

Every day. No fluff. No motivation. Just truth.

By Sunday, you'll know exactly where you stand.

The only question is what you're going to do about it.

Done negotiating.

-Joel

P.S. If you're new here—I almost lost my marriage by being half-in. I wrote a book about how I got out. It's called Draw a Line. More on that later this week.