His career muddled along..

Despite his cute looks and impressive lineage, Fardeen Khan’s film career muddled along for a few years then ended in a whimper

In his quest for better spoken English skills, Mahesh muddled along for years with several CDs, English speaking books, institutes but finally, he realized that only a fresh approach could solve his problem.

Muddle means confuse – muddle along means going ahead in a confused state, progress in a clueless state where you do not have a clear plan. You are taking some steps forward, some left, some right and some backwards. You probably are progressing but that progress is haphazard and not systematic.

It’s like the walk of a village drunk who has drunk enough to walk with wobbly steps but not so much that he cant walk and falls down in a ditch.

Let’s take some examples:

1. For the next two years, the company muddled along. It registered some growth but lost out on a lot of opportunities to its competitors.
2. Nehruvian socialism caused India to muddle along for forty years with a slow economic growth, unemployment and pessimism.
3. Have a strategy, have a plan. But before that, have a goal. Otherwise, you would keep muddling along throughout your life wasting a large part of it.
4. The country muddled along during the few years of the third front rule.

Muddle along refers to a situation where someone is moving in an uncertain, haphazard, disorderly way leading to a lot of waste. It is the opposite of surging ahead purposefully.

Some more examples:

1. After their leader was captured, the terrorist group muddled along for years before the new leader came along and made it into a supremely dangerous outfit.
2. The national economy muddled along under the former Finance Minister due to his confused policies. The new minister has given a new lease of life to reforms and the job scene is expected to look up in some months time.
3. After the election defeat, her party muddled along for years before the growing frustration among people with the current government gave them a chance to bounce back.