How Often Can You Say, "It's a Process"

When things aren't clicking the way you expect, dig a little deeper...

“Just show up”

It’s one of those great pieces of advice offered to you when you’re trying to start a business, or really anything. But it’s crap.

“Eat the Frog”

Pretty mid as well. It means do the hard thing first so that it’s done.

“Try harder”

The suggestion that, if you really care about it, then you’ll do it. Or that your success is completely dependent on effort.

I could come up with an endless list of simple bits of wisdom that will make you successful, and most of them will be crap. At least contextually.

There is a lot of ‘wisdom’ out there.

I’m sure that someone has benefitted by some of these insights, maybe they work every time. But I’ll bet you those people don’t have any sort of executive function issues. I guarantee their brain is producing all the neurochemicals needed to just “do the thing.”

No, the truth is that most self-help and productivity advice was created by a normal brain for normal brains. If you look through enough self-help content, you’ll probably start to wonder if they were all said by the same guy at the beginning of time.

Seriously, nobody is saying anything new, and nobody is focusing on how different people accomplish different things.

I’m not here to complain about that, though, just recognizing that every time I look for help in getting myself figured out, I get the same trite advice with a slight spin. It’s Atomic or Micro or Mini or Extra. It’s also never helpful.

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Figuring it out for me and for you

I’m working out a repeatable system that will get me active and productive when I want to be.

I’m drinking all the flavors to see which works. I’m doing the routines, forming the habits, whatever it takes to make success. Or I’m trying to. The good news is, if they don’t even kind of stick when I start, then I can tell it’s not the right answer.

I’m serious. When it comes to ADHD, there isn’t a “just be disciplined” path that is reliable, reproducible or trainable. When it comes to ADHD, every day is a new day in the world of being more effective. Sometimes we’ll get a routine that works for a while, but there is no guarantee in life.

The past couple of weeks has been a lot of me writing and thinking about what comes first, what comes second, third, etc. and then shuffling them… since that’s just how the ADHD brain works.

What have I learned? That I say “It’s a process” a lot. I’ve also learned that it’s easy to lose hope.

I’ve also learned that, while nobody can tell me what to do, it is so valuable to have people who will listen to my ideas, or even to just listen to them talk about theirs. Having a “tribe” of like-minded people can mean so much.

ADHD brains might be introverts, they might like to be by themselves, but they love to have similar brains around to inspire them.

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Making Hard Things Easy… Ain’t Easy

I saw a bit of glib wisdom this week talking about how Choosing Easy Makes Life Hard, and giving the examples of not exercising makes your body weak, or not studying makes your brain dumb. True enough, but man… can you tell I’ve got “Guru Advice Fatigue?”

I don’t think life is about doing the hard thing. I think life is about finding a way to make the hard thing doable. Yes, you should exercise. No, it doesn’t need to be hard. The same for learning. The same for everything.

Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s beneficial. You can do hard things to prove a point if you’d like. But don’t try to complicate life by saying it’s a requirement.

So, I’ve been reading, and writing, and trying, and failing, and trying again. While yes, it’s kind of hard, it’s also kind of fun. Sometimes it’s boring, sometimes it’s frustrating.

Perhaps just doing the hard thing works for a standard brain, so if that’s you, good on you! If your brain isn’t cranking out the dopamine it’s supposed to, doing the hard thing is just a good way to stall progress.

So, I’m trying to find hard things and figure out the angle that makes them doable.

Last week, I did have a breakthrough with my writing patterns and my thoughts on routines. I hope to talk more about it in the Channeling Chaos newsletter this week.

I also had a great session with some peers and a coach on Saturday, leaving me, yet again, considering how the subconscious mind plays a part in all of this work I’m trying to do. In the days since, I’ve felt some peace with myself and my process. Something I’ve been needing.

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Where does that leave me right now? In a great place, really.

I’m grateful for the people who’ve been sharing my journey with me, that includes you, in case you were unaware.

I’m grateful for reconnecting with my subconscious… more specifically for having a new tool for passing that info along.

I’ve run on at the mouth here, so I can’t even talk about this other breakthrough I had just today! I’ll likely write that up and share it on Friday. Oh yeah, Friday’s are going to be a hodgepodge of ideas and writing for a while.

I’ll put a tag on it so you can unsubscribe from that if you’d like, I’ll also add a note to the bottom of this post telling you how to do that.

Maybe you don’t want to see me yammering 3x a week, but that’s your loss. (c;

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