How to Keep Promises to Yourself (Even With ADHD)
Point Of The Story
I kept a promise for 35 days — how I started
Sarah introduces her approach: setting strict standards to remove negotiation and rely less on motivation.
Content warning: this episode includes a conversation about macro tracking and food logging. I say when so you can skip ahead if you’d prefer that!
I recorded this entire episode without water.
Not because I didn't want water or because there wasn't water in my house, but because I had already sat down, plugged in my mic, and started my Toggl timer. In my mind, that meant getting up was no longer an option. It would have taken 2 minutes to go get water, but my brain said no.
And that, my friends, is textbook executive dysfunction.
This is exactly why keeping a promise to yourself feels impossible if you have ADHD. Our brains have a really complicated relationship with doing things, starting things, continuing things, and rewarding ourselves appropriately for things.
But despite all this, I just succeeded at doing something for 35 days straight, and I’m telling you how I did it so you can do it too.
TOPICS & TANGENTS
— The six reasons your ADHD brain keeps sabotaging your promises to yourself
— Why a standard hits different than a goal, intention, or promise
— The defense attorney living in your brain (and how to fire her)
— Dopamine, novelty, and why you love starting things but hate continuing them
— Why decision fatigue is quietly killing your follow-through
— The "no gratification without proof" rule
— Why you should only set standards one month at a time
— My full list of February standards
POINT OF THE STORY
Stop negotiating with your future self. Set the standard, remove the option, and build the evidence. You can trust yourself. You just have to give yourself a reason to.
Love you, mean it. 🖤
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OTHER LINKS
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This episode was edited by Adrienne Cruz.
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