Tracey Goodwin (00:00.298)
Welcome to Make ADHD Your Genius, the podcast for lawyers and legal professionals. I'm Tracy Bromley Goodwin, certified coach, consultant, speaker, and your host. Through neuroscience, subconscious reprogramming, and practical strategies, you'll learn how to work with the brilliant brain you have rather than against it. Because your ADHD isn't your limitation. It's unique to you, and it's time to make
ADHD, your genius. Check out the disclaimer below and let's get started. Do you ever feel just so incredibly confused by why you can tackle really difficult, challenging work and projects and cases? And then the task that on the outside looks so simple. Like,
Following up with a phone call or sending the email or putting in your hours, and you can't get yourself to do it. It feels almost physically impossible to get started on what seems so simple. Here's what I want you to know. What seems simple on the outside is actually really complicated for the ADHD brain.
executive functioning skills are involved. There's so many factors happening. And I know that so much shame and guilt comes from this misunderstanding, this paradox. Again, like a flip side trait that we talked about in episode one, where your brain goes to these different extremes. It can hyperfocus on the challenge, on the new, on the
deep dive into something that's exciting. And then all that brain power that it took to do that hyper focused work, it seems like, well, of course I should be able to just do the easy, simple thing. Except that's the issue. It's not easy. The five-minute email that takes two hours, the phone call that you put off until the person on the other…
Tracey Goodwin (02:21.534)
end of the conversation is irritated and upset. These things can be avoided. They can be dealt with. That's the good news. Does it make that task easy? No. But does it make it doable? Yes. So let's take a look at what's going on. First off, I so much want you to understand this is not a character flaw. I'm gonna say it again.
This is not a character flaw. This is not about just get yourself to try harder and then suddenly you'll get the thing done. If it was that straightforward, you would already be doing it. And I know that this is an area of challenge. So let's break it apart even more. I want you to consider and celebrate. This is amazing that you can get into the deep work.
And do it like no other person. Spot the patterns that no one else sees. See the gaps in someone's thinking or the situation. Bring something new and innovative to the table. Celebrate that. I want you to own it. I want you to claim it. I want you to allow yourself to feel so good about it. Now let's move to that task that is irritating and
Frustrating to you because it feels nearly impossible to get started on it. And I want us, after we've taken away, okay, it's not a character flaw. This is something going on in my brain that I'm going to look at. I want you to now think about what is possibly running under the surface that is creating so much resistance with this task. Are you someone who is a perfectionist?
You don't want to work on that email because you know that you are going to want to make it perfect, and that could take an extraordinary amount of time. Maybe you are completely overwhelmed and you're not acknowledging it. You're procrastinating and pushing it off rather than recognizing, wait a second, this is really overwhelming. I maybe don't know how to talk to this person.
Tracey Goodwin (04:46.338)
I don't have the right words. Maybe I'm afraid my emotions are going to go from zero to 10 in the conversation. So I'm just not going to do it, even though the conversation might only be a two-minute phone call. I know that in your mind you're going to, well, I don't know that. It's unknown. That two-minute phone call, maybe it's 20 to 30 minute phone call. Let's think of it this way.
If your energy goes into thinking about how awful the task is and how difficult it is to do it, you aren't going to ever change this paradox that is happening in your brain from the deep hyperfocus to the simple task that you're putting off over and over again. After you start thinking about more what's going underneath the surface of ADHD.
So we've labeled maybe it's perfectionism, maybe you're overwhelmed, maybe it's really difficult for you to get started, especially when the task is kind of boring or not all that complicated. Because the second your brain takes in that this particular task isn't all that complicated, your brain goes to a place of it doesn't know how to get started.
Even though it's not that complicated. It's like everything's firing in your mind when there's some kind of challenge. Take that out. It becomes a challenge in a space that it doesn't need to have one, because that's what's stimulating to the brain. That's where you get stuck and it's sticky and you can't get yourself going on it. So I want us to think about this idea of getting started.
Initiation is an executive functioning skill. We are going to talk about it over and over and over again because it basically is part of everything we do in our lives. That first step, that first thought. So if that's the one that's really getting in your way, having a template for emails that you send. And I mean a really simple one, like hello, because.
Tracey Goodwin (07:11.618)
Having something on a page and having the blankness of it off helps. You could take a step further and have your signature. This could be on a document, have your signature on the bottom. So now you bookend it. You have a start, you have a finish to the simple task. Maybe the kind of emails you're receiving, there's a theme in most of them. Grab a really great email that you've written in the past and use some of it so that there's a fill in the blank.
Whenever something that you have to do, a phone call, a conversation that you're putting off, that in theory could be really short, but your mind is telling you it's going to take forever, jot down your ideas, dump them out of your head. What's the first thing you're saying? What's in the middle of the conversation? How do you close it? When we get really, really specific and clear.
On how you are going to get started on that task that again seems so simple on the outside, you get some clarity on getting going on it. I know, and you know, that oftentimes your mind is going to tell you that simple task is going to take a lot longer than it needs to. And it will continue to take a long time.
If your energy is going into that, this is going to take forever. I'm so frustrated. Why can't I do simple things? Why can't I get myself to do this? If you stay in that mind chatter, this will continue to go in circles. So again, we are looking at you acknowledging this is not a character flaw. Take that energy away. Number two.
I want you to get really curious about what is going on underneath the surface. Is there more to this? Is there some sticky point that's causing resistance? And number three, we want to start working on the executive function skills involved, like initiation, like planning could be part of it, like matching a task to your energy level.
Tracey Goodwin (09:36.216)
These are things that you want to consider so that you can activate that part of your brain that gets creative, that allows you to figure out how I can get from point A to point B in a way that I haven't considered before. That becomes your mantra that you can repeat over and over again to yourself, and it can activate your brain.
To start seeing things from different perspectives. Bottom line with this whole conversation. It started with the feeling of it's so frustrating. I can do the hard, hard work and struggle when it comes to something that seems easy. Bottom line is you need to get curious. You need to take the shame, guilt around not getting it done.
And start getting curious on what's going under on underneath. It could even be you're afraid of making a mistake on something. You don't want to offend someone, people pleasing behaviors. There's so many things that could be running underneath. And after that, we want to think about the skill set. We can all improve our skill set when it comes to tasks that we need to be putting our attention on.
And we can figure out ways that we can do it better and better and better. Delegation is another piece of this conversation. So get curious about your ability to delegate. What are you holding on to that might not be necessary for you to hold on to it anymore? Start allowing your mind to think about where you're putting your energy during the day. I want you to be able to put it into the hyper focus zone.
Celebrating the way your mind works rather than cycling over and over again in your mind about these tasks that feel so difficult. While we are thinking about it, I also want you to be aware of that thought that might be popping into your head about other people judging you and the challenges you may be facing with these shorter…
Tracey Goodwin (12:01.538)
smaller, seemingly easy tasks that we know are not easy, and how that is landing on you and for you. There is a big misunderstanding out there where laziness is involved, where you're a hot mess because you are not responding on time. Again, if it was that straightforward, you would just shift and magically step up and do the thing.
It's more complicated than that. And the person judging the situation does not understand what is happening in your brain. This doesn't mean you just say, this is hard for me. I know that you are tuning in here because that's not you. You're not looking to make up a reason why you can't get this particular work done. We're looking for ways to get it done in less time.
Delegate when necessary, build your skill set, and that judgment that you might be feeling that comes from a place oftentimes of misunderstanding, of not understanding how your brain works. So when you start comparing yourself to a person sitting close by who seems to zip through these kind of things, I want you to remember your brain is unique. You are doing
difficult things that are challenging and you can just dig into it like no one else. So the technique, the strategy that works for someone else, it may not work for you. That's okay. Don't force yourself into a box that isn't made for you. You're not supposed to be inside of a box. We want to think about opening that box and having you.
Learn for yourself how you are going to get from A to B in your own unique way. And I know that you are more than capable of doing this. So, number one for you today, get curious. Take out that character flaw idea that you have going on and think about what skills do you need to strengthen so you can put all of these things together and start getting some of these tasks that you dread and put off done a lot sooner.
Tracey Goodwin (14:26.698)
I will look forward to our next conversation and have a great rest of your day.
