Organizing Resolutions for ADHD: Why Every Day is a Chance to Start Again

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In the final episode of 2024, host Megs of 'Organizing an ADHD Brain' reflects on the journey and growth experienced over the year. She emphasizes the importance of small, manageable steps towards achieving grand plans, especially for individuals with ADHD who struggle with executive function. Megs discusses common pitfalls of New Year's resolutions, advocating instead for a mindset that celebrates incremental progress and continuous efforts. She introduces her upcoming membership program launching on January 15th, designed for women with ADHD who seek community, accountability, and effective organizing strategies. The episode underscores the value of consistency, mindset shifts, and progress over perfection while setting realistic and sustainable goals for the New Year.

00:56 Understanding ADHD and Grand Plans
02:44 The Myth of the Perfect Start
04:35 Building a Foundation and Embracing Failure
10:09 Consistency and Progress
13:37 The Power of Mindset and Small Wins
23:23 Exciting Announcements and Future Plans

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Transcript

Megs: 0:42

Hey, beautiful people. Welcome back to the last episode in 2024. Hope you had a beautiful holiday last week, and I'm so excited to jump into talking about next year and all of the grand plans that we have for ourself. If you're new here. I'm Megs and I'm the host of organizing an ADHD brain. I'm so excited that you're here and I can't wait for you to get to know me and the rest of the things that I have to offer. If you've been here for awhile. Welcome back. Thank you so much for tuning in week after week and supporting the show. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your loyalty and you sharing how these episodes are supporting you in making small and reasonable changes in your life that are having huge impacts on the way that you do things. As people with ADHD, we tend to think in these gigantic grand plans of the things that we want to achieve in life. But because we have executive function difficulties, breaking things up into small and manageable tasks. It's hard for us to sometimes make these grand plans come true. We often get labeled dreamers, the dreamers out there. And while I love to be a dreamer. I'm also really big. On taking action. But it took me a while to get to the point. Where I started to believe that these concentrated tiny little tasks of action. Would really build up to something big. I did it in my home. I was able to go from being a person who had clutter everywhere. To someone that I could say that I am my own version of minimalism. And they're still stuff that I'm letting go of. There still stuff that I can declutter. But I'm building on this incredible foundation Part of. Doing something big. Is getting started and understanding that this isn't going to be something that changes overnight. And it's not something that. will continue to be exciting day after day after day. Because sometimes when we do make a change, it is really exciting all at once, which is why we dive into it head first sometimes without thinking about it, which is where our impulsivity comes into play. Have you ever thought of January 1st? As this perfect start. The perfect opportunity. To start a new. Oftentimes people jump into January as this is the time I'm giving up alcohol. I'm not going to drink for a whole month. Or this is the time that I'm finally going to go cold Turkey and not eat any sugar for the entire month of January. This is the time that all of those fitness centers out there make the most money because everyone signing up for a membership. Everybody is ready to make a huge change. But raise your hand. If you've ever set a new year's resolution. And you've failed before January 15th hits. I'm raising my hand. Up until a couple of years ago, I just thought that January 1st was the time to make the biggest change. In fact, I would hold off on making any changes during the holidays or in November and October, because I was like, well, the new year's coming in, that's when I'll change. Even during the year, it always felt like Monday was the day to make the change. Not Sunday. Sunday was the day that I was able to eat all the ice cream and. Get candy and then Monday I'd give it all up again. But what we need to understand with our brains. Is that starting? Is not going to be perfect. There is no perfect day to start. And there's no perfect way to start. And. You will almost always. Fail. And I'm not saying that to discourage you. I'm actually saying that to encourage you. I'm going to come back to that though. Having a perfect start is a myth. Because honestly, every single day. is an opportunity. For you to start over. And when you believe that. When you understand that. And you hold that as your true belief. It gives you the opportunity. To grow with the brain that you have. And what's incredible about this. Is that starting over. Is a strength. It's not a failure. When you fail. And let's use diet. For example, I can definitely relate to this. Every time I used to try to diet will even just talking about the word makes me want to throw up. I would do so incredible in the morning. Let me be clear. This is before I knew I had ADHD. Now than I know I have ADHD. I understand this a little bit more, but every single time I would try to diet, I would do incredible in the morning. And then I got exhausted. Towards the end of the day. And I would make poor decisions because I was so tired. And then I would eat and I would snack because I was stressed out. Or I was looking for a dopamine hit that I wasn't getting in other places. And I didn't know how to take care of myself in other places. But then when that would happen. I would look at that as a failure. Not understand why couldn't stop eating bad foods. And then give up. But the thing is, is I was building a foundation, I think you're starting to see a theme here and that I don't necessarily love new year's resolutions. And that's just because. Sometimes we like to think in these gigantic opportunities, because it's not just about starting a new diet, but this is also the time that you're going to plan your day to perfection and you're starting to get things done. And it's also going to be the time that you start decluttering and organizing. And finally, 20, 25 is going to be your year. And I'm going to go really hard in the first week of January. Before I get back to work, I'm going to empty out. Every single closet that I have but so many of the things that we do are lifestyle changes. When people used to say that when it came to eating and dieting and things like that, I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. But here's what it means. It means that you start to develop new beliefs around the way that you live your life. For example. I am an organized person. I have less clutter, therefore I think before I bring something into my home. I have a way of getting things out of my home. I understand that letting go as a powerful tool and organization, because there's less stuff that I have to manage in my home. I get to create spaces and homes for things in my home, because it makes sense for me. So on and so on and so forth. All of those things, then I'm saying. Have created the beliefs that I now hold in my life. But change takes time. And as I was saying earlier, when you fail, like for example, You're going to say, I'm going to be so much more cautious about. The things that I bring into my home. And then on January 10th, you go to target because you're stressed out about something that happened at work and you buy a bunch of stuff without thinking about it. You bring it home and it gets absorbed into the clutter of your home. And now you beat yourself up. Instead of saying. Why did I do that? Why, why did I feel it was necessary to go and do that? Has that elevated my life or was that just a quick dopamine hit in the moment? Because here's the thing that is going to happen. In your own version of it. That would be my version of it. Okay. I love me some target. But like, that's, that is your version. So, what is your version of what failure could look like for you? And the truth is, is even if you predict it, it's okay that you still do it. But coming back and saying, why did I do that? How did that affect me? And how could I manage that next time? What's something I could do to get in front of that. And that's just one example, right? But that doesn't mean that you haven't hit your goal of making a change because of change is going to happen in more than 10 days. You gave yourself from January 1st to January 10th. So, what are you going to do on January 11th? Are you going to still beat yourself up because that does nobody any good. You beating yourself up and putting yourself down into this spiral of shame does nothing for anyone, but mostly yourself. So now it's about adopting the belief system that you're capable of doing this. Even when you do fail. And so building up the belief system that it's okay to start again, which is why. Which is why it's a strength, which is why starting over the next day. Even if you fail the day before. Is still a strength. Because you've got to get used to not doing the thing. Right. So that you can continue to work on getting it right. Down the road. We're not great with consistency. Part of it is our working memory or working memory can fail us. If we're really excited about something right away. Like I said, our dopamine's going right. We're ready. We're ready to hit the gym. We know what we want. But then we hit a dip and we're like, I don't feel like going today. And as soon as you stopped going. And the next day, it's easier to say none. Not today, either. And then not the day after. And then soon enough you just forget that that was a thing that you wanted to do at all. So while consistency is not our friend. We struggle doing something every day without fail. But consistency is not about doing something every day without fail. It's about doing it. And then not doing it and then doing it again, but then not doing it again, but then doing it for three days in a row and then maybe not doing it again and then continuing to do it and do it and do it. And then you have a day or a week. That's just not so great. But then you pick it back up again. Hey quick pause. If you're loving this episode or if this podcast has ever helped you in some way, I'd really appreciate. If you could take a moment to leave a review reviews, help more amazing women. Like you find this podcast and feel supported on their ADHD, organizing and decluttering journey. It only takes a minute. But it means the world to me and bonus, it gives me a little dopamine boost every time I read one. So if you haven't already just scroll down in your app, hit those stars. And share what you love about the show. Thank you so much for being here with me. You're incredible. Consistency is coming back to your goals over and over and over again. No matter how many interruptions there are. Which leads to continuity. And you're building on this incredible foundation that you have created for yourself. Those small steps. Of your consistency, not every day. Become progress. And your progress doesn't disappear. Just because you paused. When it comes to my office, I have made so much progress in my office. Things have a home in here. And when we have guests over or our life gets a little chaotic, There's still stuff that can end up in here and things are a little out of place. But, you know what. I can still come in here. And build on the foundation that I've already built in this office. When you're organizing and decluttering, I know that it doesn't always feel like that. Because sometimes you're moving doom piles all over the place without actually making full and final decisions. On the things that are in those doom piles. And that's why it's important that while we're making progress, we're also learning about the progress that we're making. We're understanding what works and what does not work. And the truth is, is that doom piles might just be a part of your life. But when you create homes for things. Those doom piles become less and less a part of your life. None of you listening today are starting from scratch. You're starting from this incredible foundation that you've built in your life. I am on a journey to prove that people with ADHD are organized. We just have to understand how our brain works. And we also have to understand that in order to make change in our homes and with the stuff we have, that we do have to make change with our mindset. Our mindset is everything. And thoughts become things. I've talked so much about manifestation and how, what you believe turns into your thoughts, which turns into the reality of your life, what you do, what you say, how you act. And it's even more the case with ADHD because we're so in our brains all the time, we are creating stories about everything. Without actually thinking about what's true. So think about what is true in your life when it comes to the progress you've made with organizing, have you made even one trip to donation center? Then you've made more progress than you think. Do you have a space for your scissors? Awesome foundation done. Another thing I really love about being able to start over again. Is that it reduces your shame. When you do give yourself permission to say. I'm going to start over tomorrow. And say that this is a strength of mine. That even when. I make a mistake. I'm going to pick myself back up again. That removes the shame. Of what you've done because we're still human. And what's so fascinating is we're creatures of habit. We're so used to doing the things that bring us comfort, even if the comfort is so uncomfortable, that's why we're making the darn change in the first place. We're used to going to target and spending a lot of money and bringing things into our home that we don't need, because that's the way that we've soothed ourself in the past. So sometimes we don't even think about what we're doing because it's an unconscious need that we're meeting. But when we start to recognize, what is that need? That's not being met right now. And how can I meet that in the future? That's when those trips to target become a little less frequent. And maybe you still do it once a year because what the heck. We got a kitten over the summer. If you follow me anywhere, you've seen him before. His name is Theodore won. One whiskers mix off, but the 14th, the first of his name, Teddy pig, because he grunts. He literally grunts and he also snores. It's kind of hilarious we're not having any more babies. So my kitten, fixes my baby fix at this point. I talk about him because we used to sleep with the door closed and until he got old enough, we kept him in the room with us. But when he got old enough, we moved his kitty litter and we left the door open. Because. He loves to sleep with us and we love to sleep with him. So, and the dogs sleep with us and we want to be able to hear the kid anyways. There's a lot of reasons we keep the door open now. It's been months. And still every once in a while. Out of habit, even though it has been months of us keeping the door open. I will go to close the door. And my husband will laugh at me. He's like, what are you doing? Because he consciously sees what I'm doing and is like, that's not what we do anymore. Right. But I unconsciously, I'm just going about the house, doing the things that need to be done before we go to bed. Even though that is not what we've been doing for a very long time. It's okay to go back to your comfort and change takes time. You know, even leaving the corporate world, it took me a really long time to understand that I wasn't going to go back into the corporate world again. That was a mindset that I needed to change that. I am now a business owner and entrepreneur, I'm so glad you're here because there have been so many different aspects of my life that I have changed for the better. Because I have seen what these tiny steps in the right direction. Can help me achieve. So when it comes to my business, when it comes to my family, when it comes to my belief system, every single day. I am thinking about what is one small step that I can take into the direction of the dreams that I want to live in my life. And because I've made so much effort in these tiny steps in the right direction. There's nothing. I don't believe that I can do. That doesn't mean that I want to do everything. Like, for example, I'm never going to climb Mount Everest. Not because I don't think I'm capable of doing it. If I wanted to do it, I absolutely darn could. But that is not what I'm going to put my effort and my love. and my stamina towards. What I do, what. Is a garden and I dream of having these beautiful alliums in there. I don't know if you've ever seen these flowers, but they're so cool. I was driving through the town. I grew up in and there is this gorgeous interior design studio, right downtown I'm going to describe it to you because it's so pretty. It is a deep, dark building. And in the front are these super green lush bushes. With these gorgeous allium flowers sticking out of the top, it's almost like., if you've ever read the book, the Lorax or the movie as well, they look like the trees in the Lorax. They've got these really, really long stems. And at the top, it almost looks like a gigantic. What's that flower. You make a wish on. Oh, it looks like a dandy lion. When you make like the white puffy dandy lion that you make a wish on, but they're purple. I think they come in different colors too. but that is something that I dream of. I dream of having a garden with alliums and beautiful green, everywhere. A place where I can just sit and take deep breaths and enjoy. The life that I'm living. Back in 2020, I read the book, the happiness advantage by Shawn Achor he is a positive psychologist he worked at Harvard. He was a professor for a really long time. And now he has a gigantic company where they study positive psychology and I love it. This book was so fascinating. So if you're interested in a new read, I highly recommend it. The reason why I bring it up is because. As humans we're so focused. On what we want. And we're so focused. On getting there because we think that that. Is what is going to bring us happiness. We believe that once we get to our next promotion, then we'll be happy. Once our home is finally decluttered, then I can be happy. Once I finally have a system for everything in my home. I can be happy. But you get to be happy now. We all get to be happy now. You get to be content now. You get to be grateful for what you have right now. Because you are still incredible. You are still worth celebrating, even if you're a work in progress, because guess what? We are all works in progress. One of my clients told me that she was so impressed with how organized I was. And I appreciate that. Right. That's literally what I do, but also. I was thinking, oh, well, if you only knew. How not organized I am here. How not organized I am here. Right? I'm still a work in progress. Like I said earlier, there's still stuff in my home. I would like to downsize. But I'm happy. I'm content and I celebrate myself. Because I believe that that is truly what life is all about. You're allowed to be happy now. Because you depriving yourself of enjoying the life. That you have. Is creating a habit. And creating a belief system. Around you only being happy when you achieved the big things. Except that those big things are only achieved. By a combination of small focused efforts. In the right direction. So what if you celebrated those small little wins, those tiny steps in the right direction. You get to be happy now. And I'm so proud of you. If you haven't heard that lately. I just want you to know that I'm so proud of you for tuning into this podcast because that's one step in the right direction. You're already doing it. This is like the smallest thing that you could do. If you're also. Folding your laundry right now, while you're listening to this episode. Holy smokes. You're incredible. If you're also planning to sign up for my membership on January 15th. What a step in the right direction. And because I'm proud of you. You get to be proud of you too. I'm pumped for the new year 2025. Is going to be a good one. I'm manifesting it. It's going to be a good one and I'm so pumped for what a year has to bring. On January 15th. I am a launching my membership program. As we close out the year. And step into a fresh start. I want to remind you. You don't have to do this alone. Organizing with ADHD and decluttering with ADHD, doesn't have to be hard. And when we come together as a community, amazing things happen, especially if you're working with other people who want to make a change as well. That's why I'm so excited about my group membership launching on January 15th, it's designed specifically for women with ADHD, like you who want to get organized in a way that feels doable, supportive, and even fun. Inside you'll find community accountability and tools that actually work for your brain. So, if you're ready to make 25 25, the year you take control of your space and your life. Join the waitlist today@mindfulmags.com forward slash collective. Let's start the year strong together. And when you make a mistake. I'll be there to tell you. That it's okay to pick yourself back up. Ask yourself, what didn't work. And build upon, the incredible foundation that you've been building for yourself. For those of you that are ready to dive deeper. My 90 day coaching program is here to help you make big transformations in your decluttering and organizing journey. If you want more one-on-one support and a personalized plan. Check out the link in my profile to get on a call with me to find out if coaching is right for you. Whether it's through membership or coaching. I'd love to help you make 20, 25 the year you finally feel in control of your space and your life. So let's make it happen together. Next week. I am talking to Dana K white, who authored the book decluttering at the speed of life. I talk about her all the time. I love her. She's incredible. And I'm so excited to share the interview I did with her. Happy last couple of days of 20, 24. And let's head into 2025. With some realistic outlooks. On how change can become a reality for you. So pumped to see you there. I'll catch you next week.