Two Words That Surprised Me
— 2 min read
Hey friends,
The other day I saw some cool artistic work on Instagram, one of those slick videos where they start from scratch and quickly get to something beautiful in like 10 seconds. Something clearly displaying years and years of dedication to hone their artistic skill and talent.
I showed it to my daughter and jokingly asked her “so, do you think you can do something like this?”
I wasn't expecting the answer she gave me.
“Do you think you can do something like this?”
She's 13 and a bit of an aspiring artist. I say “aspiring,” but she's already far beyond my artistic abilities. She especially loves to sketch animals, and I'm always amazed with how she can capture the essence of a particular type of bird with just a few strokes of pencil.
But even still, there was an obvious gap between her current ability and the art I was showing her.
I expected her to answer my question with something like “I wish!” or just laugh it off. But instead, she looked at the art on my phone and simply said, “not yet.”
I beamed with pride at her answer!
Living with ADHD can often feel like a series of unending challenges—impossible odds, immovable obstacles—and it can feel like we'll never get to the other side. That our dreams and our goals are just too far away or too difficult to achieve and we don't know the path to get there.
My daughter's two simple words of “not yet” remind us that reaching for our goals isn't about immediate success, but a journey toward growth, learning, and persistence.
It's not about magical thinking, but a shifting of perspective. If the answer is “not yet,” then what action does that lead toward? What steps can you take to move a bit closer in the right direction? What's a positive next step?
Stay focused,
Jesse J. Anderson
P.S. A great way to set some goals for this year and decide on some positive next steps is the Plan Your Extra Focus Year workbook!
It's free to download for those with a membership on the Extra Focus Resources page as either a printable PDF or Notion template.
Or you can also buy it on Gumroad.
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POSTS
Today’s mood: “Everything’s falling apart, I’m a failure, the future terrifies me.”
Nothing changed from yesterday today, my brain just literally got bored of feeling happy I guess.
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