Accepting Who I Am

Me in my 🛼 era.

Hey friends,

For much of my life, I felt broken.

Something was wrong, everyone else could see it. And I spent decades trying to figure out how to fix it. Blaming myself every time I “screwed up” again. Whether it was me being late to an appointment (or job interview), forgetting some important detail, or just not being to motivate myself to finish that really important project.

Worse, it seemed like everywhere were solutions that claimed to be just what I was looking for. So when those didn’t work—supposed systems that were meant to solve everything—I just felt like even more of a failure.

Even when I found something that did actually work for me, others complained that I wasn’t doing it the proper way. And sometimes I even felt like I was cheating. “It’s sad that I need to do _____, just to get this task done,” I would tell myself.

But what I’ve realized more recently is that there’s no use fighting who I am.

And it’s way more fun if I accept me for me, rather than letting guilt and shame drive the way I feel myself!

If I do better at getting a task done by making it silly or doing it the way that takes more time but is way more fun—that’s okay! Leaning into what works better with my brain is the approach that actually makes sense, no matter what others might think or say.

I’m allowed to do it the way that works for me.

(And as most ADHDers know, we often find a much better way of getting something done because we aren’t fixated on the supposed “right” way to do something)

Stay curious,
Jesse J. Anderson

P.S. You may have gotten an email about this yesterday—I just released a new free ADHD + Motivation series and you can check out the first video here.

Make sure to sign up on that page to get the rest of the series sent to you.

Unfocused bits

Just a few random things going on for me right now.

• 🕵️‍♀️ My wife and I just finished watching The Residence—a super fun whodunnit comedy series that happens to take place in The White House. When someone is found dead during a state dinner, an eccentric Sherlock-esque detective (Cordelia Cupp) is brought in to interview and deal with 150 potential suspects. While it doesn’t quite reach the high bar set by Only Murders in the Building, fans of that will likely enjoy this murder mystery as well.

• ⚾ As a long suffering fan of the Seattle Mariners, it’s been a fun start this year to see them doing quite well and leading the division! Between Cal Raleigh currently leading the league in home runs, and plays like this amazing catch from our rookie Ben “Air” Williamson… I’m pretty sure we’re gonna win the World Series this year.