Hey Hey friend,,
This past week I was at 2 amazing in-person events, both located in Boise, Idaho.
My favorite part might be that I get to use these events as an excuse for a short solo road-trip. There are few things I love more than just cruising for hours and hours by myself—does that make me weird?
While neither event was specifically ADHD-focused, entrepreneurs have a much higher likelihood of having ADHD than the general population, so it really felt like I was "among my people" last week.
To start it off, I'm a member of Jay Clouse's The Lab community and we had our first in-person event where 40 of us gathered together and essentially share the ups and downs of running a creator business and help each other strategize what to do in the coming year.
I got to meet some amazing people in person for the first time and borrow tons of great wisdom. It rocked.
After that, I attended Craft + Commerce, one of my favorite conferences of the year. There's just something about C+C that seems to attract all the best kinds of people, and we get to learn from some of the creators that are just killing it.
This year, something stood out to me.
Through all the masterminds and hallway conversations and talking business strategies over ice cream, it struck me just how easy it was for any of us to see clear paths and direction for someone else's business, yet so so difficult to see it for our own.
It was almost universal, someone would share some of the troubles they're experiencing, or be at a crossroads with what to do next, and everyone else at the table could very clearly see what the next steps should be.
I'm not exactly sure why this is, but I'm pretty sure it extends beyond just business advice.
So how can we use this to help ourselves?
- Get out of your head.
- Story time.
- Talk to the duck.
Get out of your head
Whether you're trying to solve some business problem, dealing with a crossroads where you just can't decide the next step, or just struggling to get through a project—one of the best things we can do is try to get everything out of our head.
Grab a notebook, some index cards, whatever so you can start to write down the things you're thinking about. In our head, those ideas tends to swing towards the negative, and it can be hard to parse through the brain fog to see the concrete ideas of what we need to consider and actually deal with.
Once you write it down, things become much more obvious and clear. You get the chance to look at things much more objectively.
Story time
Sometimes, when I have a hard time making a decision about my life, I try to think of myself as a character in my own life story.
"What should this character do?"
When I ask myself what choice the character in my life story should make, it can bring additional clarity to the situation.
There's a similar phrase, "do it for the plot", but I think that leans a bit more towards making the most radical choice, rather than the best choice.
It might make life more exciting, but maybe not the best for important life choices or business direction. 😅
Talk to the duck
And finally, some advice that will be familiar to many software developers—talk aloud to some inanimate object (like a rubber ducky) and describe the problem you're struggling with. Lay out what you've tried, what you're struggling with, what you're considering doing next.
Just like writing it down, there can be some power in putting those thoughts into actual verbal words.
Also, just in the nature of describing a problem to someone (or in this case, something), you often reveal to yourself bits of information that can help you solve the problem.
— Jesse J. Anderson
P.S. Curious about The Lab? It's a premium community of professional creators working together, sharing experiments and insights, and just generally helping each other be better at what we do.
If you're interested in something like this, reply to this email and let me know why. I've got an invite code that can help get you in.
Here's something else fun I did recently:
🎙️ ADHd20 Podcast
Had a great time as a guest on this podcast where we talk about ADHD and the intersection with gaming. This episode really covers the gamut, between adult diagnosis, ADHD myths that refuse to die, and why trying hard just isn't a viable strategy.
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