Goal setting with ADHD? Entirely possible!
I lost my Internet while we were recording, and it got me thinking: setting goals is hard enough, but add ADHD into the mix, and it becomes downright challenging.
Hey, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach, and this is my podcast "The Weeniecast!"
Pssssst! Not sure if you've heard, but I'm inviting new members to the best community for business owners with ADHD - the Hyperfocused Community! You can join here - https://weeniecast.com/hyperfocus
Now, back to this episode...
Let's be honest - for those of us with ADHD, it's not just about setting the goal; it's about remembering it, staying focused, and not getting overwhelmed.
Join me as I unpack strategies to make goal setting not just possible but actually achievable for the ADHD entrepreneur.
In "Goal setting with ADHD? Entirely possible!" we'll talk about why traditional goal-setting methods often fail us and how to flip the script.
I cover how to keep your goals front and center, the importance of having visible reminders, and why big goals often lead to paralysis by analysis.
Plus, I share personal stories, like my own goal (that will hopefully one day see me interview Oprah) and I explain why it’s crucial to break down massive goals into manageable, bite-sized pieces.
We’ll also go into the concept of "now games" versus "long game" goals and how focusing on actionable steps today can set you up for long-term success.
If you’re an ADHD entrepreneur and goal setting feels like trying to climb Everest in flip-flops, this episode is for you.
Timestamped Summary:
00:00 Katie McManus dreams of...
03:45 Focus on now game for long-term success.
09:03 Overwhelmed by to-do list, lacking focus.
12:14 Hope isn't a guarantee; take action. Build systems.
13:30 Create and repurpose content to reduce pressure.
Your next steps after listening
Realizing it's time to work with me? Book your free initial strategy call with me - weeniecast.com/strategycall
Get more support in your ADHD entrepreneur life by joining my hyperfocus community! - https://weeniecast.com/hyperfocus
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Want to just buy me a coffee in return for some helpful insight? Thank you! Here's where you can do that - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katiethecoach
Mentioned in this episode:
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Transcript
In this episode, we're talking about goal setting, but in the
Speaker:ADHD friendly way. Hi, I'm Katie McManus, business
Speaker:strategist and money mindset coach, and welcome to the Weeniecast.
Speaker:Full disclosure, we actually started
Speaker:recording this episode last week, and then I completely lost Internet. So we're
Speaker:re recording because I forget what I say pretty much the moment it comes out
Speaker:of my mouth. We figured that it would just be easier to start this
Speaker:episode over, then try to get me to refresh on, like, what
Speaker:actually was said, you know, just five days ago. And this is a
Speaker:great example of why goal setting is so hard for people with
Speaker:ADHD, because goal setting is essentially saying
Speaker:something that you want and putting it out into the world
Speaker:and then pursuing that thing. But the key here
Speaker:is that once you say it and you put it out there in the world,
Speaker:you have to remember that you said it and that you put it out
Speaker:in there in the world. And you have to remember to actually continue working towards
Speaker:that goal. For people with ADHD, as you know,
Speaker:we don't remember everything that we say. We have
Speaker:some object permanence issues. If something is out of sight
Speaker:and isn't calling our attention to it constantly, then
Speaker:we can completely forget that it exists. Doesn't mean that we don't want
Speaker:it. It just means we've forgotten about it. This is why when you go
Speaker:to the grocery store, you end up buying more angel
Speaker:hair pasta, even though in your pantry you have 17 bags of
Speaker:it, because you didn't see it, you didn't look for it, you didn't do
Speaker:the correct assessment for what you needed. When you went to the grocery store, it
Speaker:was out of sight. And because it's something that you tend to like, you're
Speaker:just like, cool, I'll get some more. And soon you can start your own store
Speaker:of angel hair pasta. Very limited selection,
Speaker:obviously, but you could absolutely make some money off of it. People with ADHD
Speaker:need to have a different approach to goal setting than neurotypicals.
Speaker:When we set big goals for ourselves, we have to
Speaker:continuously talk about it. We have to have some
Speaker:reminder out there in our space that will call
Speaker:attention to it constantly that this is what we
Speaker:want. And when I work with my clients and we're identifying
Speaker:these massive goals that they have for themselves, we have to be careful
Speaker:about overwhelm, because going after a massive
Speaker:goal can create so much pressure of all the things
Speaker:that need to be done to get there, that you'll just stop in your tracks.
Speaker:So, for instance, one of my big goals that I have
Speaker:for my career is I actually want to have my own tv show.
Speaker:Live from New York at the Weenie
Speaker:studios, queen of
Speaker:ADHD business ownership,
Speaker:Katie McManus.
Speaker:I want to be able to travel the country and interview
Speaker:different business owners who are doing interesting things, who are
Speaker:having unique impacts on their communities, who
Speaker:just have great stories, and I want to interview them and I want to showcase
Speaker:them, and I want to show the audience exactly how they're doing, what they're
Speaker:doing, so that all the business owners and want to be business
Speaker:owners in the audience can see how there's so
Speaker:many ways to build a business. There's no one way that works for
Speaker:everyone. I want to demystify it all, and I want to help people
Speaker:in the process. But of course, that is a massive goal, and I'm not expecting
Speaker:to reach that goal in, like, the next ten years. Like it's something that I
Speaker:am going to be actively working towards throughout my
Speaker:life. But the other thing that I know about myself is that
Speaker:big goals like that feel overwhelming to me. And
Speaker:if we were to slap a label on it, it is a long game goal.
Speaker:Oftentimes when we're talking about goals, we think about long game and short
Speaker:game. I actually don't like that terminology
Speaker:because the short game indicates short term wins, right?
Speaker:Short sighted wins. Wins that help you
Speaker:now, but may not help you in the future. When I think
Speaker:of my long game and the goals that I want to reach, you know,
Speaker:decades from now, what I do for myself and what I do with my clients
Speaker:is we come up with a now game. We come up with
Speaker:actions you can take each and every day right now
Speaker:that will get you the results that you need in
Speaker:the next year or so that will create the foundation for you
Speaker:to reach your long term goals. We're not going for
Speaker:short term wins that aren't going to lead to your long term goals. So, for
Speaker:instance, a couple episodes ago, I broke down exactly what it takes for you to
Speaker:build a business that has digital products, digital courses, group
Speaker:programs, so on and so forth. And if you want to go listen to that,
Speaker:it is episode 88. You have to start with one on one
Speaker:clients. Now, the best part about starting with one on one clients
Speaker:is that your one on one clients are always going to be your fastest path
Speaker:to cash. It fulfills your short term or
Speaker:now goals. But in working with those one on one clients,
Speaker:you're learning what each and every one of them struggles with
Speaker:that's similar, and that helps you decide what your group program is
Speaker:going to be. And as you're rolling out your group program, you are
Speaker:iterating it. You're iterating your marketing for it, changing little bits,
Speaker:having it go better, having it go worse, recorrecting back to,
Speaker:to the way you were doing it before. And once you have that dialed
Speaker:in, then you're launching a digital course on something
Speaker:very specific. And eventually all of that builds up
Speaker:to your long game goals. There's that question, you know, how do you eat
Speaker:an elephant one bite at a time? But also, let's not
Speaker:eat elephants. They're endangered and they're really sweet and they're very smart. We're
Speaker:not eating elephants. But if you were to eat elephants bite by
Speaker:bite. One of my other favorite movies, when I was
Speaker:like a child, when I was a toddler, was Cinderella.
Speaker:And you know that, like the opening salvo where
Speaker:she's waking up and she's stretching and there are birds all around her
Speaker:and she starts singing. A dream is a wish your heart
Speaker:makes. You know that was a fairy tale.
Speaker:You're not gonna sit around dreaming and wishing for something
Speaker:to happen and then have some magic, like fairy godmother show up and
Speaker:wave their wand and have everything happen the way you want. We have to set
Speaker:goals. But a goal without a plan is a weak ass
Speaker:dream wish that your heart makes. It's never going
Speaker:to happen. So when you're thinking about goal setting, here's what
Speaker:I want you to do. Oh, what am I going to say next? Well, you'll
Speaker:have to keep listening to find out. But first, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel,
Speaker:squirrel.
Speaker:So when you're thinking about goal setting, here's what I want you to do. I
Speaker:want you to really figure out what that big dream
Speaker:is. What's that big dream and that big goal that gets you
Speaker:excited that kind of scares you, but it's the thing that you
Speaker:know you're destined to do. What is that? Because
Speaker:if we're not excited for our goals, we're never going to go after them. Like,
Speaker:I'm personally not excited to ever run a marathon,
Speaker:so I'm probably not going to put that on my goal sheet.
Speaker:And from that big goal, we have to reverse engineer
Speaker:it into what needs to happen the year before that and the year before
Speaker:that and the year before that and the year before that. And we need to
Speaker:reverse engineer it until we get back to where we are
Speaker:exactly now in this moment. And whatever it is that you have to do in
Speaker:that year, that is your now game. Those are the things that you
Speaker:have to focus on in the here and now to be able to reach that
Speaker:greater goal down the line. This sounds easy,
Speaker:let me tell you. I can do this for all my clients. I can't do
Speaker:it for myself. I need help to do this for myself, and I do this
Speaker:shit for a living. So as I say this, you're gonna sit
Speaker:down with your little journal and you're gonna write it out, and you're like, I
Speaker:have no idea what I'm doing. Join the club. There's a reason why there are
Speaker:lots of business coaches out there. Another struggle adhders
Speaker:run into when they set goals for themselves.
Speaker:Is this complete, all or nothing approach.
Speaker:So if you have a fitness goal, say you want to get into a certain
Speaker:shape by a certain time, you'll set up a workout
Speaker:regime that has you working out every single day for like an hour and a
Speaker:half a day, and you have to do it perfectly, and you have to have
Speaker:a perfect diet, and you have to sleep, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker:You're never going to stick to it. But as an adhder,
Speaker:once you fail at one little itty bitty part of that
Speaker:plan, the whole thing is ruined. So we need
Speaker:to very consciously have a balanced approach
Speaker:to the actions we're assigning ourselves to reach our now goals
Speaker:and our long goals. We need to set ourselves up for success,
Speaker:and we have to be realistic about
Speaker:what we can accomplish in a day. Tell me if this sounds familiar.
Speaker:You have a to do list, and then you go through your to do list
Speaker:and you're like, cool, I'm going to get 17 of these things done today. And
Speaker:then you get overwhelmed, and then you start spiraling, and
Speaker:then you sit in your office for about an hour in executive
Speaker:dysfunction, kind of messing around on LinkedIn because, you know you have to do that
Speaker:one thing to get started, but it feels like such a big task that you
Speaker:can't really wrap your brain around where to start. And then it's
Speaker:lunchtime and you figure, okay, well, I need to eat. So you go and you
Speaker:have lunch, and then maybe your dog is, like, begging you to take them out.
Speaker:You're like, okay, I should probably go for a walk. That'll be good for me,
Speaker:too. And then you come back and you're like, kind of tired. So you find
Speaker:something easy on the list, and you do that one little easy thing and you're
Speaker:like, well, that wasn't enough. And then you probably go
Speaker:and answer some emails, and then it's like, time to start making dinner
Speaker:and thinking about the next food that you're having. On days where I'm in executive
Speaker:school dysfunction, all I can think about is my next meal, and then the day's
Speaker:over. You know, like, you might try to push yourself to do some work in
Speaker:the evening, but really what you're doing is you're just sitting in your office stressing
Speaker:out, not really getting anything done. And then the next day, you look at your
Speaker:list and it's like 16 and a half things that you didn't do
Speaker:yesterday. How does that feel? I know. I know. For
Speaker:me, it feels so painful and it feels like I failed, and it feels like
Speaker:nothing I do is ever enough. When I talk about being
Speaker:realistic about what you can do, you're never
Speaker:letting yourself assign 17 things for you to do in a
Speaker:day. You assign three. Three realistic
Speaker:tasks that you can get done in a day that will help you
Speaker:reach your now goals. Because, I mean,
Speaker:three is way better than one little measly task, right,
Speaker:that you barely got around to and you felt really shitty while you were doing.
Speaker:You know, once you finish the three that you've assigned yourself,
Speaker:you're going to have this whole flood of dopamine. You're going to feel like you've
Speaker:won the day and you're far more likely to be like, oh, cool, what
Speaker:else can I get done on this list? Oh, let me just check this one
Speaker:off and this one off. When you limit how much you assign to
Speaker:yourself every single day, you actually get so
Speaker:much more done because you create this
Speaker:positive momentum that keeps you going in your business and in your life.
Speaker:You also avoid burnout because you're not constantly feeling like,
Speaker:oh, my God, I'm behind, I'm behind, I'm behind. And stressing out about what you're
Speaker:gonna have to do next. I mean, unless you have anxiety, then you're stressing out
Speaker:about everything, in which case, join the club.
Speaker:Side note, I feel like if anyone didn't know that I had anxiety, they'd know
Speaker:it based on the elephant comment where, like, I said that and then I got
Speaker:stressed out that people might think I was encouraging them to eat elephants. And I'm
Speaker:like, no, don't do it. Like, of course people aren't going to eat elephants.
Speaker:Why did I worry about that?
Speaker:The common trait I notice amongst ADHD people
Speaker:who are also entrepreneurs is they have this internal
Speaker:optimism. You know, there is this unshakable belief
Speaker:that things are going to work out, right? And part of it is that, like,
Speaker:we have ADHD, so we're really comfortable with risk. You know, we're pretty
Speaker:impulsive, and things tend to work out for us. So, like, why shouldn't
Speaker:it work out for us in our business? And then we set these massive goals,
Speaker:and we're like, oh, yeah, I can do that. And something
Speaker:you want to be careful of is to not
Speaker:mistake a hope for a guarantee. I can't tell you how
Speaker:often I do this and my clients do this, and we have to kind of,
Speaker:like, bring ourselves back to reality, where we map out,
Speaker:like, how much business we want to do in a year and how many
Speaker:clients we want to serve and how much money we want to make, and
Speaker:then we start operating as if that is guaranteed.
Speaker:Just because you want it doesn't mean it's going to happen. This
Speaker:is where a lot of manifestation practices miss the mark.
Speaker:Sure, you can sit in your room writing in your journal about
Speaker:all the things you want, but that isn't going to do shit if you're not
Speaker:also going out there and taking action towards making it happen for yourself.
Speaker:And remember this other key point as a business
Speaker:owner, as you're building
Speaker:your business, yes, you're going to have to be the first person to do most
Speaker:of the stuff. But as you're building it, also be
Speaker:building systems that can continue doing this stuff for
Speaker:you in the future. For instance, one of the things that I'm having all of
Speaker:my clients in my build your own business group programs and in my one on
Speaker:one build right now is a four month social media
Speaker:content book. So they're literally creating four
Speaker:months worth of content that they will be able to
Speaker:repurpose every four months and the
Speaker:next four months and the next four months and the next four months until they
Speaker:need to refresh it or update it or swap some things out so
Speaker:that they can take the pressure off of themselves from promoting their
Speaker:business every single day so they can focus on delivering
Speaker:to clients, to creating new programs, to making more
Speaker:money. Always think about how you can make this task easier
Speaker:for future you. And that, my friends, is goal setting for the ADHD
Speaker:business owner.
Speaker:I refuse to eat octopus because they are so smart.
Speaker:There's a beautiful, like, documentary movie
Speaker:on, I think Netflix called my Octopus teacher. I
Speaker:started it, and I was like, wow, this is gonna be boring af. But oh,
Speaker:my God, I just cried. Crying. By the end, it was such a good. It
Speaker:was such a. Like a moving, beautiful story. If you eat octopus,
Speaker:maybe question if you want to eat octopus. Not going to tell you what to
Speaker:do, but just throwing it out. There. Squirrel,
Speaker:squirrel, squirrel, squirrel.
