What Building The Foundations with ADHD Means To Me
For me, foundations are everything. They are at the core of a life that feels not busy, but full; not chaotic, but purposeful. For too long, my missing piece was trying to build a big life on shaky ground. I felt a constant, restless urge to change everything - quit my job, travel the world, become someone completely new - only to find the frustration followed me. The real problem wasn’t my circumstances; it was that I had never taken the time to truly build a steady foundation within myself.
The foundations are a return to yourself.
They are a return to what matters - not just to your ambitions, but to your mind and your body. It’s the process of discovering who you are at your core and then aligning your actions, intentions, and habits with that truth.
For those of us with ADHD, this becomes more complex. We don’t just have to learn who we are; we have to learn how to work within a different system altogether. The standard advice we’ve tried to implement for years often falls short because it wasn’t designed for our brains. We crave a quicker, more complicated solution, hoping for a secret that everyone else might have missed.
But the secret is that there is no secret.
It really is the simple things, the basics, the foundations we’ve heard a thousand times. We know them, but we resist them because we want change to be instantaneous. We want our lives to transform, not to be built patiently, brick by brick. I know this because I’ve lived it. I was a master of setting big, complicated goals that I never achieved, year after year. I was always doing the work, but I was bypassing the fundamentals.
So, what does it mean to create foundations with ADHD?
It means finally focusing on the essentials with intention and consistency. It’s not about new information; it’s about deep implementation.
Build Aligned Systems: It’s building habits and routines that are in line with who you are. It’s showing up consistently, each day, to build the systems that make your life work.
Build Confidence Through Follow-Through: Every small promise you keep to yourself reinforces your self-trust. This is crucial for a brain often told it’s unreliable.
Working With Your Brain: It’s collaborating with your fear and your unique neurology, not fighting against it.
As James Clear wrote, “Your life is a product of your systems, not your goals.” The foundations are your system.
This isn’t about burning your life to the ground and starting over. It’s about grounding yourself so you can build from a place of strength. This is what I am committed to - in my own life, and in the work I do with my clients. I teach what I practice: the steady, purposeful work of chipping away, of uncovering the person I am meant to be, and of building a life of freedom, joy, and balance from the ground up.
Our foundations cannot be outsourced, but we don’t have to build them alone. And that is where the real journey begins.
