My Journey with ADHD Goal Setting

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As someone with ADHD, I know firsthand how difficult it can be to set and achieve goals. That’s why I want to share with you my personal journey with goal setting in my business this year, and how I’ve learned to do things in a way that works specifically for my brain.

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The Importance of Alignment with Values

When setting goals, it’s important to ensure they align with your values, needs, and strengths. Anyone can set a goal to achieve a certain amount of money, but it’s crucial to do so in a way that brings you joy and is sustainable. I know first hand how it feels to get yourself into a job or business that you actually hate, just because of money.

Money is important, I realize that, but it’s not more important than your ability to maintain that job you hate. We all know what happens to ADHDers who try to do things they don’t like to do.

Been there, done that, got the “I failed” t-shirt.

The Benefits of Experimentation

Over the past few months, I have tried a number of different things to achieve my goals. Some worked, and some didn’t, but at the end of the day, I achieved my goal through experimentation and honest reflection with what works and what doesn’t. It’s essential to experiment with different strategies until you find one that works for you. Don’t be afraid to fail (I do it all the time); it’s all data that can help you move closer to your goal.

Motivation Behind Goals

It’s also important to consider the motivation behind your goals. While money is great, it’s not always the best motivator. For me, creating time, freedom, and autonomy is my primary goal, and I set a monetary goal in alignment with that. However, I realized that this monetary goal distracted me from the exciting part of my goal, which was to achieve time, freedom, and autonomy in my business.

To that end, when you’re setting goals for yourself, make sure to think beyond the outcome you’re looking for. How will the day to day look as you work toward your goal? Is the journey as ADHD-friendly as the outcome will be? If not, how can you adjust your plan to ensure it’s designed to fit your values, needs and preferences?

The Danger of Arbitrary Goals

Another mistake I made was setting an arbitrary goal. While it’s essential to set measurable and time-sensitive goals, it’s equally important to ensure they’re grounded in reality.

For example, I set a goal for attaining six figures in passive revenue (so, a minimum of $100K) in one year. Now that I’m 3 months into this goal, I realize that the number I chose was arbitrary. It just sounded like a nice, round number. Meanwhile, I didn’t consider what I was currently making in passive revenue, or look at any indicators in my business that would lead me to set that goal.

I just made it up, willy nilly 🤷‍♀️

I share that with you because very often, ADHDers overlook the fine detail in goal setting. We just assume we’ll “figure it out” along the way. When that doesn’t happen, we beat ourselves up. But it’s not that we don’t have what it takes to succeed. Very often, it’s that we’ve set our expectations of what’s possible, way too high. Can you relate?

The Power of Notion to Support Your Goal Setting + Goal Getting

As someone with ADHD, I highly recommend Notion as a tool for planning and executing your goals. It’s a powerful tool that enables you to organize things and present them in ways that make sense to your brain. It’s also helpful in finding patterns, which is something ADHDers are very comfortable with.

Notion is free to use, but I use the upgraded AI version. It has helps me streamline my work flow, get way more done and accelerates traffic to my website, so it pays for itself (and then some).

A Peek at my Q2 Goals Setting

In Q2, I plan to continue working toward my six-figure passive revenue goal. To do that, I intend to keep creating smaller action-oriented courses and templates that help ADHDers take action and get immediate results. Here’s a few examples of products I’ve created so far, and I’m getting great feedback from them already!

Goal Setting with ADHD? Not easy, but totally doable

Goal setting with ADHD can be challenging, but the trick is to do things in a way that works for you. Experiment with different strategies until you find one that works. Ensure your goals align with your values, needs, and strengths. Don’t be afraid to fail, and remember that arbitrary goals can be a trap. Use tools like Notion to streamline your work and find patterns.

By doing things in a way that works for you, you can achieve your goals and create a life that you love.

Good luck and have fun!