It looks like distraction…
But who’s really doing the distracting?
He told me he needs to be more disciplined.
He wants to work on his own thing, but can never get focused.
He has ADHD.
He’s tried structuring his days.
Blocking time.
Scheduling deep work.
Even the idea of having someone check in on him.
“If I schedule it this week and have someone check in on me I’ll make a ton of progress!” he said confidently.
At some point he mentioned he gets distracted a lot.
So I asked him something simple.
Do you get distracted… or do you distract yourself?
He paused.
“I probably distract myself.”
“Why would you pull yourself away from work you say you want to do?”
We stayed there. And eventually something showed up.
There are people in his life who don’t really believe in what he’s trying to do.
They question it.
They don’t approve of it.
They don’t take it seriously.
And the distraction started to make a different kind of sense.
Because it’s not “just ADHD”.
(and it almost never is)
Distraction can come from an origin that's worth looking at first. While I was working on my own at university, I felt I could not focus, but then I found out that's not even the point. I was putting up walls against my own thoughts instead of giving them the space they need to become less of a flood, more of a creativity stream I can sit on.
A brilliant noticing by a brilliant coach.