Go Team 2025: Can you do me a favour, pretty please?

Hey Team!

I’m writing this on Monday, November 10 (a.k.a. My Birthday!) and I have been pondering* what to write to you about all day. 

I knew that I wanted to write my favourite kind of post (a Go Team! post, of course) but I wasn’t sure what to focus on. 

And then it struck me.

While I am generally comfortable asking for things I need, my ADHD can complicate the process of asking for some things that I want. I have trouble telling if I am asking for too much, if I am imposing, or if my request is annoying beyond measure.

Intellectually, I know that, as a fairly helpful, relatively reasonable person who will definitely go out of her way for people, I am probably not doing any of those things but my brain will still worry about inconveniencing people.

On my birthday, though, I give that part of my brain a break. Somehow, the fact that it is my birthday makes it a bit easier for me to ask for favours, for small indulgences, for things that would normally make me wonder if I am putting the other person through too much trouble.

And, even though it will be the day after my birthday by the time you read this, I am going to extend the brain break and ask you to do me a favour, to indulge me about something. 

Today, would you consider giving yourself a little break?

You know, as a birthday present to me.

That break might look like taking a little extra time to rest. 

Or it might look like changing the amount of time you spend exercising/meditating/colouring/chatting with a friend/lying on the floor so it fits your needs today. 

It might involve asking your brain to stop churning up the same few mean thoughts over and over. (Try telling it that Christine asked you to shelve that list for now.)

It might mean looking in the mirror and nodding (as in, ‘Yeah, I’m alright’) instead of being hard on yourself about something. 

It might mean recognizing, just for today, that slow progress is still progress.

It might mean considering the possibility that you can pick your own goals for fitness or wellness instead of being pushed around by the fitness industry.

It might mean choosing to say something kind to yourself. 

It might mean saying no to something that doesn’t work for you right now. 

It might mean choosing a fun workout, or a hard workout, or an easy workout without letting your brain try to tell you what you *should* (shudder) do instead.

Basically, I’d love to see you give yourself a bit of time away from any habit or behaviour or thought process that doesn’t help you be kinder to yourself AND/OR that makes it harder for you to head in the direction you want to go. 

You know the kind of thing I mean – the stuff that is often described as ‘self-discipline’ but is really just the kind of crappy stuff that a mean person would say to you or would give you grief about planning to do. 

Please, please, please, do me a birthday favour and take a break from that mean voice, that mean approach, that utterly unsupportive voice that keeps trying to boss you into an impossible place. 

And, Team, I know this isn’t going to be an easy thing to do so I am not only offering you a gold star for your efforts, I’m offering you a heart in my favourite colour so you can know that I am sending a little extra love to help you with the hard work of thinking about things a little differently today. 

Go Team Us!

PS – If you want to have a nice snack (cake, maybe?) or take a good nap or read a fun book, I would also happily accept that as a birthday indulgence. 

*That word always makes me think of Pinky and the Brain. You know the – “Pinky, are you pondering what I’m pondering?” “I think so, Brain, but what if the chicken won’t wear the nylons?” – kind of thing. So, for your amusement, here’s a list of all of Pinky’s ponderings from the show.