Category: goals

A drawing of the word November 11 Things For November
ADHD · fitness · goals · habits · self care · walking · yoga

11 Things For November

Christine Hennebury4 Comments

Do I still have a bunch of updates, some posts I promised, and a handful of drafts that I *should* be posting? 

Well, yes. 

But you know how I feel about the word should…(I hate it)

So, here I am on Monday, November 2 writing about my ideas for the month ahead instead of catching up on the various posts that I haven’t gotten to. 

Luckily, catching up on those posts is one item on my list so it all works out. Or, at least, it CAN work out. 🙂

Now, let’s roll with my fitness & well-being ideas for November 2026.

  1. Finish the 4 posts/updates I have partially drafted for Fit is a Feminist Issue

These posts are open loops and my brain would like to close them. Meanwhile, my brain is not keen to actually work on them, it just wants them to be done. Soooo, I am breaking them down into teeny steps and working on them bit by bit – which is always a good thing for me to practice and will be beneficial for my mental health.

  1. Do at least 11 ten minute yoga practices for my upper back.

My shoulders, upper back, and neck are pretty cranky these days and a daily practice feels out of reach but 11 is an odd number (in both senses of the word) of practices to do and that feels appealing to me.

  1. Have cake with at least one person per week in November

This is less about the cake than the conversation but I am kind of cheating with this one. My birthday is next week and at least 6 other people close to me have birthdays this month so it will not really be a challenge to pull this one off. It will definitely be good for my mental health though.

A drawing of a small robot holding a heart and a cupcake.
I don’t know why I drew this little robot on a slant but I like it. Image description: a drawing of a small smiling green robot holding a pink heart in one hand and a plate holding a cupcake with a lit candle in it in the other.
  1. Restart my strength training

If you recall, I was doing the Hybrid Calisthenics program for over 6 weeks this summer. Then I did something to my back (unrelated to the program) and had to take a break. I got back into it but then it fell by the wayside as my busy fall made exercise math too complicated to solve.* 

I’m starting the program again on Wednesday (November 4) because I know I have time that morning.

  1. Schedule time for reading and writing

This one covers a lot of different activities but I have scheduled myself some weekly time for reading and understanding some important non-fiction books I have set aside, I have signed up for my friend Trudy’s ‘Finish That Book’ course (I have a draft written but I need guidance for turning it into something I could publish), and I am doing some short daily writing exercises.

A drawing of a stack of books on a table.
I know these books don’t have titles but I didn’t want to commit at this point – ha! Image description: a drawing of a stack of books on a table. The bottom book is purple, the next one is yellow, next is green, and the top one is pink. The table cloth is decorated in small yellow, green, and pink polka dots.
  1. Yard work and a fire in the firepit

In general, I do a half-assed job in prepping my yard for the winter but this year I am consciously making time to tidy things up and ensure that I have less work to do in the spring when I want to enjoy my outdoor space even more. 

The fire in the firepit is a bonus for the outdoor work. I really like being a bit chilly while sitting by the fire with a cup of tea and some time to think.

  1. Go for one longer walk each week in November

I walk with Khalee almost every day but it’s more of a stroll than a walk and she’s not so keen on longer walks these days (she’s thirteen so that’s to be expected.) 

I sometimes find myself wanting to go a bit further, a bit faster, and do a bit more hard work on my walks but I don’t always fit that into my week so I am starting with one longer walk a week to see how that feels. (I’m trying to reduce my all-or-nothing thinking in all areas of my life.)

  1. Do 11 hours of decluttering/rearranging/tidying in my house

Again, the odd number has a certain appeal for me here. 

I don’t want to set myself a project of ‘declutter the house’ because there is no clear end to that project. 

And trying to do a little bit each day doesn’t feel very useful (I know it IS objectively useful but my brain refuses to believe it) so I needed another solution that would have a definite conclusion. 

So, 11 hours it is and I can do those 11 hours in whatever size chunks I like. 

  1. Have another art day with my friends

Through a series of coincidences, I ended up spending a few hours on the weekend collaging with some dear friends of mine and it was a wonderfully relaxing couple of hours.

I want to do that again this month but on purpose. Maybe as part of my birthday celebration.

10. Plan at least one thing to bake each week

I used to bake a lot more often than I do now and I think the issue is that I am waiting for the magical combination of free time and motivation. 

Of course, we all know that those things don’t just appear together regularly, we have to create the conditions for them to show up. 

So, this week I am going to make a cinnamon coffee cake.

But I will defy its very name and eat it while I have tea. 

11. Plan my December fun

I have learned my lesson from my October plans! I didn’t finish everything that I had on my October list but making the plan kept my ideas top of mind and it helped me choose to have more fun throughout the month instead of putting it off until the end.

So, throughout November, I will be making deliberate choices about what to include in my December plans so I can do what needs doing while increasing my capacity and my opportunities to have fun.  

*****

So, there it is, my November list.

Will I get all of this done? Who knows?

Does it matter? Definitely not!

Having this list will help me shape my days and my weeks and my month and I am determined to keep checking in with myself about the items on here. 

Maybe I will change my mind about some of them. Maybe I will reshape what some of them mean for me. Maybe I will do some of them exactly as I have written them.

Either way, having this guideline will make it easier to choose what to do with my time and it will give me some interesting information about what I want in my life and what feels good to include in my days. 

What kinds of things are you including in your November plans?

*Exercise math refers, in my case, to the challenges of trying to time my exercise sessions around a haphazard schedule, family, volunteer, and work obligations, the timing of showers and errands, all of which is complicated by my ADHD-related difficulty with prioritization, sense of time, and perception of effort required. I know everyone has to balance a lot of things to fit exercise into their days but the scheduling math seems to overwhelm me more often than it does for other people.

text printed on a multicolored background Sam does some math and adjusts her cycling distance goals
challenge · cycling · fitness · goals

Sam does some math and adjusts her cycling distance goals

Sam BLeave a comment

My cycling distance goal for the year was 3000 km . I’m at 1278 km, and there are only 13 weeks left in the year. I’d have to ride more than 130 km a week to make it. That seems highly unlikely.

If I change my annual goal to 2000 km for 2026, and I’ve ridden 1278 so far, that’s 722 left for the year. Can I do that?

Yes, I can! There are exactly 13 weeks left in the year, so that means I would need to ride 55.5 km a week.

What’s the plan? I usually bike to school two or three days a week, and that gets me about 15 km. And then there’s Zwift. See you in Watopia!

fitness · goals · motivation · running · training

That was then: on evolving goals

Tracy ILeave a comment
Comment from this time in 2024, when I (Tracy) said speed work seemed unnecessary!

Last week Samantha sent me the above reminder of something I said two years ago. The gist of it was a challenge to the idea of being speedy. Indeed, I said “I used to care about going faster but now I just care about continuing to get out the door.”

Fast forward to the present, where in my preparations for my recent 5K I included speed drills. And after completing the 5K to my satisfaction, I set a new goal that would shave a minute and 40 seconds off of my time.

“What changed?” Samantha wanted to know.

Back in September 2024 I was still trying to regain my running rhythm after an Achilles injury that had plagued me since 2019. It took me out long enough that I lost all the gains I’d made over the years. And so that fall of 2024 I was in the mindset where I just wanted to run again and I didn’t want to be injured again.

It was the right frame of mind for the time. But why have different goals now? It’s not as if I am ever going to be speedy. So why bother with speed work and speed goals at all.

As some readers may know, I have been back to the beginning again with Couch to 5K starting in April. I got behind but stuck with it and I liked having structure and a goal. The structure came from the program itself. The goal was simple: complete the program. After I managed to get through week 7 of the 9-week program I switched to the FIRST program outlined in Rin Less, Rin Faster.

For this you do three purposeful runs a week plus two cross-training sessions. The three runs are speed intervals, a tempo run, and a long run. I found myself enjoying switching it up rather than just pounding the pavement in the same way each time I went out. It made things fun. I discovered that I enjoy speed work. All the while I keep my perspective. I am not and never will be a speedster.

As the date of my 5K event approached, I found myself excited to go out with a time in mind. My goal of 37:00 was not a time that would break any records. Not even personal records. But it helped keep me on pace and I finished in 36:40. That felt like an accomplishment.

And so I set a new goal. To hit a 35:00 5K. It is giving me something to train for and we’ll see where it takes me. I said to Samantha back in 2024 that I just wanted to get out the door.

Today, it’s the variety in the training that is actually getting me out the door. One thing I’ve learned over the past 14 years since we’ve been blogging about fitness is that things change. I change. And I need different plans for different times.

Right now I’m enjoying the purposeful running 3x a week. I’m struggling with the swim workouts because of ear aches. I am experimenting with different ear plugs but I’m nervous now whenever I do freestyle, which is my main training stroke for a good workout. It is the only stroke that gives me these ear issues, no doubt because of the head turning for breathing.

So that’s what I’m working on now, as well as sticking with the running through the winter and incorporating resistance training a couple of times a week. I’ve been sporadic with that but it’s important.

All in all, I like being able to set new goals, change my mind, push myself in different ways, and evolve in my priorities. I don’t need to be locked into one track just because I was there before. That is the stuff of boredom and burnout. When I shift and change, it stays fresh and motivating.

How have your goals changed over time?

A small painting of a shiny gold star Go Team 2026: Forge Ahead, Pivot, Restart!
advice · fitness · Go Team · goals · habits · motivation · self care

Go Team 2026: Forge Ahead, Pivot, Restart!

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

Hey Team,

Here’s your semi-regular reminder that you are the boss of you.

Soooooo, it is up to you how to proceed with your plans. 

If your current plans feel good and you are getting where you want to go, then forge ahead. 

I mean, it’s good to check in every now and then but you are under no obligation to examine every single detail of your fitness plans over and over. 

And you certainly don’t have to keep changing them to match trends or to prove a point. 

Basically, if your current plan is working for you then… FORGE AHEAD!

But what about if your plan sort of works but there are stil rough spots, friction, and/or you often find it hard to get going.

In that case, it may be time to make a few changes.

You may want to switch up your plans a bit, change the exercises you’re doing, find some company, take on a different challenge, put in some extra effort or maybe dial things back a bit. 

Basically, if your initial plan is getting on your nerves you don’t have to keep frustrating yourself (and you definitely shouldn’t be hard on yourself), instead, you can… PIVOT!

But what about if you started out strong but your enthusiasm waned? 

Or if you hated your plan from step one?

Or if you love the plan but life got in the way and now you just can’t?

Or if your plan worked when you made it but then your schedule changed?

Well, in that case, the only thing you *can’t* do is be mean to yourself about it. (Ok, I guess you can but I will give you a stern look about being mean to my friend.)

After all, finding a fitness plan that works for you isn’t about doing the perfect thing as your perfect self on your most perfect day.

Instead, it’s is about finding ways to keep doing things that you want to do (or achieving things that you want to achieve) so it only makes to make your plans appeal to the most important person in the equation – YOU.

Basically, if you aren’t doing the things you want/need to be doing then change your plans and …RESTART.

And yes, I know there is great value in starting something new on a significant date (New Years, your birthday, September 1) but there is also value in starting wherever and whenever you happen to be. 

(In fact, with a little imagination you can turn anything into a significant date. If nothing occurs to you, feel free to post in the comments and I’ll wrangle any ordinary day into an auspicious occasion for restarting you project.)

So, Team, the key information here is that it is ok for you to do the things you want to do, in the way you want to do them, on a schedule that works for you.

You can work hard or proceed gently or do anything in between. As long as you match your expectations to your efforts, your intensity is up to you.

You can have a strict schedule or something a bit more loose and responsive to your day to day plans. As long as it works for you, it’s a good way to proceed.

Basically, as I said at the beginning, you are the boss of you.

AND your needs are the most important factors in your fitness plans. 

So, whether we’re going to forge ahead, pivot, or restart, let’s do all what we need to do to help us stick with the things that help us feel the way we want to feel. 

Oh, and please collect your gold star for your efforts below.

Go Team Us!

wooden letter tiles spelling goals on grid Sam, like Nat, is still struggling with cycling distance goals
cycling · fitness · goals · motivation

Sam, like Nat, is still struggling with cycling distance goals

Sam B4 Comments

I’ve had a blog post in my head all summer about summer cycling and distance goals. It’s called “Is 50 km my new 100 km?’

In past years when I’ve done the Tour de Guelph in June, I did the 100 km distance but this year I picked 50 km. It seemed the natural choice. Now, I said I did that because we were trying to attract first-time riders for whom 50 km would be a reasonable goal that early in the summer, but also at the end of June, the Tour de Guelph was only my second 50 km ride of the season. It felt like the right distance for me.

July was a hot mess of family tragedy and wildfire smoke.

See Sam’s summer movement plans go awry: Some problems … and Sam and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Summer.

This month I’m struggling to find the time to ride 200 km. I chose that distance for my Great Cycle Challenge, thinking it wouldn’t really be much of a struggle. I thought that even if bad things kept happening and all my plans went to hell, I’d still be able to manage 200 km in a month easily.

Not so easy, it turns out.

Want to make me feel better, donate here!

My friend, former graduate student, and twitchy spouse of Natalie, Michel rode 600 km in a weekend recently.  A weekend!  600 km!

Twelve years ago I rode 1300 km in August. I know, I know. Comparison is the thief of joy. but still.

Ten years ago I wrote, “What’s your favourite distance? I like 100 km because I can have a normal day after. Ride 100 km in the morning, done and dusted, and get on with the weekend. 160 km requires serious refueling and serious naps. Next thing I know it’s night and my Saturday is shot. How about you?” See here.

Now 100 km feels like a big challenge.

I’m not alone, I know. See Nat’s account of her recent 100 km ride.

So, I know I’m older. But I don’t think this is about age.

I know what I have to do to make long-distance riding comfortable and easy. I need to ride more.

In the years I found the bike rally’s 660 km easy, it’s because I was a) regularly bike commuting, b) doing 30-40 km training rides one or two nights a week, c) doing a long ride on Saturday, often more than 100 km, and sometimes a recovery ride on Sunday, and d) doing bike vacations where we rode bikes every day.

Now I’m just bike commuting and doing an occasional 25 km bike ride on the weekend. No wonder distance goals seem hard.

I’ve realized it’s also an issue with my word of the year, expand. Yes, I’ve been swimming and skating and all sorts of other things but the only thing that makes you a better cyclist really is time on the bike.

What’s my plan then?

Well, I’ve signed up for the half bike rally next summer to raise money for the Toronto PWA–I’m planning to ride from Kingston to Montreal. This event is important to me because the money raised goes to help people living with HIV/AIDS. People who need food, wellness care, peer support or just to be in a place that is welcoming and safe for them. You can donate here.

I’d like to do the full distance, Toronto to Montreal, in 2028.

At some point, I want to ride 200 km in a day. Maybe that’s a Fall 2028 goal when I’m on research leave.

In the meantime, I’m looking for people to ride with in Guelph.

I’m looking for destinations for winter riding that aren’t Florida or Arizona, to be clear, aren’t in the United States at all.

Here’s my past winter rides:

March 2022 Alton Illinois. See here and here and here.

January 2020 Mount Dora, Florida

January 2019 Clermont, Florida

2015 Arizona in February and South Carolina in March

February 2010 Arizona, see here.

But while Trump is in office, I’m not going to the United States. I need another plan!

My goal for 2026 is 2,500 km, and I’m at about 1,100. There are 18 weeks left in 2026. That’s 77 km a week to meet my goal. But the problem is that the mileage goal alone isn’t motivational. I like achieving the goal when I fill my life with riding.

See you out there!

A reminder for all of us who have had tough summers:

A photo of a purple flower Christine goes from back pain to back at it.
ADHD · fitness · goals · motivation · planning

Christine goes from back pain to back at it.

Christine Hennebury2 Comments

This time last week, I had to work hard to focus on the good.

At that point, I had spent three days dealing with some lower back pain that had kind of come out of nowhere.*

That was annoying, obviously, but what was really frustrating is that up to the first day of back pain, I was on a 40 day exercise streak with the Hybrid Calisthenics app.**

For the first time in ages (maybe ever?) I was finding it easy to exercise, I was generally enjoying each session, the whole thing felt very purposeful, and I was seeing and feeling some results.

But then I had to break my streak to care for my back.

Part of my brain immediately went into story mode (a professional hazard for storyteller/writer types) and told me that a) I would have a hard time picking up where I left off and I might have to start again b) that I was probably going to put my routine aside and not remember it for ages c) if I did start again, I would have lost my momentum and it would take a lot of effort to convince myself to exercise.

Now, I’m not saying these are sensible thoughts but I have to admit that none of those scenarios are out of the question.

In fact, each of those scenarios is a very familiar groove and there was a definite risk of me and my ADHD brain slipping right into one of them.

This time, though, I was very determined not to let either of those stories come true.

Even though my back pain continued (with slowly diminishing intensity) right through this past week, I kept checking in with myself about when I’d be able to get back to my routine.

On Friday, I could feel clear improvement and Saturday was better again and Sunday was practically normal.

And on Monday morning, I asked myself the question I was asking daily before my back pain started:

“Am I exercising this morning or this evening?”

(A strong contrast with the question I would have asked myself during previous programs: “Am I exercising today?)

And, here’s the real victory as far as I am concerned:

It was EASY to get started.

I didn’t hesitate or try to negotiate with myself.

I didn’t have face any resistance at all – I just decided on morning and got started.

I felt a little rusty and my first set of each exercise was kind of slow.

But I did it. Carefully. Intentionally. With good form and while paying close attention to my back.

And I feel good. – physically and mentally – about getting back at it.

Now my worry is metaphorical – I don’t want to risk breaking my arm patting myself on the back.

😉

This photo is largely unrelated to the text except that I also had to take a break from walking Khalee for most of last week. My back was so uncooperative!

A dog looking at grass with a series of large mushrooms on it.
A photo of Khalee looking at some surprisingly abundant mushrooms on a a green space near our house. Don’t worry, I didn’t let her step into the faery ring. Image description: Khalee, my light haired medium sized dog is looking down at a series of large mushrooms amongst the green grass. She is wearing a blue kerchief and looks quite jaunty.

*My lower back is unhappy from time to time but it is usually short-lived and not quite this intense.

**To be clear, my program is two exercises a day for three days, repeat, active rest. I did not do 40 days of intense exercise in a row – it was gradual and had rest days built in.

Nat’s reasons for riding
cycling · goals · Sat with Nat

Nat’s reasons for riding

natalieh (she/her)3 Comments

My post last week about how my 100 km ride did not go as planned generated a lot of discussion across my social media platforms. The conversation is ongoing!

I have marvelous friends who are supportive, encouraging and unapologetic when calling me out on being mean to myself. I’m very lucky.

There were several gems I have mined from those discussions. Today I am looking at a question my gym buddy Rob asked me.

Why did I want to ride 100 km?

The first answer that came to mind was that I wanted to test if I was ready to ride longer than 100 km.

I’m very comfortable completing the MS Bike Tour. The two days of 80 km supported every 20 km felt great. It’s a different challenge to ride continuously in 50 km blocks. I underestimated that gap and was disappointed.

The myth of linear progress

I wanted to complete a 100 km ride as part of a story of physical fitness that showed progress.

When my results were similar to the ones I had 12 years ago it felt like a set-back.

In chatting with my friends in Randonneurs Ontario they shared stories of struggling to have consistent times on a given distance.

We spoke about routes, conditions, health, training, age and injuries.

There are a lot of variables that affect how long it takes to complete a route. Only some of those are under my direct control.

Is that the real reason?

Rob invited me to push against the first answers to validate if that is really why I wanted to ride 100 km.

Hope

What I wanted out of the ride was some evidence that my longest distances are ahead of me.

Ten years ago I completed the People with AIDS Bike Tour from Toronto to Montreal. It was 600 km over 6 days. The longest distance on a given day was around 135 km.

2016 Me, in Montréal, embracing a volunteer at the finish line.

Between then and now I quit cycling in 2020 (during the pandemic) then re-started in 2023.

I’ve been inconsistent. Without a capstone event after the MS Bike Tour my distance peters off each year. I have not used the indoor trainer in the winter.

New goals

What I really want out of cycling is more adventures with Michel. We are getting ready to try some rail trails this fall. I got a trailer to bring our dog Lucy along.

Active living

My big picture goal is an active life that supports my physical and mental wellbeing. I really enjoy shorter jaunts and I want to extend that to longer rides.

Consistent Riding

There is no secret to going longer, faster and happier on a bike. It’s time in the saddle on a consistent basis.

Training for the PWA ride had specific milestones to meet in order to be allowed to ride. There were distances to hit, an average speed above 20 km/hr and a deadline for back to back 100 km days.

Unstructured fun

In the shoulder season my focus will be fucking around and finding out. I will try some wider tires and some rail trails. I will get on my bike 2-3 times a week in addition to my utility cycling.

Folks jumping with joy by the waterside.

Thank you

I wanted to wrap this up with a giant thank you to my friends and family. I never imagined my writing about being disappointed with my 100 km would illicit a tsunami of responses. Texts from Nova Scotia and British Columbia and every province in between!

Messages from folks showing they had read every word and could relate. Thank you for reading my posts and connecting over our shared experiences of try to keep these bodies doing all the things.

A coffee with ‘thank you’ dusted on the creamy froth in cinnamon.

The Future

I’m still thinking about my mid and long term cycling goals. I’ll be sure to let you know once I settle on them.

Whatever the future holds, I suspect it will include my dog!
a photo of a dog standing in some greenery Christine inches slowly towards her 2026 movement goal.
ADHD · challenge · fitness · goals · walking

Christine inches slowly towards her 2026 movement goal.

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

When I started The Conqueror 2026 challenge in January, I set myself a goal of 730 kms of deliberate exercise* for the year.

For those of you playing along at home, that would be the equivalent of 2 km per day, every day.

Why ‘the equivalent’?

Because I don’t actually care all that much about walking that specific distance.

What I care about is increasing my daily exercise/activity levels and the Conqueror challenge lets me measure everything in terms of distance so all of my fitness activities are adding up to the same thing. *

If that sentence made you say, “Wait, what?”, please allow me to clarify.

  1. The distance was pretty arbitrary in the first place – I picked it to represent the approximate amount of activity I figured I could do most days.
  2. I don’t care specifically about walking that distance, I care about doing that much activity.
  3. The app lets me input other activities – like calisthenics, yard work, or dancing – into the tracker and tells me the walking distance that is equivalent to that activity.
  4. Since my ADHD self tends to struggle with tracking/measuring progress, especially if that tracking is overly detailed or fine-grained, having everything translated to distance is really helpful. AND having everything rolled into one metric reminds me that all of the different types of exercise I do are all part of the same goal – feeling better and moving more easily.

But even though the tracker is useful and has helped me to be way more consistent than I would otherwise be, I am currently behind on my challenge.

a screencap of a walking challenge tracker
a screen cap of my challenge homepage that shows two gray rectangles in the centre the top rectangle says ‘goal distance 730.0 km’ and the bottom rectangle says ‘Reason – to challenge myself to move a lot each day.’ behind the rectangles are two images that will be on the eventual medal I will receive. In the upper right corner is the long neck of a dragon outlines of clouds behind it. The dragon is gold and the cloud outlines summer gold, and some are bronze. In the bottom left corner is a grey silhouette of a howling wolf sitting on an outline of a rock and there are outlined clouds behind it. At the bottom of the image is a circular logo that says ‘Conquer 2026’. And shows two trackers. The top one in gray and black indicates that I have travelled 42% of the distance. I need to travel this year. The bottom one indicates that 57% of the year has passed. Underneath both of those is a sentence that reads 103.7 km behind your planned pace.

Luckily, I’m not fazed by this in the least.

There were definitely times in the past when I would have ditched the challenge by this point because of the focused effort it will take to close the gap between my current position and the ideal position for this point in the year.

But this current version of myself is looking at that gap and thinking. “I can totally close that!”

And guess what?

I’m right!

It may take me until the end of September but I am 100% confident that I will catch up, keep going, and earn a 2026 Conqueror challenge medal.

I’ll let you know how things are going at the end of August.

*And ‘deliberate exercise’ means additional movement that I have chosen to do – i.e. I am not measuring steps that are part of my daily activities.

**Besides fitness, of course, but the idea of being ‘fitter’ or having a good ‘fitness level’ is not even remotely tangible.

A painting of a gold star on black paper with encouraging text on one side. Go Team 2026: Keep Showing Up
fitness · fun · Go Team · goals · habits · health · motivation · self care

Go Team 2026: Keep Showing Up

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

Hey Team,

When was the last time you celebrated showing up?

If it has been a while, then please take this post as a sign to pat yourself on the back, congratulate yourself, and claim your gold star.

And if you congratulated yourself earlier today?

Well, pat yourself on the back, congratulate yourself again, and claim your gold star.

If you’re like me, there will be times when you are really challenging yourself and times when you are just kind of treading water.

Both are good.

In fact, the whole range of ways to show up are all good.

And I’d like you to celebrate every one of them.

I am proud of you for showing up when it’s fun and I’m proud of you for showing up when it’s annoying to be there.

And I hope that, overall, you get more fun than annoyance but here’s your gold star for your efforts either way.

Go Team Us!

A painting of a gold star on black paper with encouraging text on one side.
I’ve been trying out gold star cards with encouraging text and I like how this one turned out. Image description: a black card with a small painting of a gold star on the left side. On the right side is a piece of white card with rounded corners that says, in black text, “ this gold star celebrates your hard work, the effort you put into showing up every time. Congratulations! I’m so proud of you.” The white card is framed in black with a gold frame outside of the black one. There is a thick gold line a little ways under the star that also extends downward underneath the white card.

A drawing of a shiny gold star against a green background that is decorated with black spirals Go Team 2026: Be kind to yourself about frustration, please.
ADHD · advice · Go Team · goals · habits · motivation · self care

Go Team 2026: Be kind to yourself about frustration, please.

Christine Hennebury1 Comment

Hey Team,

I am solidly in the messy, frustrating middle of so many projects right now – fitness and otherwise.

And it is taking a lot of effort to keep working away at stuff instead of ditching everything and starting over.

The middle of any project is rarely fun but it can be especially dreadful for those of us with ADHD. The novelty has worn off, there’s a lot of trial and error, and everything seems very, very dull.

My brain really wants me to

  • start some new stories instead of working on ones that need revising.
  • try some new exercises instead of sticking with my walking/yoga/mobility routine.
  • buy new containers to store stuff instead of decluttering (decluttering = so many choices to make -ugh!)
  • try some new drawing techniques instead of improving my current skills.
  • invent different workshops and projects instead of finishing and promoting the ones I am already working on. 
  •  (don’t even get me started on my volunteer projects!)

But despite the noise my brain is making about this, I know that starting something new – in any category- will only be temporarily fun.

Pretty soon that new, fun thing will be at the messy middle stage and I’ll be annoyed all over again.

And, even though my brain has doubts, I know that I will REALLY enjoy when I finally finish something, when I can feel a difference in my body or my mind, and when I can see some of the progress I have made.

The only way to get to that real enjoyment is to keep inching everything forward, to add fun and novelty where I can, and to keep reminding myself that it is extra fun to actually finish something – even if that time feels very far away at the moment.

So, Team, even allowing for ADHD-related intensity, I’m pretty sure that ‘Why is the middle so annoying?’ is a pretty common feeling.

In fact, being annoyed with any part of any process seems pretty common.

You might be annoyed with the details required to get started or the details required to finish up.

You might find the middle incredibly tedious.

The unknowns at the beginning might get on your nerves.

Figuring out the last few steps might be frustrating.

All of it makes sense and it is all perfectly ok.

Sure, your frustration might lead you to use a slightly different approach or it could mean you need a little break or need a little more support.

But none of those feelings of frustration automatically suggest that this project isn’t for you.*

And when they arise, you can remind yourself that they are part of your process and then find a way to forge ahead – perhaps slowly, perhaps after a break, perhaps with a little more fun added to the mix.

I’m not saying that it is easy to do that, just that it is possible. 

And your effort will be worth it. 

In fact, speaking of effort, here’s our gold star for our efforts today – no matter which part of the process we are in right now. 

Go Team Us!

PS – Be kind to yourself out there, pretty please.  

*Meanwhile, if every part of the project is frustrating every single time, then it may be time to consider whether the project is a good fit overall.