As a facilitator, Michelle would often lead intense three-day transformative workshops for companies.
By the end of it, she just needed some space to decompress.
However, no matter how many times she’s blocked out time for herself, she always found herself being dragged into family obligations or other “urgent” work.

This led her to crash a few days later, put a massive strain on her relationships and make her feel like a complete failure as her whole world would come crashing down.

By improving one thinking skill, her brain saw the situation differently and she was able to take the action she needed to do so business and life ran smoothly.
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While you are doing any task, you (without even realizing it!) are using your 28 thinking skills.

When the thinking skills you need to use are strong, doing the task is easy.
If the thinking skill you need to use is weak, doing the task will be a challenge.

The struggle that Michelle had, came from a weak thinking skill of understanding reality.

Understanding reality is as simple and as complex as it sounds.
It’s about understanding the reality.

It’s an abstract thinking skill, making it one that many people, especially with people ADHD struggle with.
I like to think about it as relationships: What happens when? Or Cause and effect.

Reality is when it rains outside, you’re going to get wet unless you have something to protect you like an umbrella or raincoat. Reality is if I only eat donuts all day, every day, I’ll feel sick & nauseous.
Reality is, if I want to grow my email list, I need to let more people know about it.

Reality is, when I run a 3-day intense workshop, it requires me to talk for at least 8 hours straight, be friendly and kind to people, hold space for strong emotions that by the end of it, my body & brain just needs some space to decompress. 

There’s nothing wrong with it. I just need to understand the reality.

Once I understand the reality, I can take action accordingly.
I can give myself space after OR I can find ways to make it less draining in the process.
Maybe I can hire someone to do parts of the workshop.

The point is you first need your brain to understand the reality of what is.

You can also use emotions as a sign to stop and ask yourself questions about the situation. 

If you’ve been up all night with a screaming baby, reality is your brain wouldn’t work as well in the morning.
Trying to do real concentration of work will only leave you frustrated.
Instead of feeling like you’re crazy or can’t get any work done, help your brain see the cause and effect, the reality, so it can come up with helpful solution.