Life
8 Ways to Accomplish Your Goals When Life Crushes You
Have you ever set a goal for yourself and got super excited to get working on it? The first few weeks are great! You’re moving forward. Then life starts throwing tons of challenges and obstacles at you. Before you know it your goals have taken a back seat. Sound familiar? Do you tend to beat yourself up? Get discouraged? Feel like giving up?
I know I have. On many occasions. A big one for me has been every New Year’s, along with millions of others, I promised myself I would start eating healthy and exercising daily. I always start off with so much gusto. Then life happens. I miss a day of exercise, with the intention of a double workout the next day. Next day is super stressful. I’m crazy busy and rushed to get things done. My drive-thru meal is justified. Next thing I know, a week has gone by and I’m back into the same old routine – not exercising and not eating healthy.
We are not alone. Many face the same struggle. I began to wonder why so many of us never hit the goals we set for ourselves. Why do some push through the setbacks and others are frozen with overwhelm? I started to observe myself, my friends, and even my coworkers. As educators, we are very versed in writing student goals and lesson plans. We know how to ensure each student can meet his or her goal. Yet, some of us still struggle with our personal goals, especially when life gets hectic.
Here are the 8 ways to accomplish these goals:
1. Make Yourself A Priority
You most likely put others before yourself. It is a wonderful thing to want to help others, but if you are putting others before your own priorities and goals, you will quickly become overwhelmed. This is actually difficult for those of us that care for others. We feel such guilt if we do anything for ourselves. This is a habit we have to get rid of. If we don’t care of ourselves first we can’t be our best to help others. Take yourself seriously. You are important too. Be kind to yourself. Make this a positive healthy habit.
2. Make Clear, Specific Goals with Action Steps
The more specific you can be with your goal the better. Create action steps, no matter how small you think they are, use them. It becomes a way for you to measure your progress. Don’t discount the small steps. When life gets in the way it’s so much easier to move on or pick right back up when you have these small action steps to guide you.
“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” – Tony Robbins
3. Set Up Systems
Systems are the tools used to accomplish the goal. Use systems that work with you and your lifestyle that will help you complete each of your action steps. Examples: calendar, a notebook, or an app. Maybe a virtual assistant, or other service providers. The system you choose needs to work for you. Having a good system in place can keep your progress moving forward, or at least hold it in place when life happens and pulls you in a million directions.
4. Commit to the Process
Remind yourself “this is a process”. You’re changing your own behavior no matter what the goal is. When you take action towards your goal, you’re creating a new habit. You’re building self-confidence. Becoming self-assured. When life gets tough and we begin to lose sight of our goal through procrastination we are conditioning ourselves for failure. This is why those tiny action steps are essential. They facilitate momentum and consistency.
5. Monitor Progress
Ensure you have a way to monitor your progress. Establish this when creating your action steps or setting up your systems. Feedback tells you if your action steps are moving you toward your goals. If they are not, quickly modify or eliminate what is hindering the progress. Remember to not take the feedback or a set-back personally. It is just a part of the process. Keep moving forward.
6. Avoid Multitasking
Give your brain a break and focus on one thing at a time. When working on your goals we need to focus on that. Nothing else. That doesn’t mean that you ignore your significant other or neglect your children. It does mean, that when you are with your family, be with your family. Focus on them. Enjoy your time with them. Allocate a specific period of time that you will work on your goals. Remove distractions, such as a phone, and commit to that time period to focus on the next action step. Success is all about being consistent.
7. Create Your Own Hope
This is your internal self-talk. Make it positive and daily. You do not need permission to take action towards your goals and don’t wait for someone to give you this permission. If you need to, seek positive influencers and listen to their stories. Learn to say “No.” You don’t have to do everything for everyone. Comparing yourself to others? This is your journey, not theirs. Emotions determining your actions? Emotions come and go. If you’re feeling emotional, feel it. Embrace it. Then let it go. Refocus on your goal.
“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” – Desmond Tutu
8. Gratitude
This is important. Having a mindset to be grateful for the things, people, and opportunities in your life. If we don’t appreciate what we have now, how would we be able to appreciate anything once we accomplished our goals? Each of us have our own life experiences and life struggles. Those experiences and struggles shape us into who we are. They are lessons that can either make you or break you. The choice is up to you and determines if you will be successful in achieving you goals.
Which one of these do you need to improve on? Please leave your thoughts below!
Entrepreneurs
The Brutal Truth About Entrepreneurship with ADHD (And Why Most Advice Is Making It Worse)
You’re not lazy. You’re not undisciplined… and you’re definitely not broken.
You’re an entrepreneur with ADHD, and right now you’re probably sitting on 19 unfinished projects, 47 open tabs, and a brain that feels like it’s running on 12 different radio stations at once.
You’ve read the books. You’ve tried the planners, the Pomodoro timers, the accountability groups. You’ve even hired coaches who promised to “fix” your focus. Yet here you are — brilliant ideas, massive potential, and a business that still feels like it’s one step away from collapsing under the weight of your own mind.
Here’s what almost nobody in the entrepreneurial space will admit:
The real struggle isn’t your ADHD. It’s that you’ve been trying to run a neurodivergent brain inside a neurotypical business model — and then beating yourself up when it doesn’t work.
Most advice for entrepreneurs was written by people whose brains work differently. They preach consistency, routines, long-term planning, and steady execution like those things are universal truths. For the ADHD entrepreneur, those “truths” feel like trying to swim upstream in cement. You can force it for a while (and you have), but eventually your brain rebels, the burnout hits, and you’re left feeling like a failure who just needs to “try harder.”
That cycle is quietly destroying more talented founders than cash flow problems or bad hires ever could.
The deeper layer most people never reach is this: your ADHD isn’t a bug in the system. It’s a different operating system entirely. And when you stop trying to install Windows on a Mac and start building everything around macOS, the game changes completely.
The Hidden Addiction That Keeps ADHD Entrepreneurs Stuck
You already know the surface symptoms — time blindness, rejection sensitivity, starting strong and fading fast, shiny object syndrome.
But the real trap is more insidious.
It’s the addiction to chaos and novelty.
Your brain is wired for dopamine. New ideas, big visions, last-minute sprints, high-stakes pressure — these things light you up like nothing else. The boring, repetitive, systems-building work that actually scales a business? It feels like torture.
So unconsciously, you keep your business in a state of controlled chaos. You say yes to too many things. You chase the next exciting opportunity. You avoid building the boring infrastructure because “I work better under pressure anyway.”
And every time the pressure gets too high, you crash, swear you’ll get organized next quarter, and repeat the cycle.
Meanwhile, the neurotypical advice keeps telling you to “just build better habits.” As if your brain is a poorly trained dog that needs more discipline instead of a high-performance race car that needs the right fuel and track.
This isn’t a character flaw. It’s neurology.
And until you stop treating your wiring as something to overcome and start treating it as your greatest strategic advantage, you’ll stay stuck in the same exhausting loop.
The Identity Shift That Changes Everything
The entrepreneurs with ADHD who finally break through don’t “fix” their brains.
They redesign their entire business to work with their brains.
They stop trying to become the consistent, routine-loving founder the gurus talk about. Instead, they become the architect of a system that leverages their natural strengths — hyperfocus, pattern recognition, creative problem-solving, relentless drive under pressure — while outsourcing or automating everything that drains them.
This is the layer most ADHD entrepreneurs never reach because it requires something terrifying: accepting that you are never going to be “normal” at entrepreneurship… and that’s exactly why you can win bigger than most.
Your ability to see connections others miss. Your tolerance for uncertainty. Your capacity to go all-in when something lights you up. These aren’t liabilities. They’re unfair advantages in a world that rewards speed, creativity, and bold moves.
The shift is simple but brutal:
Stop trying to manage your ADHD. Start designing your business around it.
How to Actually Build a Business That Works With Your Brain
- Stop fighting your energy cycles — weaponize them. Most ADHD entrepreneurs try to force 8-hour focused days. That’s insane. Instead, track when your brain actually works best (for many it’s 10pm-2am or random 4-hour hyperfocus bursts). Build your schedule around those windows. Protect them like gold. Do the deep, high-leverage work then. Use the low-energy periods for admin, calls, or recovery.
- Build “chaos containers,” not rigid systems. Traditional project management tools feel like cages. Create loose but effective structures that give your brain freedom. Use tools like Notion with massive flexibility, or body-doubling (working alongside someone virtually), or even hiring a “chaos wrangler” — an assistant who thrives on turning your scattered ideas into executable plans.
- Turn your rejection sensitivity into rocket fuel. That intense fear of letting people down or looking stupid? Channel it into creating ridiculously high standards for your customer experience or product quality. Use it as fuel instead of letting it paralyze you.
- Outsource the parts that make you want to die. The execution, follow-through, and maintenance phases are where most ADHD entrepreneurs lose. Hire or partner with people who love the details. Your job is vision, strategy, and big swings. Let someone else own the spreadsheets.
- Create external pressure on your own terms. Deadlines and public commitments work wonders for the ADHD brain. Use them strategically — announce launches, create beta groups, or work with coaches who understand neurodivergence instead of fighting it.
The entrepreneurs with ADHD who are quietly crushing it right now aren’t the ones who finally became “disciplined.” They’re the ones who stopped apologizing for how their brain works and started building empires that are specifically engineered for it.
They have teams that handle the boring stuff. They have systems that flex with their energy instead of fighting it. They’ve turned their “flaws” into the exact reasons their businesses stand out.
Your ADHD brain is not the enemy. The enemy was trying to play the game by rules that were never designed for you.
The moment you accept that and start designing everything… your calendar, your team, your offers, your processes — around how you actually operate, the struggle doesn’t disappear… but it becomes manageable, even exhilarating.
You were never meant to fit the mold. You were meant to break it and build something better.
The world doesn’t need another cookie-cutter entrepreneur. It needs the chaotic, brilliant, all-in, slightly unhinged visionaries who can only operate at full power when the game is built for them.
That’s you.
Stop trying to fix yourself. Start building the business that was always meant to be run by a mind like yours.
Your next breakthrough isn’t going to come from working harder or being more consistent. It’s going to come from finally giving yourself permission to work differently.
And when you do that? Watch what happens.
The same brain that once felt like a curse becomes the exact reason your business becomes unstoppable.
You’ve got this. Not despite the ADHD. Because of it.
If you want to learn more from me or send me a personal message I’ll respond to you on Instagram at https://instagram.com/iamjoelbrown speak soon!
Health & Fitness
The Health Planning Habits That Support Long-Term Success
Most people think about health planning only when something forces them to.
A medical bill arrives unexpectedly. An insurance issue appears during treatment. A diagnosis changes how future care needs are viewed. Suddenly health planning becomes urgent instead of preventative.
The problem is that long-term health stability is usually shaped by smaller habits built quietly over time, not just by major decisions during emergencies.
That includes physical health habits, of course, but it also includes how people approach insurance coverage, preventative care, financial preparation, and long-term healthcare planning before problems become immediate.
The families who navigate healthcare stress most effectively are often not the ones avoiding every issue entirely. More often, they’re the ones who built systems early enough to make difficult situations feel more manageable later.
Consistency Matters More Than Perfection
A lot of health advice still revolves around extreme change.
Perfect diets. Aggressive routines. Complete lifestyle overhauls.
In reality, most long-term health success comes from consistency people can realistically maintain for years instead of months. Small preventative habits tend to matter more than dramatic short-term efforts that collapse under pressure.
That principle applies financially too.
People often spend more time researching investment strategies than understanding their healthcare coverage or preparing for future medical costs. But healthcare instability can disrupt long-term financial plans surprisingly quickly when households are unprepared for how expensive even routine care can become over time.
The practical side of health planning is becoming harder to separate from overall financial planning now than it used to be.
Preventative Planning Reduces More Stress Than People Realize
One overlooked benefit of health planning is emotional stability.
People who understand their coverage, maintain preventative care routines, and think ahead about healthcare decisions often describe feeling less overwhelmed when unexpected situations happen. The goal is not eliminating uncertainty entirely. That’s unrealistic.
The goal is reducing how chaotic healthcare decisions feel under pressure.
That’s one reason broader conversations tied to healthcare and health insurance have expanded significantly over the last several years. Rising costs, changing coverage structures, and increasing healthcare complexity have made long-term planning more important for average households than many people expected.
Healthcare is no longer something most families can comfortably approach reactively forever.
People Underestimate How Quickly Healthcare Costs Compound
One reason health planning habits matter so much is that healthcare costs rarely arrive in one dramatic moment alone.
More often, they build gradually:
- recurring prescriptions
- specialist visits
- ongoing treatment plans
- insurance deductible increases
- long-term care considerations
- unexpected procedures layered on top of existing expenses
Families often absorb these costs incrementally until they realize how much financial pressure accumulated over time.
That gradual buildup is part of what makes proactive planning valuable. People who think ahead about coverage structures, emergency savings, provider networks, and preventative care tend to adapt more smoothly when healthcare needs eventually increase later in life.
The difficult part is that many households delay these conversations because they feel healthy right now.
Healthcare Decisions Have Become More Complicated
Another challenge is that healthcare systems themselves continue evolving quickly.
Insurance structures change. Telehealth expands. Employer-sponsored benefits shift. Prescription pricing fluctuates. Patients now carry more responsibility for understanding deductibles, provider networks, and out-of-pocket exposure than previous generations often did.
That complexity creates decision fatigue.
Even relatively organized households sometimes feel uncertain about whether they’re making good healthcare choices because the systems themselves are difficult to navigate confidently. A lot of current health insurance trends discussions reflect this larger issue, healthcare planning is becoming less about isolated medical events and more about long-term sustainability across entire households.
People want predictability, but healthcare systems increasingly feel harder to predict.
The Most Effective Health Habits Usually Feel Boring
One thing people rarely admit is that good long-term planning habits are often not particularly exciting.
Scheduling preventative appointments. Reviewing insurance annually. Building emergency savings slowly. Staying physically active consistently. Maintaining realistic routines instead of dramatic cycles of burnout and reset.
None of those habits feel dramatic at the moment.
But over long periods, they create stability that becomes incredibly valuable once life gets complicated. The people who navigate healthcare stress most effectively are often the ones who built ordinary systems early instead of waiting for perfect motivation later.
That applies financially and physically at the same time.
Why Long-Term Success Depends on Adaptability
Health planning is ultimately difficult because people’s lives keep changing.
Careers shift. Families grow. Aging parents require support. Medical needs evolve. Financial priorities change over decades in ways nobody predicts perfectly in advance.
That’s why the strongest long-term health planning habits are usually flexible rather than rigid.
The goal is not building a flawless plan that never changes. It’s creating enough structure, awareness, and preparation that future adjustments become manageable instead of overwhelming.
Most people cannot control every future health outcome. They can, however, build habits that make uncertainty easier to navigate when it eventually arrives.
Life
Why Moving to a New City Can Change Your Mindset
Discover how moving to a new city boosts neuroplasticity, builds resilience, and reshapes your mindset
Relocation is always a challenge. Rebuilding and restarting your life requires you to step outside of your comfort zone. (more…)
Change Your Mindset
The Hidden Reason You Can’t Stay Consistent
If motivation keeps failing you, the real issue isn’t discipline. It’s the identity shaping your habits and long-term success.
Success often looks like a time-management problem. You buy a planner, set reminders, and hope that next week will be different. For a few days, it works. Then stress hits, motivation drops, and old patterns return. (more…)
-
Success Advice2 years ago20 Creative Ways To Make Money From Home
-
Success Advice2 years ago7 Habits of Highly Effective Mediocre People
-
Quotes2 years ago176 Inspirational Pablo Picasso Quotes on Art, Creativity and Life
-
Change Your Mindset2 years agoThe Art of Convincing: 10 Persuasion Techniques That Really Work
-
Life2 years ago10 Ways Your Life is Like a Video Game
-
Quotes2 years ago32 Powerful Quotes About Overcoming Procrastination by Joel Brown
-
Success Advice2 years ago8 Quick Strategies to Boost Your Email Survey Response Rates
-
Life2 years ago13 Meaningful Ways to Show Someone They Matter

8 Comments