Picture this: You just bought a new Instant Pot. You unbox it, pull out the manual, and start following the instructions.

Except nothing works.

The manual says press the "Soup" button. There is no Soup button. It shows a pressure valve on the left. Yours is on the right.

You spend 20 minutes trying steps that don't exist on your model, opening and resealing the lid three times, convinced you're doing it wrong.

Why can't I figure this out? you cry in exasperation. The manual makes it sound so easy. What's wrong with me?

Actually, nothing is wrong with you. Or your Instant Pot.

They sent you the wrong manual, with instructions that aren't for your model!

This is what's been happening with your ADHD brain your whole life.

You've been handed the neurotypical "life manual" and trying to make it work:

• Just decide to do it and follow through!

• If it mattered to you, you'd remember!

• Be consistent. Same thing, same time, every day.

So you try. You really try.

The Sunday meal planning. The elaborate morning routine. The planners that work for your super-organized friends. The promises to finally be consistent this time.

And when it falls apart by Tuesday (again), you think: Why can't I just DO this like everyone else?

It runs on novelty, interest, challenge, urgency, and accountability.

The neurotypical manual says "be consistent." Your brain needs variety to stay engaged.

When you follow YOUR ADHD operating manual, you stop fighting yourself and start working with your brain.

One of my clients spent years struggling to exercise at home in her short morning window.

She'd finally pick a workout, get her gear ... and then she'd spot the laundry pile, remember a message she forgot to send, and suddenly there wasn't enough time before picking up the baby.

Another failed attempt. More guilt. More frustration.

So we rewrote her manual: She asked her husband to watch the kids one or two evenings a week so she could go to a community gym.

Suddenly she had social interaction, built-in accountability, a change of scenery, and a much-needed breather before bedtime chaos.

Exercise stopped being a battle and started being an incentive! Not because she tried harder, but because she stopped using someone else's system.

So here's your reminder:

 You don't need to try harder. You need to try differently.

What's one piece of "standard advice" you've been forcing yourself to follow that has literally never worked for you?

PS: 

If you're done fighting with your ADHD brain and are ready to make 2026 the year you get things done with more ease and flow, I can help. 

Book a 30 minute free Breakthrough Call and I'll help you

• sort out exactly what's bothering you about how you function now

• what functioning well would look like as a Jewish woman with ADHD

• and what's stopping you from having a life like that.