Inspiration, Intention, Action 7/20 - The ADHD Project Newsletter

In the world of entrepreneurship, there are trailblazers who defy the odds, inspire change, and ignite movements that touch lives around the globe. Mick Ebeling, an extraordinary entrepreneur and visionary, is one such luminary. His journey from being a career producer and filmmaker to the founder and CEO of Not Impossible Labs is nothing short of awe-inspiring. But here's something that truly sets him apart – Mick also has ADHD. This incredible aspect of his story reminds us that greatness knows no bounds, and even amidst the challenges that life may present, innovation can flourish.

One thing that Mick has in common with many other successful entrepreneurs is the ability to break projects down into the individual milestones it takes to complete them, then follow through to the end. Let’s take a look at this approach to projects, and how it can serve as an inspiration for all of us to embrace our unique strengths and transform grand ideas into actionable steps.

Let’s say, for example, you want to create a planner that people with ADHD can actually use and stick with. First, we’ll start with the overall goals like making it easy to use, helping people with their goals, making sure it’s affordable, all the outcomes you want for your project. A lot of us with ADHD are actually really great at this part because we tend to think big (which is good!). The next part is where we usually get tripped up.

As your project starts taking shape, you're probably starting to have questions like “can I publish a planner myself?” or “what planning methods keep people with ADHD engaged?” and it can get overwhelming so instead of just giving up we’re going to write those questions down. I call these the “pre-work” steps, and this is all of the information you’re going to need to be able to plan your project. Start by taking one of these every day and adding it to your daily to-do list, answer one or two questions a day until you’re ready to work on the next steps!

Now that we’re starting to figure out what is and isn’t possible, we often want to skip to the doing part of the project. However, before you get to that you need to start planning how you’re going to do them! This is where you answer questions like “how do I put together the planner pages?” or “now that I know who can publish my planner, which option will I use?”. These types of questions inform what actual actions you need to take in order to get the project done.

By now you’ve surely asked yourself a lot of questions, and as you’ve been answering them you’ve actually been creating the final list for your project! The answers to your planning steps become your action steps. “Which publisher will I use?” becomes “call xyz publisher to start process”. “How do I put together the pages?” becomes “email info to xyz graphic designer”, etc.


If this sounds like a lot, well, of course it is! But just remember that throughout this process, you may only work on 1 or 2 of these items a day. It takes time, which I know is difficult for us, but this is how we can slowly make progress on all of our goals and start to actually finish what we said we would. If you have a strong enough purpose and drive behind your projects, this will keep you motivated long term to work on them. I’ll leave you all with another quote from Mick, which I think sums up this process better than I ever could.

I hope you all find some inspiration from his story, and that it helps you to consider what you can accomplish in your life if you only start small. 

Thanks as always for reading,
Aaron Frank
Founder, The ADHD Project 

P.S. If you want to see how my planner project turned out, check it out here!