Consistency With a Neurodivergent Brain

What you will take from this episode

Consistency does not mean having the same energy every day.
Sleep, stress and social energy can affect how much I have available for a task.
Having lots of poor ideas is often part of finding the useful ones.
An imperfect piece of work completed can matter more than waiting for the perfect moment.
Rest can be a practical part of showing up over the long term.

When the thing you care about still feels hard

I recorded this update in one of those low-energy patches. I’d spent around four hours in meetings, and although I can genuinely enjoy a one-to-one conversation while I’m in it, by the end I can feel completely emptied out.

That’s a strange experience if you’re someone who can look confident, engaged and full of energy on the outside, then have nothing left afterwards. It can make you question why you cannot simply keep going, especially when the work is something you actually care about.

For me, learning how to be consistent with a neurodivergent brain has not been about forcing myself to feel motivated all the time. It’s been more about noticing that my energy is patchy, and deciding what I can still do with the energy I have.

Consistency is harder when your energy is unpredictable

One of the questions I was asked in an interview this week was what I struggle with most as a business leader. My answer was consistency. I think that applies whether you lead a team, work for yourself, or are simply trying to lead your own life a little more intentionally.

My energy can be high when I’m doing something fun, and low when I’m doing something I dislike. That part makes sense. But it can also be low when I like the task, or high when the task is not particularly interesting. It does not always follow a neat, logical pattern.

I’ve noticed sleep and stress make a real difference for me. I use an Oura Ring because I like having another clue about how stressed my body may be, but it does not magically solve anything. What it helps with is paying attention. I know I need to take rest more seriously, including proper time to chill out, and sometimes a nap. Maybe I was meant to be having a daily siesta somewhere warmer than New Zealand.

If sleep is one of the things that throws your whole day off course, my article on ADHD and sleep may help you recognise why being tired can affect far more than your ability to get out of bed.

I’ve also shared more about the habits and experiments I’ve been trying around my own energy in this earlier update on energy.

Adult woman taking restorative rest after a demanding day

Your bad ideas are not evidence that you are bad at ideas

Dyslexic and ADHD-style minds can be serious idea machines. You may not even call yourself creative because most of the ideas that arrive seem ridiculous, impractical or just not very good.

But that is not a sign you have no creative bone in your body. Most creative people have loads more bad ideas than good ones. The good ones do not usually arrive alone, polished and ready to go. They tend to turn up after a heap of rubbish has passed through first.

I see this a lot with business owners, but it is not only a business thing. You might have ideas about your work, a hobby, a relationship, how to solve a problem at home, or what you want next in life. Your job is not to make every thought brilliant. It is to let the ideas come, then get better over time at spotting which ones are worth testing.

There will be times when you choose a terrible idea. That is not a character flaw. It is learning, even if learning can be a bit annoying when you are in the middle of it.

If you’re building something of your own, this practical guide for dyslexic entrepreneurs explores the mix of big-picture thinking, practical challenges and support that can help dyslexic entrepreneurs keep moving.

Abstract visual showing many ideas being filtered to find useful ones

Showing up does not have to look impressive

The main reason I recorded this episode was simple: I did not want to break the rhythm. Part of me wanted to lie down and not worry about recording anything that week. I could also tell myself it was not going to be my best podcast ever.

But getting something done mattered. Not because every week has to be maximised or because we should ignore exhaustion. Sometimes taking time off is exactly what is needed. This was about making a conscious call that I had enough in the tank to create a short, honest update instead of waiting until I felt perfect.

That distinction matters. Consistency is not punishment. It is not pretending your energy, emotions or needs do not exist. For me, it is returning to the thing that matters in a way I can manage, including on the days when the output is smaller or less polished.

There is a lot of pressure online to make every action exceptional. I don’t think that is real life. A useful email sent, a short walk taken, one admin task completed, or a quick check-in with someone can be enough for today.

Use rest and structure to protect what matters

I’m in an exciting but demanding period with Added Sleep. The boxes had arrived in Chicago and were being prepared for fulfilment while the final technology was being sorted. After a long manufacturing period and some dull problems that drained my energy, seeing the physical product made the next stage feel real.

Excitement can give a neurodivergent brain a big burst of momentum. It can also make us want to do everything at once. I’m trying to remember that the next six months will include wins, mistakes, problems and losses. That is part of building anything. The point is not to have a flawless run. It is to keep taking the next sensible step.

That is why I find it helpful to look at consistency over a longer stretch of time. A low-energy day is not the whole story. One imperfect podcast is not the whole story. What matters is whether I am still pointed in the direction I care about.

For more practical reflections on setting a direction and following through without trying to become someone else, my approach to reaching goals with a dyslexic or ADHD mind is a useful place to continue.

If you’re exploring whether dyslexia may explain some of your own patterns, the free adult dyslexia quiz is a simple educational starting point.

You can also find more honest conversations and practical ideas in the adult dyslexia podcast.

How to be consistent with a neurodivergent brain, one honest step at a time

If your energy has been all over the place lately, I hope this gives you permission to stop measuring yourself against an imaginary person who is productive, social and inspired every day. That person is not me, and I doubt they are you either.

Pick one thing you genuinely care about. Then ask what the smallest version of showing up could look like today. It might be five minutes. It might be writing down the idea instead of building the whole thing. It might be deciding to rest now so you can come back tomorrow.

You do not need every idea to be good, every day to be high energy, or every effort to be perfect. Keep moving in the right direction where you can. Showing up really can be half the battle.

Read the full episode transcript

Hey guys, Stephen from the Dyslexic Entrepreneur. I want to do a little bit of an update cast over what's been happening over my week. I want to share some thoughts around emotional reactions when you're neurodiverse. I want to share a little bit about added sleep. We're going to be launching next week, touch wood. I always say touch wood, you never know.

And just a few other interesting things happening in my life that I'm testing and trialing that are working for me. So let's get into today's episode. Okay, so I like to do these update casts from time to time just to share what is working and what is not, and what I'm seeing. And the first thing I want to share today is around the interview I did this week with the ladies over at Remarkable Minds. I was interviewed. Usually I'm interviewing people, so it's always nice to be on the other side of it.

It also reminds me how much I enjoy a good interview. I've booked a couple more in to do, which is always good. Usually those podcasts are full of gold. But what I kind of was reminded in that conversation, and they asked me a few businessy questions about what's it like to be a business leader. And, you know, I think anybody who has staff at all is a business leader. It doesn't matter if you've got one staff member.

Sometimes it doesn't even matter if you're maybe you're your only staff member in your business or your life. You know, we're all leaders of someone, even if it's ourselves. And they asked me what was my big moment, like what's the big thing that I struggle with the most? And I would have to say consistency. And I thought it was worth sharing with you guys on the pod is that I still find it to this day is my energy is so up and down. It can be dependent on what I'm doing.

If I'm doing fun things I enjoy, my energy can be higher, of course. If it's stuff that I really dislike, it can be low. But there are other days where it can be low if it's something I like. And sometimes I can have high energy to do something even if it's something that doesn't really interest me. It's very patchy. Now, there are probably a heap of different reasons for it, but I know my neurodivergent brain really struggles with things like sleep.

If I'm not getting the right amount of sleep, that makes a difference. If I had too much stress, something I really do love is my aura ring. I really, really enjoy it because it does kind of give me an idea of how stressed my body is. And I actually, I know based on my genes personally, I need to actually rest more. I need to take time out where I'm just chilling out, having a nap. I think maybe I'm Spanish deep down and I need a siesta each afternoon.

Maybe that's where I was meant to be and I somehow got stuck in New Zealand. I'm not sure. There's anything is possible, right? But it's such a truth though. Consistency is tough at the best of times, not even just from an energetic point of view. When you're ADHD, when you're dyslexic, your brain is like an ideas machine.

Now, you might not think you're creative, but maybe you have a heap of ideas. Maybe you just think they're all terrible and that's why you're not creative. You know, majority of creative people have many more terrible ideas than good ideas, and that's a really key thing to note. You know, I've talked to a lot of dyslexics who don't think they've got a creative bone in their body, but they'll come up with a hundred ideas. They just think they're useless. Like that's kind of how they come across to me.

And I see this in business owners. I see this in standard people. Usually, if you're a business owner, you at least think you've got one or two good ideas. But I would say everyone out there who's listening to this is, you know, the bad ideas are what get you to the good ideas. You can't,there's no one out there who just has good ideas. For every person who comes up with the next billion-dollar idea, they probably had a hundred horrendous ideas, probably ten thousand horrendous ideas that have gone...

Pass them. You know, it's not all the ideas we're having are so varied, but you've got to get through the kind of chaff to get to the good stuff. So I just wanted to share that. I thought that was valuable for me. It's a good reminder to me as well. You know, I have so many, such a varied amount of ideas, and I think over time you do get a bit better at picking which are the good ones.

There are periods there, though, where you do pick some terrible ones. But what do they call that? Learning? Yeah, pretty much. The other thing I want to talk about today a little bit was Added Sleep. So this is exciting, but the actual boxes have arrived.

They are actually sitting in, in where are we shipping from? Chicago. So they've actually arrived in Chicago. They've been put in the racks. We're ready to go. We're just getting the final technology all working and trucking along, and then we'll be able to switch it on, and you'll be able to go to addednutrition.

com and buy awesome sleep supplements. I'm really excited. It's been quite a journey to get to this point, and I can't wait. So I can actually start to market these things. Like, one of the biggest challenges is we had this kind of four-month lull period while we were actually manufacturing them, while we went through some really boring problems where I had no energy for this. Now that I see boxes, I see the bottles have been put away.

They're ready to go. I am excited. It is so exciting. You know, I just can't. I'm so looking forward to this next stage. This next six months is going to be so enjoyable.

It's going to be tough. There's going to be mistakes. There's going to be problems. There are going to be wins. There are going to be losses. But I at least feel like I can move on to this next stage, which is so, so exciting.

So yeah, on a moment's notice, we'll... That's kind of what I wanted to share today, guys. Those are the two biggies for me. I wanted to also mention, if anybody has any good guests, flick me a message. That would be great. Hello at thedyslexicentrepreneur.

com. You can also get in touch via truthaboutdyslexia. com. That website still exists, and we get quite a few people going through the online dyslexia quiz on it still. I am still using that. I know that is a big change.

Yeah, I just wanted to share where I'm kind of at. I'm going through one of those low energy patches, and it's a bit frustrating. I think I did four hours worth of meetings today, and I'm quite introverted. And it's really weird. In the moments of a meeting, I'm like a one-on-one, I love it. I'm full of energy.

I'm really good. But I get to the end of it, and it's like all of my extrovert energy has been drained, and there's nothing left. It's really painful. I'm not sure if you feel something similar, if there's something that drains you like that. I just wanted to get this pod out because it's important to keep the consistency. And I think that's like a good way to finish this little short podcast, is consistency is doing the stuff you don't want to do.

There's a part of me that doesn't want to record this podcast, that wants to just lay on my ass and not worry about it. But it's important that I get something out, even if it's absolute crud. And I know it isn't absolute crud, but I just wanted to share this consistency moment with you because sometimes it's more important that you get the thing done rather than it be 100%. This isn't my best podcast ever, understandable, but I got it out. Maybe this will just disappear into nothing land. Brilliant.

But I did it. I didn't just have a week off. Does that make sense? Like, showing up is half the battle. And so if there's something in your life you really care about, keep going. It doesn't have to be perfect.

Just keep moving in that right direction. That's been Stephen from the Dyslexic Entrepreneur. Have an epic day, and I'll be back next week. Thank you for listening to today's podcast on the Truth About Dyslexia. If you're looking for a group of awesome humans to help you with ADHD, dyslexia, and the neurodivergent brain, maybe the Right Brain Resetters is for you. You can find us at rightbrainresetters.

com, and for just $7 a month, you can join our amazing group where you'll get Q and As, you're going to get little mini courses, and heaps of stuff. It's way more value than you will invest in joining. So make sure you head to rightbrainresetters. com, and we'll put the link in the show notes.