Bonus Episode 17: Runway Week – Part 3 – Start Your Year Right by Doing This FIRST if You Have ADHD – Realistic Expectations

Runway Week, Part Three: Setting a Realistic Baseline

We’re in the middle of Runway Week, setting ourselves up to start the year right. So far we’ve picked a focus word and set intentions through a yearly list. Today’s letter is R, for realistic expectations, and I want to buffer the excitement of a new year with a dose of reality: we’re still fish brains, and there will still be bumps. The goal isn’t a magic fix, it’s approaching the same bumps with a little more awareness of how to navigate around them.

A tale of two days

Yesterday was genuinely productive. I got the podcast out, prepped the house for cleaners, and in the process tackled the leftover Christmas decorations that had been up through a house full of holiday guests. I didn’t pack anything neatly, I just crashed it all into the basement to clear the main floor before the cleaners arrived. That’s still a mess waiting in the basement, and that’s fine, I’ll deal with it later. Upstairs felt bare and minimal afterward, in a good way, breathing room.

Then a January thunderstorm rolled through, my anxious dog panicked all night, and between comforting her and making sure my family could actually sleep, I got almost no real rest. I woke up groggy, unmotivated, and briefly discouraged that it was already January 4th and a day like this could derail everything I’d hoped to build momentum on.

This is exactly why a New Year’s resolution requiring daily perfection sets us up to fail

Kids get sick. Storms hit. Exhaustion happens. Our all-or-nothing brains want to shut down entirely the moment a plan gets interrupted. Instead, I want us to say: that was a bad day, tomorrow is a new one, and the way to protect tomorrow is having a baseline you can lean on today even when you have nothing extra to give.

What a baseline actually looks like

This morning, running on almost no sleep with a client to see, my baseline was three things: empty the dishwasher and sink, switch over laundry if there was any waiting, and make the bed. That’s it. When I get home tonight, that small effort means today won’t feel like a step backward, it’ll feel like holding steady. Some days, holding steady is the win.

Reframe the house itself

Instead of viewing your home as a task list demanding completion, try seeing it as a place you love your family through. Choosing to be present with a kid heading back to school, or settling nerves before a return to college, over grinding through a to-do list, is still loving your family through your home, just in a different form that day.

Your practical, actionable step

Sit down with a cup of coffee and decide your baseline, no more than three things, nothing elaborate, no checklist or clipboard required. Something as simple as a functioning kitchen and clean clothes to wear might be enough. Keep it small enough that even your worst day still lets you hit it.

Until next time, continue to choose joy.