Agency and trust are vital guiding currents in the sea of wandering minds. Instead of rigid productivity hacks, listeners are invited to chart their own course, embracing mindful practices that nurture self-compassion and creativity.

This episode explores:

- The hidden dynamics between past, present, and future selves, revealing how trust fuels sustainable change.

- Why shame-driven productivity sabotages agency, and how acknowledging "I don’t want to" can heal the cycle of procrastination.

- How the simple daily practice of a "visit" transforms tasks into invitations for growth, gently guiding momentum.

### Key Takeaways

- Replace the pressure of deadlines with the gentle rhythm of a daily invite—paying a mindful visit, then letting go.

- Build trust with your future self through repeated, compassionate invitations instead of self-criticism.

- Use habit trackers or one-thing lists to support playful mastery and meaningful engagement, one day at a time.

This episode features an original piano composition, echoing the theme of growth through rhythm and honoring the wandering nature of the mind. Subscribe and set sail with us at rhythmsoffocus.com—agency and creative potential await.

Keywords

#ADHD #WanderingMinds #MindfulProductivity #Agency #Creativity #SelfCompassion #FocusStrategies #HabitBuilding #GentleRhythm #Neurodiversity

Transcript

The Pressure to Not Break a Streak

Beating down the door, maybe haunting our dreams, or at least somewhere in memes there's a mascot of a particular language app.

This app, which shall remain nameless, is one I actually rather enjoy, but if I miss a day, I'll lose my streak and there's something of a burden to doing that. I imagine many of us have this sort of similar process of not wanting to break the chain. Is there an alternative? 

Chasing Pride

We do a thing every day and the number advances showing that I've added a new number to my streak. Haha, the number's growing. I grow proud.

There are, however, at least two occasions where I lost that number. Each time, it was somewhere in the hundreds, and I found much opportunity to practice my glowering in those days.

The popular method for creating this habit, if you will, is called "Don't Break the Chain." In essence, it's about doing a thing every day and then adding a tally to it every time. And as the number increases, you grow prouder of yourself and somewhere along the way build a habit. Many apps and admonitions for developing habit encourage this path.

Running from Failure and Shame

However, this method is also one that subtly uses the fear of defeat and consequently shame as motivators. If you happen to miss a day, the counter returns to zero. The worry of impending failure is always there. While we haven't failed yet, the voice that is inevitable is always behind us. Since all things must pass somewhere down the line, the chain will break.

What is a Measure?

Further, while we may grow proud of that number, there's something to consider in that comment by Goodhart, "when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure." If I only go for that number, I can feel the stagnation in my learning.

But if I take the time to be and experience the words, the sentences, play with them until they feel like they're second nature.

Well, now I'm learning, but I also risk not meeting the requirements for that day's tick. In other words, the required milestone of work can stand against my learning.

The Thing Itself

So what's important is the thing itself, whatever it is, we're engaging the task, the hobby, the study, the measure that matters is our experience.

I describe a practice of a daily invite, in episode 24. In short, it means to one, decide to be with something, two, be and then three. Do that daily

The steps can seem quite obvious.

However, by separating the components, we can now practice them. We can consider what helps with any of these steps. Also, because there is no number, the loss is not a given. We can reflect on the effect of a missing day. In that reflection, we can better decide whether it would be useful to gently return ourselves to that habit, and then further, let's take that word "habit." Rather than be so harsh, if things miss here and there, we still have a rhythm.

One that fades in and out of our lives, weaving itself where it matters most. The importance is the experience, not the number. And because of this difference, we're no longer beholden to a number so much as a developing sense of whatever it is that we're building, both as a thing and in how we relate to it.

"Ascend"

As we practice a craft, learn something field of knowledge, there are often a zillion different components to think through.

We can't think of everything all at once, . We can't practice them all at once, but we can garden them over time. We practice one bit. See how that goes. Practice another, practice them together. Forget things, let them fade and bring them back. Somehow in the roots and irrigation systems of this underground unconscious, as we do this, ideas start to generalize within the whole field, within the knowledge that we gather, within the skills.

Sometimes if we're lucky, it starts blending even into the other words and worlds we inhabit.

As I get better with writing music, I might get better with writing words. As I get better at understanding creativity, I might get better at understanding the pains of when that system is blocked in whatever the field as I sit with a client, maybe.

The following piece is called Ascend, written in C sharp minor three quarters time.

I had originally thought of it as a scene of Devils and Angels arising and fighting each other. Somehow it turned into this title, ascend, eh, not sure what to make of that. Regardless, I hope you enjoy it.  

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