Showing Up Is The Shortcut

Last week, I shared my dopamine menu, the brain-friendly cheat sheet I use to get myself started. But I slowly realised that starting is only half the story. Showing up again and again — even on the days where I’d rather not — is what matters.

And look, with my brain, that’s not always straightforward. Overthinking, detours, distractions… you name it, I’ve got it. It’s kind of like driving a golf cart with a dodgy steering wheel — I’ll eventually get to the hole, but not without zigzagging across a few fairways first (while also looking for my ball).

Even with all the zigzags, I’ve noticed that showing up doesn’t have to be dramatic. Sometimes it’s as small as dragging myself to a workout I almost skipped because it wasn’t a class, it was just me and my discipline. That’s when it hit me: if I can’t keep these tiny promises to myself, how am I meant to keep the bigger ones?

In my first blog post, I wrote that I wanted to be seen — not in the flashy, all-eyes-on-me kind of way, but in the this-is-who-I-am, take-it-or-leave-it kind of way. And the truth is, the only way I can actually do that is by showing up for myself first.

So this week, I’m focusing on the power of showing up; imperfectly, messily, inconsistently at times, yet still showing up. Because that’s how momentum builds. That’s how I keep becoming more of the person I said I wanted to be. If I don’t keep those small promises — the workouts, the writing, the little daily commitments — then I’m not really showing up as the most capable me. I’m just showing the version of me that gave up.

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🧠 why showing up matters (even for distracted brains)

When I don’t show up, I beat myself up, and I beat myself up hard. With ADHD, it’s never just, “oh well, I’ll try again tomorrow.” It spirals into: I’m a failure, I can’t do anything, why am I like this? And then my RSD (rejection sensitivity dysphoria) kicks in. It’s emotional, it’s exhausting, and it’s definitely unhealthy.

But when I do show up, even in the smallest way, it changes everything. Like the other day, I set a timer for five minutes just to nudge myself into starting. Five minutes turned into twenty, twenty turned into an hour, and suddenly I was on a roll. That one tiny win gave me a dopamine hit that carried me through the rest of the day.

That’s why showing up matters. It’s not about doing it perfectly. It’s about proving to myself that I can follow through, even if it’s messy. Every time I show up, I'm slowly building more self-trust, and that feels way better than waiting around for motivation to magically appear.

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🗓️ enter the 12 week year

Recently, I read The 12 Week Year by Moran and Lennington. The whole point of the book is this: instead of making huge New Year’s resolutions and forgetting about them by March, you shrink the timeline. You pick a goal, and instead of giving yourself 12 months to (maybe) get there, you give yourself 12 weeks. You break that big goal into small, daily actions that actually move you closer.

The reason I think this might work (at least for me) is that a year is a long time. Too long. With ADHD, a year just feels like one giant permission slip to procrastinate. But 12 weeks? That feels immediate, like I don’t really have time to keep putting things off. And if I do, I’m only robbing myself in the end.

Each week, you track your actions, kind of like a checklist. The idea is, if you hit about 85% of the things you set out to do weekly, you’ll almost always reach your goal by the end of the 12 weeks. What caught my attention was the novelty of it. Every 12 weeks, I can work on something different, change up my routine, tweak my actions. For a neurospicy brain, it just… makes sense. No overcomplicated systems, no waiting around for “Monday” or “next month.” Just: 12 weeks from whenever, one goal, and the daily steps to get there.

A creator I admire decided to treat a whole year of her life as an experiment. So I figured, why not treat this as a tiny experiment too, with me as the test subject.

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🧪the experiment

After reading the book and sitting with what goal I’d want to focus on, I realised the perfect one is my blog. I’ve been wanting to start a blog for years now, and this feels like the right place to begin. So for these 12 weeks, my main focus is simple: show up for myself by writing, creating, and putting my work out there.

Since I’m calling this an experiment, let's set it up correctly:

hypothesis:

If I follow the 12 Week Year framework and stick to my daily/weekly actions, it will increase my goal achievement and personal accountability compared to traditional annual goal-setting.

method:

Apply the 12 Week Year framework to one primary objective: establishing consistency in content creation and routines.

• Write 1 blog post per week
• Post two to three times on social media to get over my fear of being judged for being my neurospicy, authentic self
• Do three workouts per week, because my brain works better when my body’s moving (and because I’ve been lazy thanks to this Sydney weather)
• Play one golf session per week, because if I’m mildly obsessed already, I may as well make it part of the plan

variables:

• Independent: The 12 Week Year framework (shrinking goals into actions for 12 weeks).
• Dependent: My consistency, showing up week after week.
• Controlled: The actions above (blog, socials, workouts, golf).

observation:

The real test will be whether I can keep this up once the novelty wears off. Am I genuinely building habits, or am I just motivated by the shiny “new system” feeling?

data collection:

Track actions weekly (aiming for at least 85% completion). Make notes on my energy, motivation, and distractions along the way.

analysis:

Week 4 – The First Checkpoint: Pause and review — am I still sticking to my actions? Do I need to tweak the plan, or has the novelty already worn off?

Week 8 – The Messy Middle: Check momentum — am I keeping things going, or slipping into procrastination? What small wins can I celebrate, and what’s tripping me up?

Week 12 – The Big Review: Look back — did the 12 Week Year help me show up more consistently? Which habits stuck, which didn’t, and what surprised me?

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✨why this mini-series exists

I’ve got personal reasons for this. First, accountability. No one else can keep me in check but me, but showing up publicly makes it way harder to just quietly quit. Second, courage. I’ve been scared of being judged for so long. This is me practising sharing my stuff anyway, messy, imperfect, whatever.

And if you’re reading this and you feel like you’re easily distracted or you never follow through, I hope this reminds you that you’re not the only one. I can guarantee there are SO many people in the same boat.

For me, it’s not about nailing every goal perfectly. It’s about showing up for myself because no one else is going to do that for me.

So if you think the 12 Week Year is something you’d like to try, give it a go. Or if not, cheer me on (I won’t say no 😉). Or just lurk quietly and see how it plays out. Either way, I’m committed.

At the end of the day, this is my pledge to keep showing up, to keep promises to myself, and to keep finding focus…

Even if I’m still winging it,

-namesnadia