The most admirable people are consistent in everything they do.
Wake up early
Work out
Eat healthy
Produce great work throughout their workday
Learn something new
And they do this over and over again every day for their entire lives.
They are healthy, happy, creative, and successful.
They may not actually be real.
And they are definitely not parents of young children.
I do all of the things listed above.
In spurts.
And never in the same day.
Even before I had kids I have always had trouble with consistency in my life. I was diagnosed with ADHD last year, at age 33. Up until that point I thought I was lazy, overly distracted, and unmotivated.
Getting diagnosed with ADHD, though I always suspected I had it, was eye-opening. It showed me that there was a reason that certain tasks were more difficult for me to complete. But I don’t ever want that to seem like an excuse for my lack of success in certain areas. Things might be more difficult for me, but they’re not impossible. I just have to work harder.
ADHD has its benefits for me too. My widely varied interests have made me a lifelong learner and given me the ability to successfully adapt to new industries in my work quickly. This makes me really good at my job, where just 2024 alone I’ve ingrained myself in the aluminum canning business, launched a clothing brand, learned the ins and outs of cloud faxing, become an expert in MSP and IT staffing, and also learned to keep the books for my own company.
I’ve also done dozens of stand up comedy shows across the state of Texas and planned out a massive life change (more on that at a later date).
All of that has happened in the time I have between parenting two young boys, one of whom exhibits all the signs of ADHD at a much greater volume than I ever did as a child.
When I list out my accomplishments this year, I see that I actually have done a lot. In fact, my first year in business has been far more successful, financially and otherwise, than any prior year of my career as a full-time employee.1
But I can’t help thinking about all of the things I *didn’t* accomplish. Much of what I didn’t do comes down to a lack of consistency.
Didn’t work out enough
Didn’t do enough client work
Didn’t make as much money as I could have
Didn’t read my Bible every day (or every week)
Didn’t spend enough time with my family
Didn’t spend enough time with my wife
Didn’t spend enough time with myself
Didn’t do enough comedy shows
Didn’t read enough books
Didn’t learn new languages
Didn’t wake up early enough
Didn’t get enough sleep
Didn’t do enough work around the house
Didn’t write enough Trial & Errors2
Those are the main things. There’s also a million other ones that spring to mind. I could look around my desk and think of 20 other things I meant to do but didn’t.
Anyone else get to this point in the year and feel regret more than accomplishment?
I’m not a New Year’s Resolution guy, but I get the mindset. December shows up and we realize how many things we didn’t do, but the chaos of the holiday season prevents any consistency. So we push it off until January and hope we can improve next year when our schedules are more clear.
Maybe it’s the ADHD, maybe it’s the fact that I am a creative professional, maybe it’s both, but I tend to work in major spurts of creative flurry. When I’m doing one thing I’m doing 50.
For example, I’m back writing Trial & Error in the same week that I’ve written 3-4 new jokes, learned enough Russian to have a short conversation with a repairman who came to our house,3 and planned out the full 2025 content calendar for two major organizations.
But this comes on the heels of 6-8 weeks of dormant creativity. I am generally hesitant to use the word “depression” but often that’s what it feels like during these times. I want to be creative. I want to learn. I want to be productive. But I just can’t. For whatever reason there’s no spark. Often there are external factors to blame, like extreme stress from kids or sickness, but I discount those because I’ve had some of my greatest creative periods during times of extreme stress.
What I’m saying is: I don’t know.
I don’t know why I work this way. I honestly don’t prefer it.
Some people will try to package ADHD as a “super power” and point to this unconventional productivity as a benefit. Maybe it is. But often it doesn’t feel that way.
Most of the time I wish I could be the person described at the top of this email.
That’s a long way of saying this: I’m going to bring you some more consistent emails this month. I’ve got my Top 10 Albums of the Year coming. I’ve been doing it for like 12 or 13 years, it might be the only consistent thing about me.
But I’ll also send an email with the 5 Books you need to read in 2025 and I’ll do a recap of my first full year as a solopreneur, with all the failures, successes, and lessons learned.
I haven’t written any of those things yet. So, writing them down in this email guarantees I have to get them done.
Also, in the spirit of “spurts of creativity” I have three comedy shows this weekend. They’re all in the same room and in the span of 24 hours. I’ll be doing two shows on Friday 12/6 at 7 PM, and 10 PM, and then one on Saturday 12/7 at 5 PM. All of them are at Dallas Comedy Club.
The various times mean that you can’t make any excuses about the timing not being good. Surely one of those times is perfect for you to finally come to one of my shows. Right?
Ok, I’m heading off the to the gym now. It’ll be the second time I go this week. How’s that for consistency?
A significant amount of credit should go to the fact that once diagnosed with ADHD I started on medication. I don’t think I could have started my business and done the hard, tedious work involved in that without it.
This is my first since September’s A DAI in the Life.
He had an absolutely terrified look on his face when I randomly said ты русский? to him. I think he thought the long arm of the FSB had finally found him. He didn’t smile until I did.