The Wall of Awful with Brendan Mahan (rebroadcast)

Hacking Your ADHD

William Curb

Mental Health, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 702 Ratings

🗓️ 16 August 2021

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We've all got things that we think we should be able to just do - for example, I've had on my to-do list for weeks to make a phone call to the bank - it won't even take that long, but I keep putting it off. I keep finding reasons not to do it - what I've done is I've created a wall of awful around making this phone call (really most phone calls) and the more I put it off the more it builds it up. Today we've got Brendan Mahan from ADHD Essentials to explain what the Wall of Awful is and some ways that we can work on getting past it.

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Find the show notes at HackingYourADHD.com/wallofawful

This Episode's Top Tips

The Wall of Awful is the emotional impact of repeated failure and it makes activating on tasks even more difficult
While our wall starts off being built up with failure bricks, it is also built with things like disappointment, rejection, and shame. It doesn't matter if these bricks are based in reality, it matters how you perceive them.
There are 5 ways people try to get past the Wall of Awful, two don't work, one works, but is damaging to our relationships, and then two that work - the two that don't work are staring at it or trying to go around it - the one that works but is damaging is trying to hulk smash through the wall - the two that work that we want to focus on are climbing the wall and putting a door in our wall
Climbing the wall is about sitting with the emotion that built up our wall and understanding what's stopping us - it can often look like staring at the wall, but it's more about gearing yourself up to get over the wall
Putting a door in the wall is about changing your emotional state so that you can get past the wall - it could be doing things like taking a walk, listening to some energizing music, or watching a funny TV show to brighten your mood. Make sure that when you are trying to put that door in that you aren't actually just trying to go around the wall - it's easy to let that one TV show turn into four because you were just looking for a way to procrastinate.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Hacking Your ADHD, part of the ADHD Rewired Podcast Network.
0:09.1	I'm your host, William Kerb, and I have ADHD.
0:12.4	On this podcast, I dig into the tools, tactics, and best practices to help you work with your ADHD brain.
0:19.0	On today's podcast, we're going to be talking about The Wall of Awful, and I thought
0:22.9	who better to talk to than Brendan Mahan?
0:25.4	My name is Brendan Mahan. I am an ADHD coach, consultant, and speaker. I run ADHD Essentials,
0:32.1	the ADHD Essentials podcast, and I am the creator of the Wall of Offle, which is what we're here to talk about today.
0:39.9	That's right. We're doing something a little different today. We've got a guest.
0:43.7	So the Wall of Offel is the emotional impact of repeated failure. And as I built upon it, and I've
0:52.2	been playing with this for probably seven or eight years maybe at this point, as I played with that, I started to see just how often the emotional impact of failure, right?
1:02.9	Those sort of like small emotions that build up over time can make it harder for us to initiate tasks and take risks.
1:10.9	And in today's episode, we'll be getting more into how the wall of awful is built and what we can do about it.
1:16.6	If you'd like to follow along with the show notes page, you can find that at hacking your ADHD.com slash wall of awful.
1:24.2	Keep on listening to find out what you can do about your wall of awful.
1:35.2	We've all got things that we think we should be able to just do.
1:38.7	For example, I've had on my to-do list for weeks to make a phone call to the bank.
1:43.0	I really don't want to do it. Won't take that long.
1:45.7	And yet, I still keep putting it off. I keep finding reasons not to do it. And later we'll find out
1:51.1	that this is called trying to go around the wall. If you've ever tried to go around a metaphor,
1:55.4	you should know it just doesn't work. What I've done is I've created a wall of awful around making
2:00.5	this phone call. Really, most phone calls. and the more I put it off, the more it builds it up.
2:06.2	Here, I'll let Brendan explain.
	...

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