Kourosh Dini's Blog, page 15
February 13, 2023
You and Your ADHD Friends (a medication shortage)
Over the years, several clients have independently described their medication for ADHD as:
“It’s like putting on glasses.”
Some of them come to me after years of struggling. Often, they’ve fashioned wonderful systems of computer, phone, pen, and paper to help them throughout their days, but things continue to slip. Frustrations, upsets, or another collapse of a relationship prompts them to call me.
Sometimes they only discover the diagnosis in their later years.
Treated, they suddenly have a new...
February 6, 2023
Is Something Wrong With My “Second Brain”?
Efficiency is overhyped and may, in fact, be damaging.
It may even harm our ability to think.
Consider how…
My father was a highly respected surgeon. Legends gathered and continue to follow him to this day, nearly a year since his passing.
I run into physicians who, upon learning I am his son, tell me of yet another wild story of how he saved the day in some difficult surgery, only to follow it up by running up five flights of stairs leaving much younger residents panting behind him.
Wh...
February 3, 2023
Emiliana Torrini – Nothing Brings Me Down
Just a post of music I like…
January 30, 2023
A Story of Side Quests
When is preparation the same as procrastination?
—
Today’s story is inspired by a conversation with my daughter. Credit where it’s due…
While working, I often run into some frustration. My thoughts quickly turn to:
> “How could I make that go better?”
While necessity is the mother of invention, frustration must be the mother of organization. (I suspect they are siblings, if not related.)
In some ways, capitalizing on these frustrations is a great way find and build on some neat ideas. Heck, ...
January 23, 2023
Leave My Perfectionism Alone
Perfect is not the enemy of good…
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Several weeks ago, I’d asked you, my dear reader, what to do with my course *[Waves of Focus: Guiding the Wandering Mind](https://www.kouroshdini.com/waves-of-...)*, a series for the powerful and creative mind that can at times, fall into scatter, distraction, or hyperfocus.
Previously, it had been a cohort-based course, an online setting with a group of fellow peers. The aim was to harness an engagement that only a classroom can provide.
But it was pri...
January 16, 2023
The Mistake of Nodding My Head as If I Understood
Do you ever nod your head in conversation as if you understood?
Meanwhile your mind is drifting off else?
Here’s a way to tune in…
_________________________
Take a race car on the race track, and you’ll be flying.
Take the same car on the streets of Chicago after a snow season, and, well… you’ll have a rough go.
The same can happen with our thoughts.
When having a hard time learning a new idea, following a conversation, or staying with an activity, the mind can wander off.
In the futile atte...
January 9, 2023
What It Takes to Learn
Couldn’t learning just be easy?
Likely not.
But one method does follow the “simple but hard to master” refrain…
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In therapy, there comes a point where there is a deep struggle, a sense that you don’t know if you can go forward. Something is too frightening, too shameful, too awful to face.
In stories, there comes a point where the protagonist faces something about themselves, where they realize that what they thought they wanted or needed wasn’t what they truly needed. To move forward, they...
January 2, 2023
One Way to Break Free from Social Media’s Grip (in 60 seconds or less)
This post is just another distraction.
Maybe you’re sick and tired of everything you need to do, wanted a break, and here you are.
But, maybe this post offers another way out?…
_________________________
Mindlessly scrolling through social media, a background exhaustion tagging along…
> “I’m just taking a break”
It’s hard to fault ourselves for wanting a break. The days are both too long and too short. Too much to do, and not nearly the time to get to what you want to do.
But then, when some ...
December 26, 2022
A MAP – Part 3 of 4 – A Respect for Agency
Welcome to the MAP post series, in which we examine important components when attempting to find growth, stability, and a sense of direction. In our last email, we considered mastery. Today, we consider Agency…
Argh! I forgot about that!
In that moment, an awful feeling grips your gut, as you realize that a vital deadline passed by, an important family moment slipped from mind, or some crucial detail was lost.
Not again?! How could I?!
You may even come to the conclusion that you are selfish, s...
December 12, 2022
A MAP – Part 2 of 4 – A Gentle Path of Mastery
In the first post, I introduced the concept of the MAP, an acronym describing a path to help you find direction, particularly when other task systems and apps have failed you, and for those times when feeling scattered or empty.
Today, we look at the first component, Mastery…
A Gentle Path of MasteryA new task system! I’ll dive in and make this one work!
For a while it even does work…
What neat ideas! I can do this! I can change that!
Those deep voyages can be thrilling. The rest of the...
