#132 ADHD & Money Mindset: From Shame to Success

Summary

Podcast Summary – Navigating Adult ADHD

Host: Xena Jones
Episode #132: ADHD & Money Mindset: From Shame to Success
Date: September 22, 2025

---

Overview

This episode marks the third installment in the “ADHD and Money” series. Xena Jones digs deep into the emotional landscape of money management for adults with ADHD, focusing especially on how shame shapes our relationship with money—and how shifting our mindset can turn shame into empowerment. Drawing on both personal experience and evidence-based coaching, Xena offers practical, compassionate strategies for transforming one’s money story, building healthier habits, and celebrating incremental progress.

---

Key Discussion Points

1. Series Recap and the Role of Shame

• [00:03-03:13] Xena briefly recaps the previous two episodes:

  • Part 1: Why money is harder for ADHD brains
  • Part 2: Strategies for impulse spending and making money more visible

• Listeners Respond:

  • Shares a listener’s message about feeling “so seen” by the episodes, highlighting how common these struggles are.

• Shame as the Core Issue:

  • “If shame is running the show, we’re going to continue to hide from our money and our goals with money. And that, my friend, was me for most of my life.” [04:40]
  • Xena opens up about her experience with credit card debt, avoidance, and secrecy.

• Memorable Quote:

  • “Shame is like a cockroach. It hides in the dark corners and it feels huge and scary, but the moment you shine a light on it, it scuttles away.” [05:32]
  • Emphasizes that talking about money shame reduces its power.

---

2. Money and Dopamine: The ADHD Connection

• [07:01]

  • “It is not your money’s job to give you dopamine. That is your life’s job.”
  • Many with ADHD self-soothe or seek excitement by spending, but lasting joy can come from cost-free experiences.

• Challenge from Xena:

  • Collect “glimmers of joy” that do not require spending.
  • Examples include: beach walks, baking, building a blanket fort, or cuddling pets.

---

3. Building a New Relationship with Money

• [09:22-11:42]

  • “How would you describe your relationship with money?” Xena invites listeners to personify their money relationship, revealing unhealthy patterns of avoidance and neglect.
  • Suggests writing or speaking out this relationship to build self-awareness.

• Aha Moment:

  • Realizing that money, like any relationship, can be improved by setting boundaries and nurturing it.

• Memorable Metaphor:

  • “Money doesn’t have to be a toxic relationship. You get to rewrite that story and develop a loving, healthy relationship with it.” [10:45]

---

4. The Think-Feel-Do Domino Effect

• [11:42-14:30]

  • Explains the psychological principle: “What we think determines how we feel, and how we feel determines what we do.”
    • Ex: “When you think I’m really bad with money, you don’t look at your finances…you don’t make a plan.” [12:20]
  • Notes that most people aren’t taught this early in life.

• Domino Imagery:

  • “Your thought is the first tile… Once that tips over, the rest all fall in line.” [12:55]
  • Changing the first ‘domino’ (thought) changes the whole sequence.

---

5. Four Principles for Changing Money Thoughts

• [15:36-17:40]
  • 1. Thoughts are not facts:
    • “They are our opinions, our judgments, the stories we tell ourselves about the facts.” [15:37]
  • 2. You can choose your thoughts:
    • If a thought isn’t serving you, you don’t have to keep thinking it.
  • 3. You only feel emotions when you believe a thought:
    • You can practice believing new thoughts that serve you better.
  • 4. There are no thought police:
    • “You can literally think anything you want. So why not think things that help you…?” [17:40]

---

6. Choosing Neutral Thoughts to Bridge the Gap

• [18:00-22:00]
  • Don’t force yourself from “I’m bad with money” to “I’m great with money”—it’s too big a leap.
  • “Aim to feel neutral around money first instead of going for all or nothing…” [19:23]
    • Ex: “I have a body” instead of “I hate/love my body.”
  • Neutral money thoughts suggested by Xena:
    • “Money is a tool.”
    • “It is possible that I am getting better with money.”
    • “Money is neutral until I have a thought about it.”
    • “My relationship with money is changing.”
    • “Money isn’t a moral issue. It doesn’t make me a good or bad person.”
    • “The amount of money I have is just data.” [21:48]
  • Neutrality removes shame and makes it easier to act.

---

7. Embracing ADHD Strengths for Financial Success

• [23:52-25:23]

  • Creativity: Use unconventional approaches to saving, earning, or debt repayment.
  • Hyperfocus: Channel intense focus into, e.g., paying off debt.
  • Dopamine-drive: Gamify savings or make progress visually engaging (e.g., saving coins in a jar).

• Encouragement:

  • “We can channel [our strengths] into fun ways to make more, save more, pay off debt, whatever our financial goals are.” [24:12]

---

8. The Power of Small Steps & Celebrating Neutrality

• [25:25-27:19]

  • “I want to give you permission to go slow…” Big wins aren’t necessary; tiny tweaks build up.
  • “Small shifts around money mindset land you in a whole new financial future.” [25:52]
  • Celebrating neutrality is progress—if you can go from feeling terrible to just ‘meh’, that’s a massive shift.

• Memorable Analogy:

  • “If you were to think of, like, neutrality, like putting your car in park instead of just riding the gas and brake at the same time…” [26:40]

---

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• “Shame is like a cockroach. It hides in the dark corners and it feels huge and scary, but the moment you shine a light on it, it scuttles away.” – Xena, [05:32]
• “It is not your money’s job to give you dopamine. That is your life’s job.” – Xena, [07:01]
• “Money doesn’t have to be a toxic relationship. You get to rewrite that story.” – Xena, [10:45]
• “What we think determines how we feel, and how we feel determines what we do.” – Xena, [12:15]
• “Thoughts are not facts… they are our opinions, our judgments, the stories we tell ourselves about the facts.” – Xena, [15:37]
• “Money is not a moral issue. It doesn’t make me a good or bad person. I get to decide that for myself.” – Xena, [21:24]
• “Small shifts around money mindset land you in a whole new financial future.” – Xena, [25:52]

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:03 – Series recap and money shame stories
• 07:01 – Money and dopamine: shifting your sources of joy
• 09:22 – Personifying your relationship with money
• 11:42 – The think-feel-do domino effect
• 15:36 – Four truths about thoughts and mindset
• 18:00 – Practicing neutral money thoughts
• 23:52 – ADHD strengths for financial progress
• 25:25 – Progress through small steps and celebrating neutrality
• 27:22 – Episode recap and encouragement

---

Episode Takeaways

• Money mindset—not just budgeting—is critical for adults with ADHD.
• Shame thrives in secrecy; talking about money struggles diminishes its power.
• Lasting change comes from reframing your thinking and building a neutral, healthy relationship with money.
• Leverage ADHD strengths (creativity, hyperfocus, desire for novelty) for positive financial progress.
• Tiny shifts and neutrality deserve celebration and can lead to significant improvement over time.

---

“You’re not bad with money. Money is a tool and you are just learning new ways to work with that tool.” – Xena, [29:02]

For a downloadable cheatsheet of this episode’s insights, visit navigatingadultadhd.com/cheatsheet.

---

Note: Skip the intro/outro sections for direct content. This episode is packed with affirming, practical mindset shifts—perfect for anyone ready to rewrite their money story with ADHD.

Transcript

[A]

You are listening to the Navigating Adult ADHD podcast with your ADHD coach and expert, Xena. Hello, my friend. Welcome back to Navigating Adult adhd where we today are going to go through the third part of our ADHD and Money series. Now, before we do, I want to address what could be the elephant in the room if you're a regular listener. And that is my voice. I lost my voice last week. Have you ever lost your voice to the point where you can't even like whisper? Like nothing comes out? Because that's what happened to me. And the most funny thing. Oh, funny. Not funny. I think it's funny. Is that it was my partner's birthday on the Thursday I lost my voice. Tuesday night I. I had nothing, no voice at all. I'm talking, getting really good at communicating with sign language, like, you know, making up your own sign language and being very creative, using my phone to communicate, right? And on his birthday, I had zero voice, nothing. So I couldn't even say all the lovely things that I wanted to say. But thankfully I had already, you know, pre prepared some stuff so I was ready to go. But one of the funny things was that I went on to went into the butcher on his birthday on the Thursday to buy something to cook for dinner. And the butcher looks at me and he goes, hey, how can I help you today? And I went to like, you know, test out my voice thinking, you know, there'll be a little bit, something will come out, I'll probably sound terrible, but like he'll get the gist that I don't have much voice and we can just communicate together. And I went to say, hello, can I please get. And nothing came out. And he just stares at me. And thankfully my partner Emmett, he comes over and he's like, yeah, sorry mate, she's got no voice. And I was like, oh God, like nothing came out. So, yeah, made me very much, very grateful for having a voice and for health, which I am almost back to. So with a raspy, nasally voice. Today we are going to talk about money, Money, money, money. So in part one of this series, we talked about why money is or can be harder for ADHD brains. Okay, in part two, which was last week, I shared some practical strategies, things that you can do to make managing your money easier, right? Especially if you have a tendency to impulse buy, right? Just to chuck things on a credit card or on after pay, you know, know, telling yourself, you know, I'll just figure it out later.

[B]

Okay?

[A]

So in that episode we explored the halted 24 tool. The importance of making money visible.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Insight in mind, right? Because as people with adhd, we often experience money blindness. And I also talked about the self binding strategy. So if you missed that episode, cue it up to listen to right after this.

[B]

Okay?

[A]

One of our listeners actually sent in in a message that said, oh my God, your money podcast. I feel so seen, right? So if you haven't listened, my friend, go and listen. She went on to say, it was so good and everything you said, a thousand percent. Yes. For me, I just listened to the first one. I'm so excited to listen to the second one. The part about not connecting the sequences because you can't see them. Omg, telling myself, I'll figure it out later. I will sell something. I have said that so many times, right? And then she's got afterpay face palm emoji. So again, if you haven't listened to those, definitely go and listen to the last two episodes on Money. So today we are going to dive into the area of money that has actually had the biggest impact on me personally. And this is the thing that has helped me to pay off thousands of dollars in credit card debt. It's actually helped me to have a lot of savings across multiple accounts and not go into debt every time I travel, which is, you know, trust me, something I don't skimp on because I love to travel and I love, you know, nice travel. I'm not a camper, I'm a glamper. And even then I'd rather stay in a hotel. So today we're going to get into that juicy stuff, okay? Money mindset. Because no matter what systems or strategies we put in place, if we have a lot of shame around money, if shame is running the show, we're going to continue to hide from our money and our goals with money. And that, my friend, was me for most of my life, okay? If I wanted it, I just bought it. So I was constantly racking up credit card debt, right? Living payday to payday. I was doing credit card balance transfers between different banks, trying to, like, reduce the interest that I would have to pay. And I felt so ashamed of my financial situation, right? So much so that I never talked about it. I never asked for help. I just avoided looking at my bank statements, right? I literally hid from my own finances. I hated managing money. I thought I was so bad with money that I just never had enough. Now, here is the thing about shame, okay? And shame is I am bad, right? Like thinking I am bad with money, right? Shame it's like a cockroach. It hides in the dark corners and it feels huge and scary, but the moment you shine a light on it, it scuttles away, right? For years I kept my shame about money in the dark, right? I didn't talk to anybody about it. I didn't do anything about it. I just kind of hid from it. And that's why it had such a hold on me the second I started talking about it, right? Looking at it, facing it head on, it began to lose its power. So today I am going to share with you how you can transform your own money mindset. And I know you are going to relate to this episode, my friend. All right, now again, you are probably going to want to get that free download for today's episode because I'm going to recap everything we talk through so that you have got the notes.

[B]

All right?

[A]

You can click the link in the episode where you're listening here or you can head to navigating adultadhd.com cheatsheets and and you will get a one page PDF with everything you need from today's episode. So, number one, it is not your money's job to give you dopamine. That is your life's job.

[B]

Right?

[A]

I'm going to say it again. It is not your money's job to give you dopamine. That is your life's job. How much joy are you getting from your life without having to spend money all the time? This was a really big eye opener for me because I saw just how reliant I was on, like needing to spend money to feel good, like needing to buy a bottle of wine or go out for a nice meal or buy a new dress or, you know, watch Netflix, you know, on my paid account to get my dopamine. And I had really forgotten that I could also find joy in, you know, walking along the beach, watching the sunrise, going on a picnic in the park.

[B]

Right?

[A]

That's a real novelty for me. It was something I did a lot when I was living in London and it's just such a fun novelty, weeding my garden. I actually did that at the weekend. So good. Cuddling my cats, setting up a blanket fort in the living room I'm going to put in there. Like I did do this with the kids, but I just want to say, like, you don't have to be a kid to do that. And it's super fun baking cookies, right? That post run high that you get. Again, it's not my money's job to give Me, dopamine. That is my life's job. Now, of course, us adhders, we love a good challenge. So I challenge you to go out and find as many glimmers of joy of dopamine this week that don't rely on you spending any money at all, right? See how many you can catch or collect. Because remember, it's not your money's job to give you dopamine. That is your life's job. Number two, how would you describe your relationship with money? Now, we each have a relationship with money, right? Just like you have a relationship with your boss, with your friend Lucy and your cousin Jack. How would you describe that relationship?

[B]

Right.

[A]

For me, my relationship with money prior to where we are today, it was not good. I used to abuse that relationship, right? If money was a person, it was very much a one way street and I was a nasty bitch, right? I was ghosting it, never checking in on it. Kind of would treat it like an asshole and then I would beat myself up for the way I would treat it, right? This was a really powerful aha moment and kind of exercise for me to go through. So specifically sitting down and writing it out by hand, right? Now, if you are somebody who is not great with writing things out or you really struggle with dyslexia, then I say, like verbally say it out loud and have it typed out for you. Like, you know, whether it's in chat, GPT or you use just like I use my iPhone Inotes, the notes app to do that a lot, right? But again, like answer that question. What is my relationship with money? Like, how would I describe it? Actually spend some time thinking about that and writing it down because once you see that and that you actually do have a relationship with it, right? It kind of begs the question of how do you want that relationship to be? Because I want it to be a healthy relationship, which means that I need to take responsibility for my part in it. I need to have some boundaries. I need to treat it the way I want to be treated, right? Money doesn't have to be a toxic relationship. You get to rewrite that story and develop a loving, healthy relationship with it. Again, like seeing that I personally have a relationship with money and so do you, like, that gave me this beautiful aha in my brain that helped me really take ownership for my part in that relationship. And that was huge. And this actually leads really beautifully into number three. Okay, Your thoughts. What you think about money will determine how you feel about it. And how you feel determines what you do and don't do with your money. Okay, you've heard me say this before, right? What we think determines how we feel and emotions drive actions.

[B]

All right?

[A]

This is so important. Okay, let's go through it. When you think, I need this new pair of Nike trainers, you feel urgency. When you feel urgency, you go and buy them. When you think I deserve a new dress, you feel entitlement, you go and buy that new dress. And when you think I'm really bad with money, you don't look at your finances, you don't make a plan to repay the debt or a plan to make more money, right? What we think about money and about our spending, that determines how we feel. And how we feel determines what we go on to do or not do, right? You know that when you feel super motivated, you get a lot of shit done, right? When you feel angry, you yell, you slam doors, you stew on it, right? Think, feel, do.

[B]

Right?

[A]

Now this is psychology 101, right? Like psychology teaches us that what we think determines how we feel and how we feel determines what we do or don't do. And yet, while it is psych 101, most of us never learned this in schools. I certainly didn't, right? It wasn't until my, I would say late 20s, early 30s that I started to learn this, right? So many of us don't learn this until, well, until adulthood. So when we talk about this think, feel, do, I like to picture it like a domino, right? This is the domino effect, right? Your thought is the first tile, right? What you're thinking is the very first tile. And once that tip's over, the rest all fall in line, right? The thought hits the feeling, the feeling then hits the action, right? The domino goes. So if your first domino in the line is, I'm terrible with money, you can kind of guess how that's going to fall, right? But if your first domino is money is just data, then that domino line tips in a totally different direction. So if you are thinking, I don't want to miss out on this girls trip to Thailand and you feel scarcity and what do you do? You go and check it on a credit card, telling yourself, I'll worry about that later, right? When you think, I don't have time to make more money, you feel like a victim. And when you feel like a victim, what do you do? Well, you don't do anything. You don't change anything. You just stay stuck again. What we think determines how we feel. How we feel determines what we do. Think, feel, do. The domino effect. So my Friend, what are your current money thoughts? I used to think things like, I am bad with money. I spend too much, I never have enough money. I should budget, but I don't. I should save and I don't. Therefore I'm bad. I'm terrible with numbers. Maybe I'll marry someone with lots of money so I never have to worry about it again. So, as you can imagine, with those sorts of thoughts around money, I felt a lot of shame, a lot of fear, a lot of worry, a lot of anxiety when it came to money. And I understand that so many of us in the ADHD community, this is how we feel. And once we understand that our thoughts create our feelings. Can you tell my voice is starting to go again. Wish us luck. Okay, Once we understand that our thoughts create our feelings, there are four things we need to know, okay? Four very important things. Number one, thoughts are not facts.

[B]

Okay?

[A]

What you think is not a fact, right? They are our opinions, our judgments, the stories that we tell ourselves about the facts. For example, today it is cloudy, and I think it's about 16 degrees Celsius. And I went outside for my walk thinking it is cold. That is not a fact. That is my opinion.

[B]

Okay?

[A]

Somebody else, my partner for sure, would be like, oh, it's a warm day today. Again, that's his opinion, right? Thoughts are not facts. There are opinions, the judgments, the stories we tell ourselves about the facts. The fact is, it is cloudy and 16 degrees Celsius. That's it.

[B]

Okay?

[A]

I don't have any emotion about that until I think, you know, that's terrible or that's cold or that's too hot. That's when I generate some emotion. Now, number two, regardless of whether or not you want to argue that your thought is true, right? That it is factual, if it is not serving you, you do not have to keep thinking it, right? Just because your brain offers it to you does not mean you have to keep thinking it again. If the thought is not serving you, you don't have to keep thinking it. You can reprogram your brain. You can think something else, right? You have free will. You have choice.

[B]

Okay?

[A]

Number three, thoughts only generate emotions when you believe them, okay? And you can practice believing new thoughts. You can always find something else that you believe that feels better than what you're currently believing.

[B]

Always.

[A]

Number four, you can think anything you want. Thankfully, there are no thought police. Okay? Because I don't know about you, but I think some weird shit sometimes.

[B]

Right?

[A]

Thankfully, there's nobody up there like policing it. I'm Sure, I would have gotten in some trouble, right? You can literally think anything you want. So why not think things that help you, that serve you, that think things that create more positive emotions or emotion that drives positive action for you, right? So when I really began to work on my own relationship with money and my mindset around it, I knew that I wasn't going to go from thinking I'm bad with money to all of a sudden believing I'm great with money, right? Like, that was a little bit too far of a stretch, okay? Like, right now, if I'm thinking I am really bad with money, I can't just flick a switch and get my brain to believe I'm great with money because what's my brain gonna do? It's gonna. It's gonna fight back, it's gonna argue, it's gonna say, no, you're not. What about that holiday you just threw on the credit card? Or the fact that you owe $3,000 on that credit card? And don't even get me started on this one. And when was the last time you looked like my brain's gonna argue for all of the reasons why? That is so, so much bullshit, right? So another example of this I often see is when somebody, and this was me once upon a time, says, I hate my body, right? And they want to get to a place where they love their body, right? Like, it's too much of a stretch to go from I hate my body to I love my body. Like, yes, that thought is going to produce better things for you, but if you don't believe it, it's not going to work, right? It's too big of a jump. This is the classic all or nothing approach that, trust me, ADHD brains, we love the all or nothing approach, okay? So when it comes to changing how we feel about money, right, we have to go with thoughts that are believable, that our brain thinks are, you know, true, that we can actually get on board with, right? So what we got to do instead, my friend, we got to find some middle ground. We want to aim to feel neutral around money first instead of going for all or nothing, right? We want to aim for the middle. So if we go back to that example I was just giving, right? I find it often helpful to get out of the money context and take it to something different, right? If we go back to the body example, if you are thinking, I hate my body, a natural thought, sorry, a more neutral thought could be, I have a body, right? When you think, I hate my body, you feel ashamed. You feel Terrible. When you think I have a body. Like, yeah, duh. Doesn't everybody? Like, everybody has a body.

[B]

Right?

[A]

Like, see how, like, it removes so much of the emotion out of it.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

When I think I have a body, I'm like, yeah, yeah, I do. Yeah. Like, I don't feel good or bad.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Again, it's about finding that middle ground, taking the sting out of what you are currently thinking. Okay, So I want to share with you some of the more neutral thoughts that I have used when I have been working on my money mindset. Number one, money is a tool. It is possible that I am getting better with money. Money is neutral until I have a thought about it.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Money's not good or bad until I have a thought about it.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Number four, my relationship with money is changing. That one was really helpful for me. My relationship with money is changing.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And then eventually it became my relationship with money is improving.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Money isn't a moral issue. This one right here. So good money is not a moral issue. It doesn't make me a good or bad person. I get to decide that for myself.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Money is not a moral issue. There is a lot of money in the world.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That's just more neutral.

[B]

Right.

[A]

This one here, also very helpful. For me, the amount of. Of money I have is just data. The money I owe is just data. This is such a helpful one. I want to give you a further example of this. Again, we'll go back to the body sort of example. If you were to imagine standing on the scales. You stand on the scales today and the scales read 90 kgs.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

90 kg, which I think is roughly 200 pounds.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

That is not good or bad until you have a thought about it. So if you get on the scales and you think, see the 90 kgs and you think, oh, my God, I'm so fat. You're going to feel terrible. If you get on the scales and you see it read 90kgs and you think, yes, I'm gaining muscle. You're going to feel great if you get on the scales, see the 90kgs and you think, that's just data.

[B]

Right.

[A]

It takes the sting out of it. It doesn't feel good or bad. It's neutral. That's just data. It's true. It is. It's just data.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Again, that was one that was so helpful for me. It was helping me remove the shame when I would look at the numbers. So I want to invite you to think of changing your money mindset as like planting a new seed Right. When you do this, you don't expect a tomato plant just to grow up overnight. At first, it's going to feel like nothing's happening. But with a little bit more water, a little bit more light, that's, you know, a little bit more practice, a little bit more patience, the new belief starts to take root. It's the same with money thoughts. They grow stronger the more we practice them. Okay, So I want to highlight some of our ADHD strengths that really help us when it comes to improving our relationship with money, improving our financial situations.

[B]

Okay?

[A]

One of those strengths that we have is creativity. We find really unconventional ways to save money, to earn money, to pay off debt. Like, we can be incredibly creative when we allow ourselves to. In any space that we want to be, right? The next strength is the hyper focus, right? We have that epic ability to hyper focus, go down a rabbit hole, lose hours. Like, I love this. It can be so useful. So why not use it for, like, tackling your debt repayment, right? Being super creative in that way. Like go down a rabbit hole, right? Another one is like our dopamine drive, right? We can channel that into fun ways to make more, you know, save more, pay off debt, whatever our financial goals are, right? We can channel it into, you know, gamifying things, gamifying our savings goals, right? Like, for me, I'm such a visual person. For a while, they're like, I literally had jazz and I was like saving in big glass, see through jazz. And that was so fun because even putting $2 this jar and hearing it like hit the glass at the bottom, like, you know, it was so good, right? Again, that was really speaking to my dopamine, making it visual for me, right? But again, our creativity, our hyper focus, that, that kind of dopamine drive, knowing that we're driven by, by novelty and fun and interest, like, we can use that.

[B]

Okay?

[A]

Now I also want to give you permission to go slow, right? For us ADHDers, we want the big win. We want it now, we want to see it now. We want it fast.

[B]

Right?

[A]

And I want to remind you that tiny tweaks, like changing one thought around money, neutralizing one of your thoughts with money, right? Or just tracking one of your accounts, that is going to create a ripple effect and it will relieve some of the pressure. Okay? Now again, I've used this like 1% metaphor before. If a plane shifts its course by 1 degrees, it will end up in a totally different city, right? Small shifts around money mindset land you in a whole new financial future, okay? So again, permission to go slow. The next thing I want to share with you is celebrating neutrality as a progress, okay? Instead of like, rah, rah, I'm amazing with money, which your brain's gonna be like, bullshit, right? When you believe neutral thoughts around money, that is a huge win, right? If you can go from feeling terrible to just feeling meh, like in the middle, that's a massive leap. That's a massive shift in the right direction, right? So if you were to think of, like, neutrality, like finding neutral with your money, feeling neutral about it, like putting your car in park instead of just riding the gas and the brake at the same time, right? If you're trying to, like, ride the gas and the brake at the same time, oh, my God. That's. That's gonna fuck the car up pretty quick. It's not good, right? But if we put the car in park, it's calmer, steadier, less exhausting, right? That's a lot like what we're doing when we find that neutral place with money.

[B]

Okay?

[A]

So I'm going to recap what we've shared today, and I want to remind you that I have got all of these neutral thoughts. I have got these things I have shared with you. You can get all of it in your free download. Just head to navigating adultadhd.com cheatsheet okay? And then you've got it. You can literally print it out. You have it right there. Save it to your phone, whatever, okay? But let's just recap them quickly, okay? First off, it is not your money's job to give you dopamine. That's your life's job, my friend. So start noticing where you can find joy without spending. Number two, think about your relationship with money. Is it kind of toxic, right? Is it the one you want to nurture? Because you get to rewrite that story. Number three, remember, think, feel, do the domino effect. What we think determines how we feel. How we feel determines what we do, right? Your current thoughts about money are creating how you feel. If you feel terrible, that's coming from what you're thinking. And those feelings, what you feel determines what you do with it, right? So neutral thoughts. Here are your secret weapon, okay? And don't forget, just because you're thinking something doesn't mean you have to keep thinking it, right? A, thoughts aren't facts, but B, if it's not serving you, you don't have to keep thinking it, okay? That's where these neutral thoughts, having those. So good. All right, so don't forget you can get your free download. Grab the link here in the bio so that you can apply what we have talked about today, my friend. You're not bad with money. Money is a tool and you are just learning new ways to work with that tool.

[B]

Right?

[A]

And the more you practice these shifts, just 1%, 1%. That's all it takes, the more freedom you create. You have got this. I believe in you.

[B]

All right.

[A]

Thank you so much for pushing play on this episode. Huge love, my friend. I'll speak to you soon. Hey friend, if you want some more help navigating and thriving with ADHD and some help applying everything that you're learning here on the podcast, then head over to our website, navigating adultadhd.com.