Thoughts on ADHD & Goals for 2026

Thoughts on ADHD & Goals for 2026

From ADHD Essentials by Brendan Mahan

January 10, 2026 · 10 min · Episode 287

About this episode

Brendan Mahan reflects on his delayed goals of earning a black belt and writing a book, sharing insights from his journey and challenges faced along the way.

It’s January 10th. By now, odds are you’ve already fallen down on some of your resolutions. To that end, I want to talk about two of my goals that I can almost guarantee were more delayed than yours are, and the takeaways I have from them. When my boys were born, I set a goal to earn my black belt and write a book by the time they turned five. They’re sixteen now, almost seventeen, and I finally reached both of those milestones - a mere eleven years later than I planned.Let’s unpack that.In hindsight, the black belt goal was ambitious, but realistic. The book goal was naive at best. Please indulge me for a minute while we play “Storytime with Mr. B”. I had been training in Kempo for a little less than a year when my boys were born. I don’t remember what belt I was, probably orange or green, but I went to the dojo a lot. As long as grading permitted, I was still a teacher at the time, I spent about 10 hours a week there across four days. By the time they turned four, I had earned my brown belt. And there I would stay for the next 12 years. So what happened? Around the time the boys turned four, my career as a teacher ended and I had to rebuild myself. I ended up exploring ADHD…

People in this episode

Host: Brendan Mahan

Topics covered

  • ADHD
  • goals
  • resolutions
  • personal development
  • parenting

Keywords

  • ADHD
  • goals
  • black belt
  • writing
  • parenting
  • resolutions
  • personal growth

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Kempo

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