🌱 GROWTH
“The only time you should ever look back is to see how far you’ve come.” – Unknown
Growth is the green shoot pushing up through cracked earth—the quiet, steady unfolding of who you are becoming. For people with ADHD, growth often happens in nonlinear ways. We loop, we stall, we surge forward, then slide back. But make no mistake: we are still growing.
ADHD growth doesn’t always look like milestones or checkboxes. It looks like choosing a healthier response even when your brain screams otherwise. It looks like trying again after self-doubt. It looks like noticing a pattern, setting a boundary, asking for help. It’s in the shifts no one sees—but you feel.
We live in a culture that celebrates fast results and visible change. But ADHD growth is often internal, subtle, and hard-won. It’s not a glow-up. It’s a process of deepening roots, unlearning shame, and crafting new neural trails one choice at a time.
This value invites us to reflect with compassion, not critique. To track not just what got done, but how we showed up. And to trust that every small act of care, courage, or curiosity moves us forward—even when it doesn’t look like much on the surface.
🧭 The HOPE Trail Map
- Helps or Harms: Is this voice in my head helping me grow—or punishing me for how I grow?
- Own My Values: I want to be someone who honours the slow, real process of becoming more myself.
- People and Pursuits: Who reflects my growth back to me? What pursuits show me how far I’ve come—even if I’m not “done”?
- Enact and Evaluate: Today, I’ll name one area where I’ve grown—no matter how small—and give it credit.
⚠️ Trail Challenges
- Perfectionism can distort our view of progress.
- Executive dysfunction may stall external achievements, hiding internal evolution.
- Growth may go unrecognized in systems that value compliance over change.
🪧 Trail Markers: Small Steps Toward Growth
- Compare yourself only to your past self—not someone else’s highlight reel.
- Track “how I responded differently this time” rather than just what got done.
- Say aloud: “I may not be where I want to be, but I am not where I was.”
🔥 Campfire Questions for Reflection
- What’s one way I’ve changed for the better in the last year?
- Where am I still growing—even if it feels invisible or slow?
- What kind of growth feels most meaningful to me right now?
Growth is not about becoming someone new. It’s about peeling back the layers to reveal more of the true you—and learning to live from that place, one step at a time.
