Hi. I’m Elizabeth. Welcome to Unmanaged.

There have been a few times in my life when I felt absolutely determined to hold onto what I knew about myself. And as someone with ADHD and a noisy brain, that’s sometimes harder than I’d like it to be.

The things that helped me weren’t strategies I chose deliberately. They were things I reached for out of necessity. But they worked — and I still use them today.

I tuned out everything I didn’t need in that exact moment. People, news, noise — if it wasn’t immediately in front of me and mine to deal with, it didn’t exist. I stayed deliberately present, dealt with what was there, and then moved to the next thing — reminding myself along the way: You’ve got this. Tons of people have navigated this before. You are smart. You can do this.

And I wrote things down. Wins, observations, moments I was proud of. Before I had a name for it, I was already keeping what I now call a reality anchor. I reviewed it regularly. I still do.

None of that meant I came out of those situations without a scratch. But my sense of self — my inner voice, my self-trust, my awareness of my own strengths — stayed present. That’s what kept me centered. I weathered those storms with these tools, and I’ve watched other people do the same.

Let’s look at what this can look like for you.

Say you’re walking through the office and you overhear two colleagues talking about an event you managed. They’re not being kind. You could confront them — that’s a valid response. But here’s another option:

You say to yourself: “They don’t have all of the information about what happened. I do. I know I did the best I could with what I had. What they’re saying has no power over what I know to be true.”

You separate the facts of the situation from the noise surrounding it. And you keep walking.

Let’s practice that now.

Feet on the floor. Deep breath in, deep breath out.

As you pass those two people in the hall, you hear their words. In your mind, imagine those words — not the people, just the words — flying toward you. But you have a sword and a shield. You bat those sharp words away. You block what’s coming. Because those words don’t have to land. You don’t have to absorb them. You can deflect them and walk away.

Deep breath in, deep breath out.

Now think of a time when you felt genuinely strong in your identity. What did you feel most certain about? Why? Hold that for a moment.

That certainty — what you know about yourself — that’s the floor holding you up right now.

Deep breath in, deep breath out.

Life is hard. Work is hard. And I believe the most reliable person in your corner is you. So protect that. Fight the mental battles worth fighting. Keep a moat around your identity. Nothing can breach it unless you lower the drawbridge yourself.

Deep breath. You’ve got this.

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