Occasionally I get this lesson handed to me and I swear I’ll remember it forever.

Then I forget it.

I think they call that lessons NOT learned. But here we go…

The bottom line of dealing with ADD is to simplify.

Simplify. Simplify, Simplify.

Instead I tend to complicate, complicate, complicate.

Silly, but true example: I took my iPhone with me yesterday to pick up my Sheltie from the vet (torn pad on his foot – awful, let’s not talk about it) and I picked up my handy dandy bluetooth headset so I could call my mom in Illinois without holding the phone to my ear. No law in NC about hands-free talking while driving but it’s coming.

I always have trouble getting the headset to communicate with the phone, so I often end up wearing the headset but holding the phone to my other ear anyway…sigh. This time I was determined to make it work. I turned on the headset first, then the phone. I called my husband as a Bluetooth check. Unaware that he was my guinea pig at that moment, we had a pleasant interlude – with me holding my phone to my ear — no sound from the headset,

I kept at it, pushing buttons, hoping for some kind of signal in my headset ear. Silence.

I was within 60 second of reaching the vet when I remembered that my iPhone had crashed a few weeks ago. That meant resetting the entire phone. Maybe the bluetooth wasn’t paired with my headset any more.

Voila! Not only was it not paired, it wasn’t even turned on in the Settings area. A quick adjustment and I could hear sound in my headset. Yay,

My point is that … if I didn’t have a bluetooth headset, I wouldn’t have used my precious brain cells and my even more precious time screwing around with it and finally figuring it out. And if I didn’t have an iPhone – which needs resetting far too often – I might not have lost the Bluetooth signal anyway. And if I didn’t have a cell phone, I wouldn’t have tried to call my mom while I was driving. I would have waited til I got home. And paid more attention to my driving.

This scenario plays out in my life thousands of times – not with a cell phone, but with dozens of other complications which I have invited into my life — ME. I did that. I chose to have a hot tub with a heater that goes out. I chose to have not one dog but two which more than doubles my expenses, worry and guilt about not walking them regularly. I chose to start 23 project instead of 4 which keeps me always behind and in a hurry.

I have often thought that my complicated life is how I keep my ADD brain interested and engaged. I do believe that. But it also takes so little to overwhelm my ADD brain that I am probably smarter to simplify my life. Something complicated WILL show up, I can be sure.

Simplify. Simplify. Simplify

Thoreau had it right 100 years ago. Or was that Emerson? Oh, now I have to double check online. Making my life more complicated just because I made a reference to a famous writer/philosopher. Will I ever learn this lesson?

PS- It’s Thoreau. I also need to trust my first instinct. There’s another surefire ADD coping tip I need to learn.