Most Important Thing I did to Change My Life with Executive Function challenges

Hey students — middle school, high school, and college students. What’s up? It’s me, Seth, with SethPerler.com. I’m an executive function coach based out of Boulder, Colorado, and I help struggling students navigate this thing called education so you can have an awesome life.

In this video, I’m going to tell you about the most important thing I ever did to change my life.

I was a struggling student. I was disorganized, I did not manage time well, I did not use planners, and I got a bunch of zeros, missing assignments, late work, and incompletes. I almost failed out of high school. I skated by because I did well on tests, but I never did any homework. Luckily, I was able to do okay on tests without putting in much effort.

I barely made it through high school.

Then I went to college — not because I wanted to, but because my parents wanted me to. I thought I was supposed to go to college. I started college already on probation because my grades had been so bad.

Eventually, I failed out of college.

Then I went to another college, this time a community college. I dropped out before officially failing out because I knew I was about to fail.

At that point in my life, I honestly felt like the most irresponsible person I knew. I felt like a failure. I felt lazy. I felt like I couldn’t do anything with my life.

The most important thing I ever did to change my life was choosing myself.

I chose Seth.

I chose to care about myself. I chose not to believe the stories in my head telling me I was lazy, a failure, incapable, and destined to mess everything up. I chose to change the stories that were no longer serving me.

Even though it was hard, I chose myself.

I told myself:
“You know what? I do care about me. I’m going to do whatever I have to do to figure life out.”

And the number one most important thing I did after choosing myself — the thing that truly changed my life — was learning how to ask for help.

I made the decision that I was worth it. I realized that asking for help wasn’t something shameful. I needed help, and that was okay.

What I later discovered is that many of the most successful people in the world — people I admire — also get help from others.

So I learned to ask for help.

To this day, it’s probably still the most important thing I do.

I get help from others in many different ways, and I’m no longer ashamed of it.

Because I learned to ask for help, I learned how to change my life. Other people helped me figure out how to grow, how to pursue my dreams, how to go after my goals, and how to build a life that actually feels meaningful.

My life isn’t perfect, but it’s really good now.

I get to live my passions, my dreams, and my interests. I get to spend time doing things that matter to me, things that give me purpose and meaning. At one point, I didn’t even know a life like that was possible for me.

But because I asked for help, I was able to create it.

I’m sharing this with you because whatever challenges or struggles you’re dealing with today, I hope you have the humility, courage, and self-awareness to ask for help too.

Because you are absolutely worth it.

You can do this.
You can figure life out.
You can create an amazing future for yourself.

And I believe that because I’ve seen it happen for so many people.

I’ve watched people completely change their lives and genuinely begin to feel good about who they are and the life they’re living.

The last thing I want to say is this:

We need you.

The world needs you.

We live in a world with very complicated problems, and you — with all your challenges, quirks, differences, and unique qualities — have something special to offer.

You have something valuable to give to the world, to your community, to your friends, and to your family.

Steve Jobs once talked about “making a dent in the universe.”

You have your own dent to make in the universe.

And we need you to shine.

We need you to grow into your best self, to develop your strengths — not just focus on your weaknesses — and to become the best version of yourself possible.

Because the unique thing you bring to this planet matters.

I hope you are doing well.
I hope you have a fantastic day.

My name is Seth Perler. I’m an executive function coach out of Colorado.

I’ll see you soon.