🤐The Hidden Freedom Trap
🧠 How to Reclaim Your Brain and Rebuild Self-Trust
In 1887, multi-talented misfit Nellie Bly was working as a fashion journalist.
Women were expected to write about corsets and tea parties.
This pissed her off, she wanted more.
To tell real stories.
To expose injustice.
So she came up with a crazy fucking idea!
She pitched a plan to Joseph Pulitzer at The New York World —
and faked insanity to get committed to the notorious Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island (now Roosevelt Island, NYC).
She went in with no legal safety net —
No paperwork, promises, or guarantee of release — this was made very clear to her by the newspaper.
If they couldn’t get her out?
She’d be trapped indefinitely in a place designed to break women like her.
No backup plan.
Just raw conviction.
Inside the asylum, she found horror.
Women were beaten, drugged, starved,
and left to sit in their own filth.
Nellie immediately dropped the “crazy” act, but no one believed her.
“The more I endeavoured to assure them of my sanity, the more they doubted it.”— Nellie Bly
She was terrified.
She was on her own!
Can you imagine the stress and anxiety?
Every day and night, she spiralled:
🧠 “What if I never get out?!”
🧠 “What if I lose my mind in here?”
But she had no other choice.
She was committed — (pun intended) — and had to get on with it!
She did get out.
And her exposé of the asylum reformed the mental health system in America.
Her book, Ten Days in a Mad-House, became an international bestseller
and made her a household name — not just for her words,
but for her courage.
Nellie invented undercover investigative journalism.
And she didn’t stop there.
She went on to:
Travel around the world solo in 72 days
Become one of the first female war correspondents in WW1
Run her own manufacturing company
Patent inventions
And dismantle every rule society tried to place on her as a woman
She didn’t just write stories —
She became the story.
Nellie Bly is one of my favourite multipotentialite rebels. She loved proving society wrong!
Whenever I feel fear, I think of Nellie.
It gives me perspective.
Today, Nellie would be diagnosed with ADHD —
She was high novelty-seeking, justice-driven, bored easily, highly distractible, impulsive, and unstoppable risk-taking!
Here’s the Paradox:
We fantasise about freedom — but it’s a paradox
as we fear picking the wrong idea and wasting our time.
So we wait.
We stall.
We have the freedom to be anything, but the fear paralyses us.
Indecision creates the very regret we are trying to avoid.
Multipotentialites don’t suffer from a lack of ideas.
We suffer from too many ideas, and the belief that the wrong one will ruin everything.
As multi-talented people, we are radically free to be what we want to be, but with that comes the crushing pressure of being the authors of our existence.
We become paralysed by our potential
But the truth?
Regret doesn’t come from choosing the wrong idea
It comes from choosing nothing.
So choose.
The biggest risk in a world changing so rapidly is not taking risks. If we stand still, we will get left behind.
Take risks.
Build what only you can build. Write what only you can write.
Start something.
Channel your emotions.
Shape your thoughts.
Share your ideas — not to impress, but to help others feel seen.
And in doing so, you will feel seen.
That’s how we create a connection.
That’s how we uncover purpose.
You can protect the downside.
Choose a reversible idea.
Doesn’t work out, course correct.
Pivot when needed.
Do minimum viable creativity — experiment before committing.
But whatever we do, keep moving.
Because momentum is our superpower.
Not certainty.
🧠 The Avoidance Epidemic
If you’re ambitious but struggling with procrastination more than usual —
You’re not alone
We’re all overloaded and overstimulated. This results in more procrastination and doomscrolling.
Our brains weren’t built for this much stimulation.
Our dopamine systems are getting rinsed.
And focus is in short supply.
This isn’t a phase.
It’s the new baseline.
So we’re running a 14-day body doubling experiment to rebuild self-trust in our ability to start and finish tasks.
Every time you start and finish even one small task —
You rebuild trust in yourself - this is the neuroscience
You rewire your prefrontal cortex.
You teach your brain to start and finish tasks — this is the biggest competitive advantage in 2025 and beyond.
That’s how you rebuild the habit of
intention → action → success.
That’s how self-trust is built.
And self-trust and good habits are the foundation of everything —
creativity, clarity, confidence, career success and purpose.
Set a small goal.
Start it. Finish it.
Reclaim your brain.
Join the $1 ✅ Done Club experiment waitlist here.