Choice is easy to praise and surprisingly hard to access when stress, habit, and old stories take the wheel. We sit down with cognitive psychologist and ADHD coach Eliza Barach, author of “Designing for Agency: Coaching the Moment of Choice,” to get concrete about what agency really looks like inside real decisions, especially for high-performing people with ADHD who often feel trapped between intention and follow-through.
We dig into why autonomy is not a luxury in coaching, it is a driver of motivation. Eliza explains how micro-choices can create immediate reward and reduce delay aversion, connecting the dots between intrinsic motivation, dopamine, and the everyday reality of getting started. If big goals keep stalling, we explore how breaking choices into smaller, high-impact steps can rebuild momentum without relying on willpower fantasies.
From there, we zoom out to the invisible forces that shape decision making. We talk top-down versus bottom-up perception, how internal narratives form from past experiences, and how we can help clients notice patterns without shame. We also go deep on values-based decisions and somatic awareness, including the subtle body signals that warn us when a value is being crossed. Eliza brings in Kahneman’s system one and system two thinking to show how coaching uses effortful reflection to reshape automatic habits over time, one aligned choice at a time.
If you want more from Eliza, you can find her work at neural-revolution.com. Subscribe, share this with a coach or client who needs more agency, and leave a review so more people can find these practical tools for choice, autonomy, and values-aligned coaching.
Free Gift – A guided coaching workbook to help clients expand perceived choice, reconnect with values, and make more intentional decisions in session or between sessions. Click here for more information.
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