My CEO told me to do the impossible in six months. I worked 90-hour weeks, missed my family, and destroyed my health—and called it success. Here are the three signs you're caught in a Reality Distortion Field.
I'm lying on a lounge chair.
Greece. Beach. Vacation.
The sun's out. Waves crashing.
My wife's next to me with a book.
For the first time in six months, I'm not working.
And my phone starts buzzing.
Six hours later, I'm still hunched over that phone.
The sun has moved halfway across the sky.
And I'm on hour four of managing a crisis simulation for a mining company in South America while sitting on a beach in Greece.
Six months earlier, I was sitting in my CEO's office. Floor-to-ceiling windows. City skyline. The kind of room designed to make you feel small.
I'd just finished presenting a careful, data-driven two-year plan. It was realistic. It was grounded in logic. It was professional.
"David, I see the work you've done. It's brilliant."
[ PAUSE ]"But we're doing it in six months."
I almost laughed. It was impossible. The math didn't work. The physics didn't work.
But then he looked at me with absolute certainty and said: "You can do this. I know you can."
And in that moment, the resistance in my chest just... melted. I conviced myself it was possible within 48 hours.
This is when a leader's confidence is so absolute, it doesn't just persuade you. It hijacks your brain entirely. We're wired to trust confident authority, and it can override all three of our primary cognitive systems:
When doubt is labeled as disloyalty, or when absolute conviction overrides raw data, you're not in a project. You're in a field.
"The Timeline Mirage: How 50 hours became 90 without a single conscious decision."
Once you're seduced by that certainty, your perception of time itself warps. I barely saw my family. Worked through birthdays. Slept four hours a night.
And the terrifying part? It started to feel normal. The exhaustion became baseline. The absence became standard.
The ADHD brain—the Ferrari engine—craves the exact fuel a Reality Distortion Field provides:
Never done this before. The brain lights up.
Six-month deadline. High stakes. Dopamine on demand.
Crisis management. Lives on the line. Hyperfocus.
Prove the 'impossible' is possible. The ultimate trap.
"For an ADHD brain, this is cocaine."
Five months in, my wife insisted on vacation. "Insisted" is too soft. She told me: "We're going to Greece. You're coming. This isn't optional."
MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL INCIDENT — SOUTH AMERICA
Government inquiry opened / Media requesting comment
Corporate response initiated from a beach chair in Greece
Duration: 6 Hours // Site Mental Sync complete
"The system worked. My CEO was right. It was possible. And that's the seduction."
"This is the most dangerous sign. This is when you stop being the victim of the field and become the carrier."
"Yes, you can. You just need to trust the system. The timeline is the timeline."
In that moment, I became the distortion field.
I looked my most trusted manager right in the eye and watched the light go out. My brain, hooked on the validation from that "win," was convinced: if I could do it, they could do it.
Does this leader actually have the background to back up their claims? Or are they running on pure, unfiltered confidence? Authority is not the same as truth. My CEO had run successful projects before. He had credibility. But even credible people can create distortion fields.
Humans rationalize. We adapt. We call it dedication. By the time I noticed the water was boiling, I'd already normalized it.
"This is intense, but I can handle it."
50°C"Okay, this is harder than expected, but we're making progress."
60°C"I'm tired, but this is temporary."
70°C"This is just how it is right now."
80°C"I can't remember what normal felt like."
90°C"Wait, when did this become my life?"
100°C"The frog jumps. The human stays and tells himself it's character building."
Check all that apply to your current situation
How long has 'temporary' been going on?
What are you not noticing anymore?
Who are you not seeing?
What is it already costing to stay?