Your Attention Please

With so many of us busy all year, the holidays allow us to wind down a bit and to hopefully take time to appreciate our loved ones. As the holidays get underway, your time and energy are probably focused on celebrating with your families.

An invitation

I’d like to invite to take some time to celebrate something else… your achievements this year. Every year end I take stock of what I’ve accomplished. Many adults with ADHD take little or no time to celebrate their accomplishments for two reasons:

1. Once a project is completed, they set their sights on the next one, completely forgetting what they’ve managed to do.
2. Many ADHDers don’t think that what they’ve achieved merits celebration because they feel that if they managed to get it done, it must be very easy to do, so their is no reason to celebrate.

 
I disagree. First, any project that you complete, despite our crazy busy lives is an accomplishment. In addition, when you take time to review your year you can better identify what you’ve learned as you accomplished them and you can use these successes as springboards for future projects.

Taking stock

• What did it take for me to complete this?
• What have I learned in the process?
• What have I learned about myself?
• How can I use this in future projects?

Then celebrate with yourself. Be grateful for the opportunity and for the resources you were given to achieve these. Better still, celebrate with others.

So what achievement will you celebrate? Feel free to post them here. We’d love to celebrate with you.

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While each of us has dreams and ambitions, it’s only those of us who really try to achieve our goals who will ever accomplish them. For those with adult ADHD, with unique brain wiring and experiences, the feat of achieving a goal is sometimes over before it even begins. ADHD adults are so used to being singled out; being told “you did it wrong”, that they develop a fear of even trying. Thus ADHD adults often feel that if they are going to try something new, they have to be an expert, before they can even begin. They get into analysis paralysis or perfectionism, which most often leads them to give up before even taking that first step.

Take a first step even before you know everything there is about what you are trying to achieve. If instead of waiting until you are an expert, you took a first baby step, you would find that in the action you took there was something you learned, even if that action wasn’t successful. Take losing weight for example. You don’t necessarily need to plan your menu for the next month, calculate the number of calories you’re eating, or join a gym. All you need is to identify one single step you know you could take that could take you in the right direction.

You might consider walking up the stairs instead of taking the elevator or getting off a stop earlier to walk to work. You might select a lower-calorie version of one staple in your diet, like switching to a lower calorie margarine or salad dressing. Once you make that change and it becomes comfortable, you add a new baby step, like filling up on water instead of on junk food between meals. Baby steps are more comfortable to make and allow you to adjust accordingly. If you find that you don’t like the new margarine you chose, try another one until you find something that you can live with.

Imagine if, as babies, you decided not to attempt to walk until you knew for sure that you could get up and walk without falling. You never would have built the courage, muscles and balance you needed to walk. Learning is about taking a series of baby steps. From getting up, to falling, to standing up while holding onto a table, to standing without help, to taking your first steps and eventually running; every one of these actions provided learning and allowed you to adjust so that next time you could do better.

If for every big dream or goal you wanted to achieve, you decided to take a first manageable step before you had learned everything there was, you’d be more likely to move forward and learn something in the process. Yes, there are chances that the first step you take will lead to failure, but I’d like to challenge you to see failures as learning experiences. Ask yourself each time you think you’ve failed, “what have I learned from this experience?” and “how can I use what I learned to take future steps?” Shift your beliefs around mistakes and consider that each one is a learning experience that brings you closer to your goal. And remember the ancient Japanese proverb that says that The journey of 1000 miles begins with the first step.

Who’s on for this challenge? What is your goal? What first baby step will you take towards it?

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As an ADHD Coach, I know the powerful effect of positive attitude on ADHD clients. When my clients have a more positive attitude and live in more positive environments they tend to achieve more at a much faster rate than my clients who tend to ruminate or who are surrounded by very negative people. A session I attented at the International Coach Federation conference that united 1400 coaches from 26 countries around the world to learn, network, and be inspired.

However, Mr. Worth demonstrated that people around us have positive or negative effects on our energy, when he whispered to a woman on stage to think hateful and negative throughts about another woman on the other end of the stage.

When the first subject had negative thougths about the second woman, not only did her magnetic field disappear, but so did that of the object of the negative thougths.

On the other hand, when the first subject had thoughts that were highly positive about the other person, both she and the object of her thoughts saw their magnetic fields grow beyond their original neutral fields.

Anyone who know me, knows that I am a very down-to-earth person who is not easily convinced by all things esoterical. However, what I witnessed was quite convincing. It got me thinking about the repercussions of our thoughts, and particularly the effects of a positive attitude on ADHD clients, who often live very negative experiences.

The implications of positive attitude on ADHD

What can you do to attract positive things in your life

Of course, there are things you can do to improve your energy and your level of attractiveness:

1. Use a gratitude journal - spend time each day reflecting on and writing down at least 3 things you are grateful for today.
2. Choose to feed your optimism by:
   • Focusing on what pleases you immensely;
   • Focusing on solutions rather and problems;
   • Distributing happiness
   • Focusing on growth
   • Taking time to celebrate
3. Kill your negative thoughts by
   • Being aware of and controlling your internal dialogue
   • Neutralizing negative moments

Of course, the effect of the size of our magnetic fields is not all together clear; however, it makes sense that having a greater magnetic field attracts more positive in our lives.

 We emit a magnetic field

One session I found very revealing helped explain the effect of positive attitude on our own energy levels. Christian Worth, a coach from France, demonstrated with dowsing rods how each of us emits an energy field. This makes sense as our bodies use electricity fueled by chemical reactions in our cells to live, more, think. And where there is electricity, there is a magnetic field created.The magnetic field we emit various at around 3 to 5 feet in radius when we are in a “neutral thougth pattern”, that is neither thinking positively nor negatively.

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A national survey of 1000 adults with ADHD (Attention Deficit Disorder) was conducted recently in the US. What they found did not surprise me since they are the very issues my clients and I often coach around. Here’s what they found:

 I can tell you from personal experience both at home and in my business that this is a common problem. ADHD adults sincerely want to pull their own weight at home but they often forget their commitments because of chronically poor memory, they can’t get started as they struggle with procrastination and their easy distractibility means they rarely finish projects.

 50% of those employed worried that it could affect promotion possibilities.

ADHD adults make, on average, $5000 to $10,000 less revenue than their colleagues working at the same job because they struggle to get to work on time and to deliver quality work on time. They lose more than 20 days of productivity per year at work just due to distractibility and poor time estimating. Distractibility made 60% of ADHD adults unable to wrap up projects. Their poor quality output usually attracts negative attention so they are often passed over for promotions.

75% said ADHD greatly affected their ability to stay on task

Today’s work environment is not conducive to focusing on one priority or task at a time. Many distractions, such as email alerts and ringing phones, vie constantly grab your attention. In addition, ADHDers are interest-based performers, that is, they are able to stay on task when things interest them and they are able to work to their strengths, but they struggle to activate their brains activated in the face of boring tasks.

ADHD also affects their ability to work in teams

In today’s corporation, your ability to work in teams one of your most important skills. For many, team meetings or team activities take up a large portion of the work day, which makes it especially difficult to perform well for the 70% of ADHDers who said they had trouble concentrating on what others are saying, and for the 60% who reported it was difficult to sit still during meetings.

Unfortunately, reports of these types of research findings are rarely accompanied by offered solutions. Yes, these figures are alarming, but what can be done about it? Some companies are considering pre-emptive testing to ensure that they don’t hire ADHD adults. These corporations are likely to miss out on some excellent employees at a time when a company’s talent pool is its most important asset. After all, there is some good news.

These ADHD productivity issues are all manageable with appropriate training designed especially to help adults overcome the challenges of ADHD, training like The Maximum Productivity Makeover for ADHD Adults. With the right training and support, adults with ADHD will become valuable employees, contributing directly to the bottom line with their creativity, unconventional out-of-the-box thinking, and their high level of energy and passion.
 

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In an age where technology has made multi-tasking the norm, and where many people are overwhelmed by a life that comes at them from every direction, how does an adult with ADHD find the peace and comfort that only comes with the ability to focus?

Unlike neurotypicals, adults with ADHD struggle to keep their minds calm rather than bouncing randomly from thought to thought. While the external world delivers a whirlwind of distractions at the drop of a cell phone or remote, it’s an ADHDer’s internal fount of energy, echoing and multiplying that cacophony of distractions that is most difficult to reckon with.

What does this mean? Adults with ADHD often struggle to manage their energy, such that even the simplest task can become challenging. How to quiet the maelstrom and find some peace? While finding one’s passion is good advice for anyone, it’s even better advice for the adult ADHDer.

If you are an ADHDer, developing strategies to still your mind can be useful to help you unwind and relax, but to find focus, it may be more helpful to head in the other direction. What stimulates you in a positive sense? What makes your heart race, your voice speed up when you speak of it? Think of the warm, captivating feeling you have when you’re talking about something you like.

Professional athletes call this, “the zone.” Others with a more spiritual bent call it “a place of forgetting,” a place where you literally forget yourself because you’re so wrapped up in your passion. For the adult ADHDer, finding this place means finding the source of what fuels them. It’s your filling station, the place where you find the right kind of stimulation that will help you achieve the focus you need.

Combine this fuel with a clear vision of your life’s dream and you just might have a way to turn down the volume on the rest of your life. Do you want a house in the country, a job that involves visiting exotic locales? Paint that mental picture and dive in! Yes, there’s more to it; you’ll need help and surrounding yourself with supportive people is key, but it’s a great start.

Any successful person will tell you that finding your passion can be a lot like falling in love. For the adult ADHDer, the love affair is that much sweeter: there’s nothing like quieting that inner noise and succeeding at life on your own terms.

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While you may think that ADHD creates a disadvantage for you in the business world, there are strategies you can employ to take advantage of the symptoms of ADHD. In doing so, you may find you’ll become just as productive (and maybe even slightly more productive) than your non-ADHD counterparts.

You, like non-ADHDers, have cycles of energy throughout your day. This, of course, means that at certain times your energy levels will be low and you will feel drained and sluggish. The difference between you and a non-ADHDer is that they can trudge their way through those periods of low energy to maintain adequate productivity levels, whereas you likely find it impossible to be creative, effective, or efficient during these times, and difficult to tackle even less challenging tasks. At other times you are full of energy and feel great, as if you can accomplish anything! In fact, at these times you may feel as though you’ve achieved a state of hyperfocus, and you may find it difficult to “unfocus” yourself.

The good news is that, contrary to common wisdom, there is no need to fight these cycles. Although your ADHD brain works differently than most, you can use these differences to your advantage. It’s simply a matter of working smarter, not harder. Since your peaks are higher than average, you can use your energy to accomplish far more than most people can. On the other hand, there are ADHD-friendly ways of maintaining your productivity even during low-energy periods, simply by selecting the right tasks, or molding the tasks to permit you to accomplish them even during down times.

Most people try to squeeze more actions into their day to increase their productivity. Since there are only 24 hours in a day, after a point, it’s simply not possible. You’ll fall behind. By learning to recognize these high and low energy cycles, and by using them to your benefit, you will be able to accomplish more throughout your day, using less time and less energy. Match the tasks that require the most energy output with the times when you have the greatest energy. Use your lower energy times to work on simpler, more habitual tasks; tasks that require very little energy.

It really is that simple. Don’t fight your brain’s natural inclinations. Listen to your body and learn to recognize your energy cycles. Soon, you will be using your time productively without fighting to accomplish tasks that don’t match your energy levels.

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The biggest complaints I get from new clients is about their performance at work, problems with relationships as they fail to live up to their commitments with others, their tendency to procrastinate and wait until the last minute to get stuff done, and feeling that they don’t live up to their full potential because of these.

They think that these are different problems but they are really symptoms of the same problem: ADHD productivity issues. Learn to manage your productivity and these problems get solved.

Planning, organizing, engaging in, executing and following through on your commitments in your professional and personal life require you have a handle on your productivity. The problem is that ADHD adults struggle with exactly these issues because of their brain differences.

They try traditional time management systems like Franklyn Covey, Day Timer, Harvard that don’t work for an non-conventional brain. Often, the reason clients show up at my door is that they’ve tried these program and nothing worked. You have a Turbo Limited Edition brain so these programs’ don’t provide you with the right instruction manual for your brain.

You need a YOU Management program that recognizes your unique brain differences and allows you to work WITH your brain instead of against it. This means:

1. matching your brain’s natural energy cycles with the tasks on your To-Do list;
2.  creating ways to conquer boredom by “automating” the boring stuff; 
3. overcoming your tendency to procrastinate by getting at the root of the problem; 
4. using your natural strengths and talents to improve your productivity; 
5. controlling obstacles to your productivity, like interruptions and losing things; 
6. using a method to better manage your life so that you commit to and execute those activities that are important to you; and 
7. choosing tools that allow you to maximize your time and avoid problems.

 The most important thing to recognize is that trying to do things like everyone else does leads to disaster for ADHDers. You need to manage YOU by working WITH your brain not against it.

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Before saying anything, you need to answer a few questions for yourself:

1. What are my strengths?
   We all have them so dig deep
2. How is it helping me?
   One client told me that she had a lot of energy and her out-of-the box thinking heloped her solve problems more easily. Another who was a salesman found that clients liked to work with him because he always seemed to be “on the ball”. Another who was a social worker felt that she was better able to empathize with her clients
3. How is my ADHD hindering me at work?
   Difficulty with concentrating, with organizing, excessive perfectionism…
4. What is the specific problem I want help with?
   Can’t concentrate because of noise or traffic, difficulty getting organized so often looking for things, difficulty with constant distractions of email and phone, can’t seem to organize time well, etc.
5. What solutions do I want to propose?
   Will this solution help or should you consider a different career? What is the cost to the employer? Where can it be found?
6. How can your employer help?
   Do you need your employer to help defray the cost of coaching, provide you with an accommodation, change something in the way he or she works with you?
7. What’s in it for my employer? Why would your employer help you? What does your company stand to gain from reducing or eliminating your problem?

In most cases of course when your employer provides help, he or she ends up with a more productive employee; however, what is the benefit? Will you be able to get more done? Will you improve your sales? Will the quality of your work improve? It can also be an opportunity to solve a problem, or improve the way the company does things. For example, one client who got help with his productivity, was able to help other colleagues, non-ADHDers, also improve theirs.

 It will really help to know your strengths to give you confidence when you see your employer. Be prepared to offer information on the solution you are proposing so that you don’t have to run after him or her a second time.

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This is a question I come across often in my work with people with adult ADHD. When they ask me how they should tell their employer about their ADHD, I usually ask them to identify what benefits they hope to gain by divulging their ADHD.

In a survey I conducted last year, when asked why these participants with adult ADHD felt the need to tell, most mentioned that they needed accommodations or specialized help like coaching and that without that help they struggled at work. Some also felt it was a last resort as they were having so much difficulty at work, they felt they might be fired.

Those who never mentioned their ADHD status stated their main reasons were that there was no need as they were managing well or that it was a private matter and they didn’t feel their employers had any right to know. About half felt shame or were fearful of being negatively impacted. Unfortunately some of those who did mention it were discriminated against.

When problems arise at work, that seem caused by ADHD, require divulging your ADHD consider the following:

1. Could the specific problem and solution be mentioned without talking about ADHD?
2. What is the company’s track record around issues like this? Their size? their ability to pay for accommodations?
3. What do you estimate is your value to your company? What is the employment rate in your industry? Obviously if you are a rare resource with a good track record, you’re less likely to suffer negatively when asking for help.
4. What is YOUR attitude around your ADHD? Many see it as a mental disorder to hide; others realize that there are some positive and negative to having ADHD. If you are in the first category, you’re more likely to convey this sentiment to your boss.

The point is not to hide your ADHD status in shame; however, there is still a lot of misinformation and judgment around ADHD. You may not have the financial means or want to be a martyr. On the other hand when people around you understand and accept differences in others (no matter what they have) as a positive thing, it can be liberating.

I look forward to the day when you can talk about ADHD and people around actually understand the challenges but also ackowledge that you have strengths.

In my next post I’ll provide an answer to how to tell your employer you have ADHD.

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Dr. John Ratey, co-author of Driven to Distraction and Delivered from Distraction, and speaker at the ADDA (ADD Association) Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota that took place July 10 to 13, 2008 spoke about adult ADHD and exercise.

He makes a good case around the fact that exercise is an important component to overcoming ADHD. As Dr. Ratey mentioned, more than 10,000 years ago, humans walked, ran or sprinted an average of 10 to 14 miles per day just to survive. They hunted and were hunted and so those who could out-run and out-plan their prey or preditors got to survive. This in fact, put ADHD adults at an evolutionary advantage. This ability to move quickly, this need to move, and make impulsive decisions actually aided in the survival of the species.

Now, fast forward to modern humans, we’re lucky if we walk, run or sprint 10 steps in our day. As a result, the same traits that ensured their survival in the past, create an unsatisfied need to move in ADHD adults. As a result of our sedentary lifestyle, ADHD has become a disorder.

To counter this, exercise becomes an important part of the solution. He described many convincing studies that described how exercise not only helps ADHD adults and children but is good for all brains because:

• it increases blood flow by increasing the number of blood vessels in the brain;
• it increases the release of neurotransmitters responsible for ADHD: norepinephrine and dopamine
• over time, you build more receptors, enzymes and blood vessels in your brain
• it helps control impulses because exercise arouses the brain
• it reduces the need for disciplinary issues in school

His new book, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, is available at bookstores and describes much of the research on the importance of exercise as a way of improving the brain’s executive functions and thus, reducing the effects of ADHD.

 He recommends:

• find an exercise you enjoy and make it fun
• make a commitment with yourself and others to help you stick to it
• select more challenging exercises involving balance such as karate, danse, tennis, volleyball, etc.
• use music to stimulate you
• go outside to exercise whenever possible
• make it into a ritual

As an ADHD Coach, I can safely say that my clients who have the most success in their lives despite their struggles with ADHD are often those who have adopted a more active lifestyle.

If you’ve never liked exercising or have found good excuses for not doing it, I challenge you to find something you’ll enjoy and begin with babysteps that you build on and

Get moving!

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