← Overcoming Distractions-Thriving with ADHD, ADD
Overcoming Distractions-Thriving with ADHD, ADD
Unleashing your ADHD potential as a busy professional
00:21:08
Overcoming Distractions is THE podcast for the busy professional, executive, entrepreneur with ADHD. In this episode, Dave reminds all of you (and himself…) that we need to hit the reset button and focus on the positive aspects of our ADHD brains,...
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I'm Dave Greenwood, and this is Overcoming Distractions. If you are an adult with adhd, a busy professional, an entrepreneur, a high achiever, or just need some strategies to navigate your adult adhd, you're in the right place. Who am I? I'm an entrepreneur with ADHD and the author of two books, Overcoming Distract and Overcoming Burnout. I coach and mentor people just like you, and together we navigate the ups and downs of adult adhd, from getting out of our own way to helping people just like you thrive in the workplace. That's what I do. Want more info on working with me? Hit overcoming distractions.com ready? Let's get to today's podcast. All right, we're back, everybody. Welcome to our people who have come to Overcoming Distractions for weeks, months, years. And if you have just discovered Overcoming Distractions real quick, I'm Dave Greenwood and this is the podcast for the busy professional, the executive, the entrepreneur, or the business owner, or with adhd, or if you think you have adhd, you're welcome. You don't have to have a piece of paper to actually hang out with us. So. So we're talking positives today. And. But let me just say something. I get you. I've been an executive, I've run my own companies. I've had to do everything from, you know, build teams, work with clients, make payroll, hire fire. You get it. Sign leases for office space, you know, travel. I get you. So if you're that busy person with adhd, I just want you to know that I know all of us have incredible strengths and skill sets and positives, and most of us are driven to be successful. It's actually, we're kind of wired for that. Right? So I'm not going to get into the whole dopamine discussion, but success makes us happy. Accomplishments make us happy. Fulfillment makes us happy. Makes us get up and do it again the next day. I also know that many of us hit some brick walls and feel like we can't get out of our way. Sometimes circumstances change, shit happens, and life gets busy and unpredictable sometimes. You may have been unstoppable and on fire five years ago, and now you're frustrated. So again, I get you. So we're going to talk about some steps to focus more on your kind of positive skill sets and traits and the way your brain works with that ADHD or ADHD ish brain in mind. And I'm also doing this as a reminder and refresher for myself because I think sometimes life throws us a bit of stress and some Curveballs and some challenges and sometimes we don't see that glimmer of hope. Sometimes we feel there's no end to our current situation that may be dragging us down and even burning us out. And again, if you've listened to me for any length of time, you know that we do discuss burnout in our specific relationship with burnout as ADHDers. So life and industry don't just operate on an even pace, especially now. Industries change, family dynamics change, Some of us become caregivers and some of us get to a point where work has become incredibly stressful and toxic for whatever reason. You know, some of us got by working 100 miles an hour and powering through and that just doesn't work anymore. And I get it. Been there, done that. So that's why I want to talk about focusing on some positives. And again, as I mentioned, I'm doing this for myself to just kind of give me a, maybe a public pep talk for myself because I think we all need it sometimes we all need to kind of just like reset and just remind ourselves what we're good at. You know, I don't want to come home feeling stressed out and pissed off. I don't want to go to bed feeling the same way. I certainly don't want to wake up that way. So let's take a few minutes to reframe the busy adult ADHD conversation. So, and I think the first one and something is just simple as, as we say in the States, kind of some low hanging fruit, super cliche. But you know, we got to name our wins. We got to name even our strengths, you know, almost daily. Some people just write these things down. Maybe it's two, three, four things that, that you did well, it's big, it's small. Maybe you don't even have to write it down. But if you just kind of start to get in the habit of just thinking about, you know, what will my wins today. So many of us, and I've been there, have like a default negative sometimes when things get really tough. So we need to take the small wins. Many of us hit lulls in business and man, I've been there countless times over the past few decades. And you start doubting your path, right? Maybe you start doubting your path even if you're working at an executive level at an organization. But, but I know like business owners, entrepreneurs, you know, sometimes then the little things happen, such as somebody paying you on time, you know, I know, really, Right. But that should happen anyways. But often it doesn't. So we got to take the win. Somebody fills out a form on your website when you haven't gotten anything in weeks. Take the win. Next. I think we need to continually work on identifying what we're good at, our ADHD strengths. I do know that many traits with ADHD can be tremendous assets in a leadership or entrepreneurial role or, you know, whatever it is. You're a VP, senior VP, PhD, whatever it is. Okay. And instead of, you know, just kind of listing general skills like a resume, right. Think about how your ADHD traits maybe even amplify them. Some people use the word superpower, some people hate that. You do you, I'm gonna leave that up to you. So. And if you've listened to me for any length of time, you know, I have another favorite phrase which is just whatever works. I don't care how technologically advanced or caveman it is. Right? Whatever works. Some of the things that I think I do find over and over again working with people is that flow. But I don't want you to mistake that for hyper focus. And I think, you know, think about this. Do you get, do you get absorbed in a project that you can work on for hours without distraction? Maybe in the right environment? I think that's a huge advantage for deep work, problem solving, you know, just powering through larger projects, multi step projects, creative endeavors. Maybe other people find that difficult to, to sustain. But I think once we get in that groove, we can turn into a freight train. I mean, I know I, I known this for myself for the years and I've talked to so many other people. Once we get in a, like an optimal environment, we can blow through a week's worth of work and it looks good and we can do that in a day. So but I think flow, again, don't mistake that for hyper focus because that's when we, you know, do video games and don't eat or pee for 12 hours. Okay. Flow is when we have that environment. That's a good thing. Okay. Creative thinking, right? People with ADHD us often think in kind of nonlinear, divergent type of ways, right? This leads to solutions, it needs to new ways of doing business. It leads to problem solving and maybe the ability to connect concepts that maybe others miss. I really believe we see what others do not. Okay. That's a strength. If that's you celebrate it. Take the win. High energy and a little bit of spontaneous action. Right? Your ability to be on and enthusiastic can be, I think infectious energy is good. I think that makes you a dynamic leader, a dynamic business owner. Wherever you fit in in the organizational chart or your own business. And I think it could actually help you pivot quickly when you need to engage that. So it's when we get burned out that we lose all that. And that's, I think, one of our superpowers, if you want to call it that, is the energy. Now, as kids, hyperactivity landed us in the principal's office, Right? Not that I know anything about that, but channel that energy as an adult, and you might just benefit from it. Resilience. You have probably, if you, like so many others, maybe spent a good chunk of your life navigating challenges. And by the way, so did your parents. So maybe you just need to go. Go buy them dinner or something. Okay? I'm not asking you to apologize, but treat them right, because some of them put up with people like me. Right? Okay. Read my first book. You'll you hear about how bad I tortured certain people in my family, okay. With my brain. But the resilience builds. You know, it allows you to bounce back from setbacks maybe faster than others. We get up, we can dust ourselves off a little quicker. Not all the time, but I think that's one of the things we should celebrate that we do have the ability to do. So why don't you, you know, you could either hit the pause button, you can do this later, but. Or maybe it's something you do on, like, a regular basis, is remind yourself, Create that kind of list three to five things or times maybe you're most proud of. Identify where your ADHD actually played a key role in that. Right. For example, I came up with a new marketing strategy or PR strategy for a client when they went through several PR firms over the years. Okay. I did that, I think, because I was a creative thinker. I had high energy, and I think I saw things that others did not. I was willing to change the game. Here's another thing, okay? You got to design your role around those strengths. Some things we're just not good at. And I'm not a big believer of forcing ourselves to do things we're not good at. Some people may disagree with that, but that's. That's me again. You do you. But I think as someone in a leadership position, executive, business owner, you just might have more control over your responsibilities maybe than others, maybe not. But you can actively, maybe even delegate some of the things that drain your energy, and that gives you more room to lean into the things that you're really super good at. So delegate the energy drains or the energy sucks. And identify those things that you find tedious, boring, difficult to complete. Procrastinate on things that you never have clarity on. You know, the friction points. These are often things like admin work, like maybe detailed follow up reporting, you know, so to speak. Like I can't tell you how many people I've talked to that are super good at their job, but then they got to go back and actually detail and report something. And that's sometimes where we, we hit a brick wall. Maybe you can delegate these, maybe find somebody on the team that enjoys that or find a workaround. So for example, let's talk about that reporting. I'm super good at meeting the client, not so good at reporting. Well, maybe voice dictation. To get what you need to get done, find a workaround. That way you can spend more time on your strengths, structure things for success, build your week around your own peak performance and energy times. I've said this a thousand times, if your head is clear in the morning, maybe your most creative in the morning, you know, try to block out that time as much as you can for that. Strategic planning, the deep work, the other things, the problem solving. Knowing when and how you work best I think is a superpower for anybody. I'll say that again. Knowing when and how you work best is key to being fulfilled. And I really feel most of us can take a huge advantage of the positives and the things we're good at as long as we do them in an environment that allows that to happen. And again, maybe that environment is full days of doing the same thing. Maybe it's blocking out the mornings when your brain is fresh. I've talked about that before. Next, try and focus on the vision. I think those of us with ADHD are actually good at the vision. That's what, that's what we do, right? So as an entrepreneur, a CEO, VP, PhD, whatever, whatever is letters are after your name, right? Okay. Your role is to kind of hopefully set that vision, inspire a team, if you have one. And that's, you know, that's where your strengths lie. So. And maybe it's not so much the team thing is there are tasks and projects that you should be doing. For example, these types of things are going to build my business, build our department, help us meet our goals. Maybe it's going to help me move my career forward. That's where my energy needs to be because that's my strength. That's what I'm good at. Delegate or outsource those certain operations, logistics so you can focus on the big Picture, because you're gonna, you're gonna feel more fulfillment and be happier and less stressed when you're aligning things that align with the way your ADHD brain works. So if you don't have the resources to do these certain things and these things still need to get done, then at least block out the time to get your admin stuff out of the way so it doesn't bog you down all week. Maybe you're a solopreneur, maybe you, you got an invoice, you hate it, it sucks. Yeah, well, it keeps the lights on. So look at the calendar for like the next two to four weeks. Highlight everything that you find challenging, draining. Write down maybe who you could delegate it to or figure out how you could restructure the process and make it less of a burden. And those are the types of things that, that I work on with people individually. So if you need help with that and you're having a kind of a tough time trying to figure out how to kind of work in a certain area or etc, etc, then you know, you can just hit my website. Overcoming distractions.com. so another thing, externalize the positives. Share your wins with your mentor, with your coach, with your team, with your spouse. Whoever it is, share it. Okay, I did this today. This, this was good today. I think oftentimes, and I mean, I'm so guilty of this and I'm going to try and do better, but we always talk about like, oh, the shitty stuff that happened at work today, right? Like when your spouse comes home, totally guilty about that. So ADHD brains, I think do benefit from that external validation. They also benefit from accountability, which is another, you know, topic we can discuss some point and I know we've done that, but, but the external kind of validation or even the high five just makes our, you know, superpowers and strengths feel real. So, you know Alfred Adler, I've talked about, you know, his teachings. I don't agree with them all. I agree with a lot. But he says we shouldn't seek validation. But he probably didn't know much about the ADHD brain, so. And I try to dig into the positives when I work with people one on one up front. Okay, let's take the wins super small, big whatever, then we can try and dig into the tough stuff. So here's the big reminder. And you got to protect your strengths and your superpowers and your energy with those boundaries. We just talked about that. When you are in a leadership and executive position, running a business, running a department, I think we can very easily slip into over commitment because of all the things that are coming at us daily. And I think the only way you cultivate the positives of your ADHD brain is to protect yourself and guard your time so you actually can take advantage of the things that your ADHD brain is good at. Decide those non negotiables again. Go back to the last podcast where I talk about executives, leaders, entrepreneurs and why boundaries are so mission critical. But maybe it's no meetings before 10am Maybe it's that 30 minutes daily before you leave the office to just like close your door, redo your your list, do a little bit of planning. Boundaries protect your ability to perform at your best, not just survive. And remember, thriving is the name of the game here. So all right. Hey, if you need some some help trying to navigate the things we talk about here you are in a place where, quite frankly, you don't feel like you can get out of your own way. You need somebody to work with? Just hit the website overcoming distractions.com click that button that says book a 15 minute chat, talk to me and let's see if we can put something together. I would be honored to help you navigate your busy ADHD life and see if we can make some things happen. So hi gang. Catch you next time. Sam.