To Get Going with Your ADHD, Create Positive Momentum
ADHD Education
When it comes to setting up sales calls, creating team strategy and making physician visits, Chuck is a top performer.
Charming and smart, Chuck is a natural when it comes to the sales pitch, and the top company bosses know that his approach has been fundamental to persuading doctors to prescribe his company’s cholesterol drug. Chuck’s sales numbers routinely beat everyone else’s on the team.
But for Chuck, the “hard” part — making the sale — always comes easy, while the seemingly “easy” part feels really hard.
Chuck works as a sales executive for a major pharmaceutical maker. He loves most of the job, especially the sales aspect.
Twice a month when his boss requests his expense reports, Chuck freezes up. He will literally waste hours staring at his pile of receipts and get little done as he daydreams or ruminates while the pressure builds. Time and again, he misses deadlines and loses money in the process. No matter how many times his boss reminds him that the company can only foot his expenses if he turns in the reports, Chuck too often finds himself immobilized in front of a pile of crumpled receipts.
Chuck’s ADHD prevents him from engaging in an activity that holds no interest for him.
It’s not that he doesn’t want to file his expense reports; he’d make more money if he did. It’s just that his brain’s engine shuts down when there’s nothing interesting about a task to ignite it.
Chuck’s situation is common, but it’s not insurmountable.
If we took the interest-attention connection to the next logical step, it’s clear, too, that ADHD is a challenge of momentum. What does that mean?
Well, it means that it’s possible to harness the momentum created by interest in one area to help carry you through another, more difficult task.
If you spend more time with tasks that are interesting and aligned with your strengths, your ability to successfully complete those tasks will increase. You might even surprise yourself by creating the necessary momentum and energy that will allow you to manage some of the more difficult or boring tasks that previously challenged you.
After all, if you can’t get your brain going with a task that feels boring to you, then you are not going to get started, even if you deeply desire to do what is required of you.
When you try to shift out of a poor start, it requires more energy and focus to get your brain in gear so you can gain the kind of momentum of action necessary for you to keep moving forward to the next step of whatever goal you are pursuing. So, why start with the task that doesn’t stimulate your interest (and therefore your brain’s attention center)?
It makes much more sense (and takes a lot less total energy) to take on uninteresting tasks after you’ve gained momentum with activities that engage your interest and give you energy.
What were the areas that came to mind that consistently stimulate your interest? In what ways can you imagine yourself harnessing the momentum of interesting activities to accomplish tasks that hold less interest for you?
In order to imagine yourself doing less interesting things in more interesting ways, you will have to let go of any judgments you may have about your ability to accomplish certain tasks in your own unique way.
You will need to let go of the way you are “supposed” to do things and think about the way you naturally do things to accomplish your desired goals.
Take what you know works well in one area of your life and transfer it to another area. Don’t worry about the results so much as just getting into action. You can always make adjustments to improve your future results.
You will discover that working your natural way will deliver better results than trying to work the way you thought you “should.”
An excerpt from the book: Permission to Proceed,The Keys to Creating a Life of Passion, Purpose and Possibility for Adults with ADHD, by David Giwerc, Founder/President, ADD Coach Academy, Master Certified ADHD Coach, MCAC, MCC.
