ADHD Coaching Blog

Saturday, June 18, 2011

You are a uniquely wired human being with unlimited potential:

Here’s an excerpt from “Permission to Proceed,” pages 76-77
by David Giwerc, MCC, Founder and President, ADD Coach Academy

“If you have trillions of different ways to learn and understand ideas,
process environmental stimuli and handle the many other necessary
pieces of information you use to survive and thrive daily, then how can
you be expected to limit yourself to a few standardized and required
ways of learning and performing in the classroom, the workplace or
even the home? Here you are, born with an infinite set of processing
options, and the rest of the world says, ‘We will choose them for you,
and if they don’t work because that is not the way your brain works,
well, that is just too bad.” If you have been living your life based on
what others tell you are the ways you must learn, and those ways haven’t
been working for you, you may be apt to believe that you are incapable
of learning. From there, it’s a short mental trip to believing that you are
broken — a terrible, destructive belief that many of us with ADHD have
felt at some point in our lives. But it’s not true.”

“The standardized and required ways of learning, processing information
and performing may not work for you. But there are unique and individual methods
that will. For those of you with ADHD, your job is to discover the
options that naturally work for you, integrate them into your daily life
and inform everyone else that, from now on, you will dictate what ways
you learn, work and live best — not the other way around!
Understanding your unique brain wiring, and educating others in
your life about what works best for you, can help you facilitate home,
school and workplace environments that honor and serve individuals,
each as unique as you are.”

How does your ADHD unqiue brain wiring show up?

Are you giving your self permission to proceed with indentifying, embracing and
integrating your unique brian wiring into your life, RIGHT NOW?

We would love to hear from you!!!
To let us know your thoughts, please go to: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Permission-to-Proceed/105305202895849#!/pages/Permission-to-Proceed/105305202895849?v=wall

Sunday, June 12, 2011

We are constantly invited to be who we are

“We are constantly invited to be who we are.” by Henry David Thoreau

Every day we wake up to a world that is focused on production and performance. You are asked to do things that are a function of an established set of prescribed standards. You believe your ability to successfully perform is a measure of your worth and value. You grow up with the misguided belief that “who” you are is an indicator of how well you do things. When you don’t do them well,

you create the false belief you are subpar, below average, not worthy and even a failure.

What we have failed to accept is that your performance needs to be a function of identifying “who” you are and what values/ principles define who you have chosen to become. You need to identify the specific character traits/values such as compassion, connection, creativity, collaboration and many more that immediately ignite your inner sparks to create your own inner bon fire. Without the sparks there is no fire.

You are challenged every day to enter your own inner sanctum and discover your own unique inner sparks, the ones that will ignite your own version of what makes you tick.

When you know the source of your inner fire, your passion will automatically take you to a place where “what” you do will be aligned with” who” you are. I call that personal integrity.

You are invited every day of your life to identify “who” you are and then match your actions with your own integrity. When you do, “who” you are will be as natural as breathing. You will also find the sparks to your special, passionate bonfire.

Who you are is not “what” you do or how well you do it. Who you are is “who” you believe yourself to be. Find out who that is, match your actions with that new discovery and watch how HOT it gets!!

Questions:
• Who do you believe you are?
• What are the character traits/values that define who that is?
• What is something you can do to express that trait/value?
• When will you do it?

Thursday, June 02, 2011

New ADDCA rap song and lyrics

Here is the link and lyrics for ADDCA’s new rap song written and produced by Mary Gault who is in our Advanced 27 Coach Training program.

You can listen to the music at: http://soundcloud.com/anewleafchicago

Here are the lyrics:

It’s Advanced 27,  and we want you to know
You’ve brought us a long way, but there’s more to go
Thanks David & Barbara for leading us here
Jerry and Roger, for laughs and good cheer.

This year of enrichment was more than a class
Openness, honesty, bonding alas
We’re ending today with hope and clear
Vision for us with support from our peers

Thanks for the questions, the concepts, and LEAP
To launch and explore as we tried to dig deep
Action and passion move us ever higher
Finding the plan that fulfills our desire

We’ve got Questversation, we’ve learned to receive
We filter, we witness, we challenge beliefs.
The ICF gave us the ACTP
And I’m still here looking around for my keys.

Dave Giwerc’s alliterations have given me pause
To ponder and process and pinpoint because
My purpose, my passion, possibilities
Permit my proceeding, with or without keys

I’m impulsive and restless, I procrastinate
I’m bad with transitions and I’m usually late.
I talk all the time, but I have a good brain
And you’ve taught me to use it for financial gain!

Magic moments on mountains remind us of our
machine, mind, and mission, the source of the power.
from black and white thinking to rainbows of light
The future that we have before us is bright.

You’ve given us hope and the means to an end
And taught us that we will do well to depend
Upon one another, to get what we need
Together our missions will surely succeed.

Mary Gault, MA, LPC
A New Leaf
ADHD Coaching
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Don’t Let What You Can’t Do, Stop you From Doing What You Can.

Don’t Let What You Can’t Do, Stop you From Doing What You Can.Identify Your Strengths and Make Them Stronger.

By David Giwerc, MCC, Founder and President, ADD Coach Academy

We live in a performance-oriented world.  It’s also a world in which, too often, emphasis is placed on identifying a person’s areas of challenge and then focusing on those areas in order to improve performance.  This negative focus can take its toll on the person’s innate strengths, which may be downplayed or overlooked in the quest for “improvement.”

For adults with ADHD, however, the effort involved in focusing our attention on our weaker areas of performance only exacerbates the challenges of ADHD.  If we’re constantly expected to focus on our performance challenges, then we’re simply setting ourselves up for frustration, anxiety, and even immobilization – all of which inevitably lead to poor self-esteem.  Although this preposterous “weakness” philosophy dominates our world, it does not serve adults with ADHD well.

In fact, based on coaching professionals, executives, entrepreneurs, small business owners, filmmakers and parents with ADHD over the past decade, I’ve consistently observed just the opposite:

People with ADHD improve their chances for success, as they define it, by
focusing on their natural talents – the ones that consistently yield excellent performance – and then by developing a plan to make those talents even stronger.

Our brains work by means of electrical stimulation.  Whatever we choose to pay attention to, at any given moment, is one way in which we can either catalyze or immobilize our brains. It is within our power to choose what we focus on in any given moment. I don’t know about you, but starting off my day by having to pay attention to what I don’t do well definitely doesn’t stimulate my brain. Asking me to focus on a project that relates to my areas of weakness does not generate enough interest or stimulation for me, as an adult with ADHD, to sustain my attention and stay on task with that project.

Unfortunately, this is where false perceptions about ADHD can arise.  For example, when I was a child, teachers would wonder, “Why is it that David can do his math assignment so well and so enthusiastically, but when he has to do a simple English reading and writing assignment, he won’t even take the first step toward action?  He finds every reason in the book not to make any attempt; and the more we ask him, the more he resists.  He’s just being lazy and doesn’t want to do it.”

The labeling as “being lazy,” unwilling, spoiled” that accompanies this type of misperceived performance is simply the result of a lack of understanding of the way in which the ADHD brain works.  What those teachers didn’t understand then, and many still don’t understand today, was that I wanted to do the reading assignment. Unfortunately, the harder I tried to make myself do it, the more I shut down and eventually became immobilized. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to do it; it was that I couldn’t make myself do it.

My own personal experience, and that of the hundred’s of clients I’ve coached, over the last ten years, has taught me how difficult it is for someone with ADHD to will him- or herself to focus on a boring task, subject or project or one that is associated with improving an area of weakness.  Today, I know that, when I choose to start my day with a task that incorporates my strengths, in an area of interest, it has historically resulted in a positive outcome for me. It also creates a sense of forward momentum that makes me feel more fulfilled, energized and empowered afterwards. As a result, I take on more assignments, including ones that are less desirable, to me, that I know need to be completed.

In most academic, family and business situations, well-intentioned efforts to improve an ADHD person’s ability in an area of challenge or weakness may instead lead to unsuccessful experiences that create a negative pattern of thinking.  A constant focus on areas of difficulty may actually block the person with ADHD from being able to take any action related to tasks that involve those areas. 

This pervasive philosophy of focusing on individual weakness, as a global phenomenon, was strikingly evident with the results of a 2004 Gallup Poll that measured parents’ focus on best grades vs. worst grades across multiple countries and cultures. 1 The following question was presented to parents: “Your child shows you the following grades-English-A; Social Studies-A; Biology-C; Algebra-F. Which grade deserves the most attention? As you can see below in all countries the majority of parents focused on the child’s F’s. Their weakest performance became the object of their focus.

Gallup Poll measurement of Parent Performance Focus 1

Country     Focused on A’s         Focused on F’s

UK           22%                      52%

Japan         18                       43

China         8                       56

France         7                       87

U.S.          7                       77

Canada       6                       83

 

We all know it is still important to pay attention to the F’s but wouldn’t it be better to empower our children by starting off the conversation with the A’s they have achieved, before discussing ways to improve the F’s? What is the message we are sending? That paying attention to what you don’t do well is more important than what you already do well.

Unfortunately, this trend of focusing on weakness is carried into the adult workplace. In the landmark national bestseller “Now Discover Your Strengths,” the authors Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton, PhD, present data collected from over 1.7 million employees in 101 companies from 63 countires. 2 from research they conducted to determine what percentage of these employees truly felt that their strengths were in play at work? The response was only 20 percent of employees in these larger organizations felt they utilize their strengths daily. In other words 8 out of 10 employees don’t get to use what they do best.

Why do organizations create environments where employees don’t use their strengths? Buckingham and Clifton also conducted research focused on finding answers to this issue. They made their findings available in another one of their groundbreaking books, “First Break the Rules.” They interviewed eighty thousand managers in hundred’s of organizations around the world. The most important finding was the discovery of a misguided assumption that most organizations are built on and is also a pervasive belief that dominates our society. The assumption is that “Each person’s greatest room for growth is in his or her area of weakness.” 3

This misguided “weakness” philosophy is rampant. It follows us from school into the workplace. It is the same focus that begins every day for most individuals with ADHD. It simply does not work nor will it ever work. Yet it persists everywhere.

I don’t know of anyone that has gotten ahead, or climbed up their defined ladder of success, by attempting to make his or her weaknesses stronger. I only know clients, friends, relatives and colleagues that have grown and moved forward by making their strengths stronger.

Further, when you have ADHD and repeatedly receive the “weakness” message that your work and your efforts are not “good enough” in certain areas, those bad feelings tend to spill over.  You begin to generalize your negative perception of your performance in certain areas to other areas as well.

So if you have ADHD and want to maximize both your energy and your focus, then it’s essential that you 1) identify both your strengths, your consistent patterns of successful completion that give you increased energy and satisfaction and 2) your passions, those experiences, events, tasks, projects that ignite your heart and provide a strong sense of fulfillment and 3) prioritize and integrate more of both into your life

Why?  Because identifying the areas that are of high interest to you are where you will consistently do well. They are also the key to your ability to successfully pay attention. And the greater your ability to pay attention, the greater your chances of creating a foundation of success that you can then replicate in other areas of your life. Your strengths are already hardwired in your brain and are available to you whenever you choose to use them. The more you use them the stronger they get.

To determine your strengths and your passions, first identify the tasks, goals, and/or activities that you consistently enjoy doing and are usually able to complete.  Remember that ADHD is a challenge of boredom and disinterest. The more that either of these elements is part of a task or goal, the less likely you are to complete it.

Once you’ve identified the things you both do well and enjoy doing, ask yourself:

1.What is it about this topic, goal, or task that’s interesting to me?
2.When I’m focusing on this subject, what are the things I consistently do – the steps I always take – that enable me to complete the task or project?

After answering these questions, jot down a simple bulleted list of the steps. Then take your list and create a reminder for yourself by making a colorful visual map; or make an audio recording of yourself naming the steps. Identify other areas of your life where these steps could be helpful.

When you know what it is that enables you to succeed in one area, you can then follow those “steps to success” in areas of challenge as well.  By identifying your strengths and your passions, you’ll uncover the clues to a system for organizing your life.  This system will facilitate both sustained focus and consistent action – the keys to success for people with ADHD.

David Giwerc, MCC, David is the Founder/President of the ADD Coach Academy, http://www.addca.com the world’s largest and leading comprehensive ADHD coach training program, designed to teach the skills necessary to powerfully coach individuals with ADHD. The ADD Coach Academy is an ACTP (Accredited Coach Training) program fully accredited by the ICF, International coach Federation, the governing body for the coaching profession He is a Master Certified Coach, MCC, with the ICF, their highest ranking designation and sits on the Professional Advisory Board of PAAC, Professional Association of ADHD Coaches, http://www.paaccoaches.org/pab.html

David is also the past President (2003-2006) of ADDA, http://www.ADD.org, (Attention Deficit Disorder Association), the world’s leading adult ADHD organization. As ADDA’s president, he was instrumental in making National ADHD awareness day an annual reality. The resolution, (identified as resolution 390) was unanimously approved in the U.S. Senate on July 6, 2004. Since its inception, it has been held annually during the month of September. David was also a key committee co-chair involved in the development of ADDA’s current “Guiding Principles for Coaching Individuals with AD/HD” and authored/ directed ADDA’s 2002-2006 strategic plans.
David has been featured in numerous publications, radio and television programs and as a speaker at various conferences with ADDA (Attention Deficit Disorder Association), CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder) and the ICF, the International Coach Federation. He is also the author of his new book: Permission to Proceed: Creating a Life of Passion, Purpose and Possibility for Adults with ADHD. http://addca.com/permission-to-proceed.html

References

1:Rath, T. and Clifton, D. “How Full Is Your Bucket? ” New York: Gallup Press, p.48. 2004

2:Buckingham, M. and Clifton D. O. “Now Discover Your Strengths.” New York, The Free Press. p.6. 2001
3.Buckingham, M. and Clifton D. O. “Now Discover Your Strengths.” New York, The Free Press. p.7. 2001

Copyright, ADDCA, 2011