Tips for Defeating Distraction and Channeling your Genius: What I Learned as an Entrepreneur With ADD
Everybody is a Genius. But If You Judge a Fish by Its Ability to Climb a Tree, It Will Live Its Whole Life Believing that It is Stupid.
– Albert Einstein
I know countless entrepreneurs, salespeople, and executives at the top of their game who have ADD / ADHD. I know just as many people who struggle severely with the inability to launch and reach their full potential who have ADD / ADHD as well. What separates the successful from those who are crippled by their diagnosis?
Great question – I’ve dedicated much of my personal and professional energy to unpacking that very question, being a business owner with ADD myself.
In our society, the ability to stay focused is the highest virtue, and attention is the most precious commodity. For someone with ADD / ADHD, living in a world that is structured for a very specific kind of person can present its own unique challenges. The label carries a heavy weight, and it’s easy to underestimate just how heavy it is.
Let’s level set to start – On a scale of 1-10, to what extend do these statements sound like you?
- You have a magical relationship to time management – it either takes you by surprise, crawls by, or speeds past you at a breakneck speed.
- You struggle to sustain focus on tasks or activities such as conversations, working on projects, or reading blog articles.
- You are restless + fidgety.
- You are a master of Procrastination. Things get put off to the last minute, and are completed in a cortisol induced frenzy
Constantly switching gears. Frequently jumping between email, calls, messaging, tasks.
The Problem of Self Fulfilling Prophecy
When I was diagnosed with ADD, at first it was like a breath of fresh air. Suddenly, things I had struggled with made sense, and I now had a “reason” for my challenges. I started telling all kinds of interesting stories about myself and what I believed to be true, such as…
- I’m easily distracted
- I’m chaotic
- I’m disorganized and messy
- I have poor detail orientation
- I can’t stay on track
The problem, is it seemed that once I got diagnosed, I got worse. Not better. Why?
Because everywhere I looked, I found evidence for all these things. My brain spun even faster, I found evidence of my disorganization, of easy distraction. The more I thought about it, the more true it became.
Sound familiar yet?
Everyone has challenges, and if yours happens to be distraction or lack of focus in the workplace which, rightly or wrongly, someone in your past has attributed to ADD / ADHD, then you have options, but your personal way forward will require a curious, compassionate, and open-minded look at yourself.
The Truth
Let’s give some credit where credit is due. Here’s what those of us with ADD bring to the table, and why we are often top performers when we’re in the zone.
- Creativity: We often possess a unique and creative perspective, allowing them to generate innovative ideas and solutions.
- High Energy: We tend to have abundant energy levels, which can be channeled into productive tasks and projects.
- Out-of-the-Box Thinking: We excel at thinking outside the box, approaching challenges with unconventional and fresh perspectives.
- Quick Learning: We can grasp new concepts rapidly and adapt to changing environments with relative ease.
- Hyper Focus: When we’re dialed in and emotionally engaged, we can have superhuman attention spans.
Turning ADD into your superpower isn’t an overnight process, but you can join the ranks of the hyper-successful people with ADD by attacking it from two angles. One, create structures to minimize your “weaknesses”, and two, double down on your natural strengths. Here’s some practical tips to achieve both.
Eliminate self-fulfilling prophecy
Self fulfilling prophecy is crippling for people with ADD / ADHD, so start by noticing everywhere you do it. A great way to start is by catching everywhere that you use the phrase “I am.”
“I am disorganized” “I am easily distracted” “I am so ADD” “I am always late”
The more you say it, the more true it becomes. Stop saying “I am,” and notice when you beat yourself up for falling short. The biggest lie you tell yourself is that you can stress/shame yourself into better behavior. That only decreases the likelihood of the action you desire.
Exercise
Not only does exercise promote learning, retention, and elevate mood, but it also increases the supply of dopamine in the brain. Most people with ADD have trouble with generating dopamine, which is why most stimulants either increase levels of dopamine in the brain or block reuptake.
The best part? You don’t even need to do a full workout. 20 pushups, running for 10 minutes, some jumping jacks, or any sort of exercise you find naturally fun will completely transform your focus and set you up for success. All it takes is 2 minutes to completely shift your focus.
Double down on your zone of Genius
Doing something you hate is hard for anybody, but almost impossible for people with ADD / ADHD. If you pour all your energy into getting better at forcing yourself into doing things that you don’t like, you’ll achieve mediocrity at best at the cost of your emotional well being.
People with ADD / ADHD can perform at astonishingly high levels at tasks that they love or bring them joy. Simply put, follow your instinct and do the thing you love. If there’s an aspect of your work that you don’t enjoy, learn to gamify it, or if you’re a business owner, learn to delegate it effectively.
Get mentally fit!
The ability to focus is a muscle, and the good news is, it can be trained no matter where you’re starting from. There are many practices that help deepen your ability to re-focus your mind when it wanders from you.
Meditation is highly effective for many people, but can be intimidating to get started as its easy to interpret “getting distracted” as failure. Getting distracted is the point! Every time you notice your mind wander and choose to move back you strengthen the muscle.
Another great way to strengthen your mental fitness is through the Mindset Magic Mental Fitness Program!
This program is specifically designed to help individuals with ADD / ADHD transform their ability to focus, decrease stress, and overcome long-held shame and self-fulfilling prophecy through an app guided experience requiring no more than 15 minutes per day of exercises.
In short, ADD / ADHD is not a deficiency. We evolved it for a reason, and there is nothing wrong with you. Yes, you have a diagnosis, but no, you are not the diagnosis. You are so much more than any one condition. Labels are for jars, not people.
You have the ability to determine how your story goes, and with the right self care, compassion, and dedication, you can double down on what makes you brilliant and start generating the results you know you’ve always been capable of.
