I Figured Out the Most Laziest Way To Do It
No, not my words, on of my ADD coaching clients. One of the many benefits of being an adult ADD coach is that you get to decide who you will and won’t coach (i.e. I don’t coach rude people) and one result of that is that I coach some pretty cool, creative people.
I thought it was a brilliant idea behind the words and reframed it as “I was able to enough to figure out the smartest, easiest most efficient way to do it” or words to that effect.
One of the advantages (or negatives depending on the context) of ADD is that we are often impatient. That is when we want to get something done and are not procrastinating in doing so, we want it done quickly and efficiently so we can get on to more interesting and exciting things.
One of the many reasons I use a Mac instead of windows is I don’t want to have to slow my mind down to do a task in 8 steps when I can do it in 2. It takes a lot of talent to simplify things, making things more complex is easy.
The characteristics of people with ADD can be a strength or a weakness depending on how skilled you are at using those characteristics and in what context you use them.
People with ADD tend to be good at being creative at figuring out how to do things quickly with the least amount of steps possible, especially if it’s something that they’re interested in. My guess is that’s probably the combination of impatience, being able to see things from multiple angles (one advantage of not filtering incoming sensations as much as other people do), and acting impulsively by being willing to try different methods and take risks.
That’s one reason why ADDers often don’t do well in large, conservative bureaucratic organizations or companies where they often have the mentality of “that’s the way we’ve always done it so it should be good enough for you”.
My response to that is that frequently “that’s the way you’ve always done it, is because you weren’t:
A) smart enough
B) creative enough
C) or had enough initiative to come up with an easier and more effective way of doing it”
I know several ADHD coaches who also refuse to coach rude people. Yet it seems that people with ADHD are more likely to be rude then the general population. What would you suggest to a prospective client who is currently rude, but willing to try to change lifelong behavior patterns?
Comment by John M October 17, 2007 @
good question John.
I guess it depends on who they’re rude too. Everyone’s rude sometime, even non ADDers. If they’re rude to me or other ADD coaches, we usually won’t want to deal with them. I guess the person would have to learn that their behavior is unacceptable and get out of denial (i.e., “he made me angry”) and take responsibility for their behavior and start changing it.
Coaches are human and most humans with good boundaries won’t deal with people like that, perhaps some therapists might, not sure on that though.
Comment by Pete Quily October 18, 2007 @
Hi. I have a thirteen month old son, and I am only 19 myself. I’ve always felt like I wasn’t the best mom I could be, thought it was because of my age, and just recently (today actually) thought that it may be the ADD I was diagnosed with in the 2nd grade, and haven’t been treated for since the 5th or sixth grade. Everyday is hard for me, but I am determined to become a better mother. Decided to do some research and have loved the couple articles that I’ve read so far. You had an article about ADD parents raising AD/HD children, are your views the same about ADD parents raising younger children who haven’t yet been diagnosed with AD/HD? I live on Guam, so it’s not surprising that nobody has formed an ADD support group here yet. Would love to read your link “26 Ways Pete Can Help ADD Adults,” but can’t get it to open. Thanks so much for you time, and for this blog, hope to visit frequently.
Comment by Christina October 21, 2007 @
Also, been thinking recently about getting more exercise to help handle stress that I have built up because I always hear that exercise helps with stress and such…have any facts about how exercise relates to ADD sufferers?
Comment by Christina October 21, 2007 @
Thanks Christina, changed the link structure and didn’t update it. try it again or try it directly here http://www.addcoach4u.com/adhd-coaching/benefitsofbeing.html
One thing in your case is you know you have ADD is that you can take action on your ADD and start learning about how to deal with ADD in kids to get a head start. you might want to start your own ADD support group, i have a lot of articles on how to do so here http://www.addcoach4u.com/support/howtostartasupportgro.html
Exercise is the #1 non medical way to deal with adhd. boosts dopamine, norepinephrine, seretonin and beta endorphins.
Comment by Pete Quily October 22, 2007 @