Top 7 Reasons Your ADHD / ADD Can Accelerate Your Goals Achievement

Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by the ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that is stupid

– Albert Einstein

It’s generally assumed that Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD is a problem if not an actual disease.

This is implied in the very word “disorder.” However, if you really think about it and look at all of the implications of having ADHD or ADD, you’ll find that there are advantages as well as disadvantages.

Whether you look at ADHD as a disorder or opportunity is partly a matter of perspective. It also depends on your environment. For example, a student with ADHD might be labeled disabled in one school and gifted in another. The same is true for professions and careers. The same quality that’s criticized in one context may be praised in another. Let’s look at some of the often overlooked advantages of ADHD.

1, You’re Full of Energy

If you’ve been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, chances are good that you have high energy levels. This is one reason you have trouble sitting still for extended periods of time. While this is often framed as something negative, you can look for situations where this quality is valued. Athletes, public speakers, high-ranking executives, people in the military and many other professions require high levels of energy.

2. You’re More Ambitious Than the Average Person

People with ADHD are often very ambitious. They place a high value on achievement and tend to have a variety of goals. If this fits your personality, you may think it’s a mixed blessing. It’s true that you have extra challenges when it comes to focusing on one task at a time.

On the other hand, it’s also likely that you’re willing to tackle more than the average person. If you’re an ambitious person with ADHD, the trick is to learn to harness your ambition. If you can find a way to delegate smaller tasks to others, you can focus more on long-term goals.

3. You’re Extremely Creative

People who have difficulty with attention span are often more creative than average. This quality is not always rewarded or appreciated. In school, for example, you’re expected to focus on one specific subject or assignment at a time.

Many conventional jobs are similar in this regard. Your mind may see all kinds of possibilities that others miss. The challenge is to find a work environment that matches your creative personality. This may involve having your own business or working in the arts.

4, You’re Good at Solving Problems

When you have an ADD or ADHD type personality, you have a tendency to think outside the box. While others may look at problems in a conventional manner, you’re more able to see alternatives that haven’t been previously considered.

This quality, which overlaps with creativity, is not always appreciated. In many situations, conformity is valued above innovation. If, however, you’re a consultant, inventor, entrepreneur or creative type, your ability to come up with innovative solutions can be a real benefit.

5. You’re a Risk Taker

As with most traits associated with ADHD, there are both pros and cons to being willing to take risks. In certain fields, such as finance, sports and starting new businesses this quality is helpful. On the other hand, you have to learn to keep it under control so that you take calculated risks.

This is definitely one of those qualities where there’s a delicate balance. A risk taker who is out of control may become a gambler or someone who starts new endeavors without doing the proper research.

On the other hand, if you can discipline yourself a little, you can channel this trait in a positive direction. If you can do this, you’ll often succeed and leave your more cautious colleagues behind.

6. You Have the Ability to see the Big Picture

The difficulty you have keeping your attention on one detail for extended periods of time has a positive counterpart. Because you’re constantly shifting your focus, you tend to see the big picture. Some researchers call this being a hunter rather than a farmer.

Hunters must use their enhanced focus to scan the area for prey and potential threats. In the modern world, you can use this quality by looking for new opportunities, possibilities and solutions in whatever you’re working on. Remember that in any organization, the people at the top have to see the big picture. That’s why many entrepreneurs and CEOs have been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD.

7. You’re Restless

People with ADD and ADHD are notorious for having a low tolerance for boredom. While this makes them annoying to teachers and managers, there’s definitely a positive side to this trait. Being restless is a virtue in many circumstances.

You may, for example, enjoy travel more than most people. This opens up many career possibilities that can make life interesting. Even if you stay put geographically, restlessness can inspire you to seek out new horizons while others are satisfied with the status quo.

There are positive and negative implications to each of the above qualities.

All too often, however, people focus only on the downside. By recognizing that there are advantages as well as disadvantages to ADHD, you can work on using your natural tendencies in a way that benefits yourself and others. This may require you to seek out people and environments where your particular qualities are valued.

Turning your ADHD into an asset is not easy. You may need to change some of your habits and, if necessary, seek help in keeping some of your symptoms under control. What’s important to remember is that your “disorder” can actually help make you more productive and successful.

By: Sarah F. (Guest Post)

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Write Your Own Obituary; The Best Advice Nobody Ever Gave Me

picture-5You might consider this the ultimate “begin with the end in mind” exercise and, really, it falls perfectly in line with one’s attempt to create their ideal future – their success.

Rest assured, there isn’t a greater ‘end’ to consider than YOUR END- (your death/departure from this planet).

So, if it’s helpful to ‘begin with the end in mind’ for goals and projects you can bet it’s pretty darn valuable for your life.

For those who haven’t heard the story there is a terrific anecdote about Dr. Alfred Nobel. What you may not know is that while today everyone hears his name “Nobel” and thinks “Peace Prize” originally, this was far from the case.

In fact, turns out that in 1888 a French paper erroneously proclaimed “The merchant of death is now dead.” The story went on to explain that the man who invented and patented dynamite (his original claim to fame) and a faster, cheaper, quicker way to kill people died in a fatal explosion. As you might expect, a very alive and able Dr. Nobel read this account of his death and its merciless headline and was mortified by the prospect that his lifetime work and his legacy would be relegated and labeled synonymous with death and destruction. This was not the legacy the good doctor had in mind.

Turns out, after reading his own obituary he instantly knew he had to redefine just what his life was to mean; what he was to represent and how he wanted to be remembered.

Drum roll please…
So, here’s a couple KEY questions for YOU to answer…

What do you want your life to represent?

How would you like to be remembered?

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When there is no “Why?” 9 Lessons in Achievement from a “Crazy” Man

man-on-wire-2

Brilliant. astounding, outstanding and remarkable

There aren’t enough superlatives for MAN ON WIRE!

Things have been a little busy lately – and wanting to get to this “review’ / post since I saw this movie well over a month ago! Man on Wire is incredibly entertaining movie and not just for the never-to-be-repeated, remarkable feat itself (tight-rope, in this case wire-walking from one World Trade Center tower to the other) but, also, for its direction, production, and original footage.

I happened to see this movie (wifee’s recommendation) just before the Academy Awards (no surprise it won for best documentary).  The story features Phillipe Petit and his mission to realize his life’s dream of walking a tight rope between the two world trade towers. The brilliance from a production standpoint is the reenactment is interspersed with some fantastic original footage.  But, what makes the movie truly so powerful and riveting is the UNDERLYING THEME.

We are all walking a tight rope.

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Are you tapped in?

kid imaginationphoto courtesy http://www.flickr.com/photos/jckhamken
post by Mitch W. Steel

Here’s a quote I’m rather fond of… It rephrases the age old proverb, “necessity is the mother of invention” to “necessity isn’t the mother of invention – invention is.”

Napoleon Hill wrote the all-time classic personal development book, Think and Grow Rich. The book is based on his 20-year study of the greatest minds of his time, including Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. He discovered from this exercise that there human creativity took basically two different forms – synthetic imagination and creative vision.

Synthetic imagination joins your pre-existing ideas, your concepts and your products and transforms them into something completely different, into a completely new form or a new, unanticipated solution to a problem. Very little of what is created today is absolutely original – from scratch, if you will. In fact, many of our greatest inventions are based upon the concept of synthetic imagination. Perhaps that is what Isaac Newton said when he attributed his greatest discoveries to the ability to “stand on the shoulders of giants.”

Really when you consider it further necessity, in reality, is the GRANDMOTHER of invention.

For example, the garbage can. Yes, the lowly, smelly garbage can. The original intent of the garbage can was to have a receptacle to place the garbage collected during the course of a week in your household. A simple enough need.

Soon, the garbage bag was invented. One invention – the garbage can – spawned yet another invention, the garbage BAG. This, in a nutshell, is synthetic imagination. In other words, this is simply a creative way to combine two pre-existing ideas or inventions.

The second type of creativity is creative vision.

A good way to look at this is to think of creative vision as dialing directly into your creative source. This is what Napoleon Hill called your “infinite intelligence.” You might refer to this as God.

In essence, it’s your intuition. It’s the way the infinite intelligence or God gives us our hunches and our “inspirations.”
Hill had a great story involving Thomas Edison in which the famous inventor, known for his relentless pursuit of the light bulb, uses both creative vision and synthetic imagination. Edison was well known for the many cat naps which he took throughout the day. What is not so well known, is how he used these to his creative advantage.

When Edison was tired and frustrated by the day’s “failures” at not having discovered the best method of creating this invention, he would nap. But before falling asleep, he formed in his mind a clear view of the problem he was currently facing. As he wakes from his nap, in that limbo-like peaceful state before he’s fully awake, he realizes the solution to the problem. The light bulb, in order to function, must be placed in a vacuum.

The vacuum was indeed the only environment that would prevent the immediate burn out of the wire as well as prevent any electrocution. His thoughts immediately jumped to charcoal. He recalled images of charcoal covered with dirt and of course subconsciously realized they burned much more slowly than the rest. In fact, it was that realization – coming out of his nap which his subconscious was trying to share with him. Limit the oxygen and the filiment that illuminates the lightbulb will not burn out so quickly!

You don’t always need to use your creative vision and bring something as momentous to the world as the light bulb. More often than not, synthetic imagination becomes the vehicle to success.

All you really need to do is combine two ideas that are already pretty darn good on their own. Just look at the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. If you’re old enough, you probably even remember the initial commercial which introduced the product to us. One person walked along the street, totally absorbed in his chocolate candy bar. Walking in the opposite direction came another individual, equally absorbed in his peanut butter.

BAM! They walked right into each other. The candy bar crashed right into the jar of peanut butter. A new taste treat was born!

Just look at the evolution of the cell phone. Once the original phone was invented, synthetic imagination took over to create an evolution of the gadget none of us can now seem to live without. Other technologies fueled by synthetic imagination include Google, Myspace, Facebook to name just a few. New goods and services are created every day using existing technology in a new and innovative way.

Don’t think for a moment that synthetic imagination or even creative imagination is the realm of a chosen few.

Be sure to share cool examples of either creative vision or synthetic imagination and ways they’ve created value for others and / or affected your life. These examples will help everyone (readership) recognize the true path to success begins with creativity and hopefully inspire them to create!

Thanks again… until next time