There are countless assessments, personality tests, and screening tools all over the Internet that give you a lot of information about your general interests, strengths, weaknesses, tendancies and on and on and on... But does it really get to the heart of who you truly are? Does it bring you to a genuine understanding of how you instinctively work?

Those assessments, personality tests, and screening tools and strategies "experts" offer have been developed and recommended based on how you and everyone else similar to you are the same. The assessment, test, tool or strategy works if you fit who the expert, generally speaking, has in mind. 

Do you find yourself sincerely trying strategy after strategy and falling short of the result you wanted? If you're not hitting the mark you had in mind,  please my friend, don't beat yourself up for that. When strategies are developed and marketed to the public it's designed to work for approximately 20% of the population it's meant to serve, leaving 80% behind to wonder what's wrong with themselves. I can't begin to tell you how many different oranizational systems and strategies I bought and tried only to conclude I was a loser because it should have worked. I mean, it was designed for me. Right? Not necessarily! 

Understanding your preferred learning style and the secondary styles of learning that influence that preferred style implies that you are different and unique. How you use that style to your advantage is the key. For instance, an individual who prefers to talk out loud to organize his thoughts (i.e. Verbal Processor) may have a secondary aural learning style. This individual may incorporate music as a way to verbally process information. The next verbal processor may find one or many different people to verbally process information with because they have a secondary social learning style. Do you know what your personal learning style combination is?

After you hone in on your specific style, now is the time to think about what tool you will use. Writing, recorders, files, journals, singing, drawing, etc. are all tools that can be effective, but only if they are a good match for your specific learning style combination. The right tool in the right context for your learning style will help your get the result you're looking for when you work. It's interesting how experts first direct you to the tool without asking you to consider how you're different. Remember, it's your life, your work, your way. It doesn't rest in the hands of a self proclaimed, expert tool man or marketer. If you want someone who is genuinely interested in you and how you insticntivley work, then download the "ADD Processing Style" (Upper right hand corner of this page) and call me for a FREE SESSION. Together, we'll discuss what's been revealed to you and how to use that to your advantage.

Best Wishes Friends,

Steve Gundy, MSW, ACG 
Attention Coach
 
 
Nothing is perfect and there is no perfect plan. We all know that. But how often do we find ourselves falling into the belief that just short of perfection is failure? Is that true for you? What's underneath that kind of black & white thinking? I can personally relate it to prejudging a result that, in reality, isn't even there. Yet, in my mind, it has already happned. That's fear and it's like a train ride to nowhere, hoping for a stop that never happens. That kind of fear is the greatest source of procrastination I'm learning, even today, to overcome.

When you realize you are riding the train of perfection then derail the train. This means disrupt the thinking pattern that says, "I can't...until it is perfect." and judges what you will accomplish. A thinking pattern disrupt can look a lot of different ways. Here's a few to get your creativity flowing for something that is unique and works for you:

1. Write the judgement down on paper, then wad it up and throw it away. Do it until your trash can if full.

2. Call yourself and dump it into your voicemail. Leave it there, listen to it later, then erase it after you have rephrased it with an alternate perspective or something more positive.

3. Ask yourself three questions and give yourself an honest answer: What's the best thing that could happen? What's the worst thing that could happen? What's the realistic thing that will happen? The answer to the 3rd question will help you gain a more realistic perspective on you and your situation.

4. Come up with as many alternate results as you can to the negative result you are attached to. Ask trusted friends for an alternate perspective on this. Record them saying this on a digital recorder and play them back over and over and wait and listen for the result that speaks truth to your situation.

The fear of failure is really about making a perfect plan only to realize you fall short when you don't get perfect results. The truth is when the result you have in mind doesn't turn out exactly the way you wanted, the result is not a failure. It's a result that was meant to be revised. If we start looking at what we want for results in terms of being an evolutionary process that involves revisions, then we set ourselves up for taking action and moving towards the vision we hold near and dear to our hearts rather than riding the train of perfection to nowhere. On the other side of those revisions is a beautiful diamond, but remember that even once a lump of coal has formed into a diamond, the diamond still has flaws. The point is the lump of coal stuck to it's job, allowing the process to continue. 



 
 
 
Kick your ADD intensity into overdrive! Like, I just got done grilling 15 chicken breasts and 8 pork chops old school style. Grilling, cutting, & chopping engaged my focus & physical energy, so I only add sides to meals lickity split! A weakness is nothing more than a strength in its wrong context. Where does your energy thrive? How can it create productivity for you this week and pay dividends with your time?
 
 
 What do Earth, Mars, and Venus have in common? The answer to this question is obvious. What's not so obvious is how the question suggests an answer based on what's similar. This is how solutions are developed in our culture. We look at how most people, things, and situations are the same and then develop the steps needed to move a person from the problem to the solution. The application is "4 Steps to Conflict Resolution in Your Marriage", 3 Steps to Finding Work you Love in 30 Days" or "10 Easy Steps to Losing 10 Pounds." Problem solved! You simply execute the steps to achieve the desired outcome. But what if the steps to achieve what you want are'nt working?

Earth, Mars, and Venus are obviously planets. Specifically, they're similar because they rotate on an axis. But not until you look at what Earth does differently do you understand and appreciate its uniquenss. The axis of the Earth tilts differently. The speed of the Earth rotates differently. These differences make up Earth's unique composition. If we view Earth as being similar, then it's a planet. If we view Earth as being different, then we see how it's uniqe becuase it sustains life.

The fundemental challenge appears for ADDers when a sincere effort is given to execute the steps and solutions well meaning people give to assist them with their attention problems. Family, friends, Physicians, teachers, therapists, bosses, and sprititual leaders all want to see them live life more effectively. Yet, when an ADDer tries to adapt to the steps to solving a problem based on how most people are similar, the ADDer falls short. They conlucde they are broken and will never measure up.

Is an ADDer broken or different? How you answer that question could shift your focus and change your life. What's undeniably clear to me is this. When we look at our differences, we see value. When we pay attention to our God given, unique composition, what's revealed to us is unique and, like Earth, sustains life. Don't look for solutions based on what's similar because you are not the same. Rather, look for solutions based on how you're different. This is done by learning how to pay attention to how you do it differently. Coaching accelerates the learning process so interest is engaged, focus is created, and energy propels you forward. That's powerful!

Are you ready to accelerate your process? Let's go...!
 
 
Study results released May 2008 revealed the effect of ADHD on workers. The lack of ability to concentrate costs the average worker 22.1 days of “role performance” per year, including 8.7 extra days absent according to researchers at the Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction. The United States specifically was estimated to be 28.3 days. The research suggests that it might be cost effective to screen workers for ADHD and provide treatment. Dr. Ron Kessler of Harvard University worked with workers suffering from depression and found that treatment costing $1,000 could help prevent $4,000 in lost productivity. Dr. Kessler says, “It sure looks like the effect would be as big, if not bigger, for ADHD.”

How many more workers are not accounted for in this study that have been fired due to poor performance issues related to ADHD? The implications of this research points to the need for worker accommodations. Your success is linked with your employer’s bottom line as it is with any worker, but even more so for you, the ADDer. Remember, where there is a deficit there is an outsized ability waiting to be revealed. Coaching will provide the support to positively impact your employer's bottom line that puts them in the black! How would it feel to know your work delivered that kind of value? You can do it YOUR way!