Pills Don’t Teach Skills

Ah reality and we’re not talking about those ridiculous Reality TV shows that have lasted far too many years. The reality I’m referring to, is where we are right now in life. Wikipedia defines reality in everyday usage as “the state of things as they actually exist.”

The typical ADD’er (is ADD’er actually a word?) will sometimes have a challenge focusing on what reality is. I’m not referring to living in a make believe world and seeing fairies flying around. I’m referring to “the state of things as they actually exist.”. Thought process or self perception can be challenging for many people with ADD. You’ve likely heard about some people with ADD being narcissistic, a good example of not understanding “the state of things as they actually exist.”.

A great example of understanding reality and the state of life as it actually exists, is what I have been through recently. Over the past number of years I experienced a divorce and after being a home owner, I found myself as a single parent no longer owning a home. As timing would have it, the housing market here in Vancouver Canada has absolutely gone off the scale in price. I nice little home in a good middle class area of Vancouver could be purchased for $400,000. That is still expensive in comparison to a lot of real estate markets, but not here. Today, that same home is in the area of $1,000,000. No, that is not a typo…….one-million-dollars!

I have been left on the outside looking in and started to emotionally & psychologically beat myself up. I was very hard on myself by placing pressure on me, to try and get back in the market. In some ways I felt like I was failing myself and my kids. In working with my ADD Coach Pete Quily, we discussed this issue. The end result was, I didn’t need to focus on what reality is right now. In assessing myself I realized I am a great father, have a wonderful career, earn well beyond the average family income, am financially stable and have done a good job of creating a quality life for my kids and me. The reality of my life, is that I will continue to work and earn good money and I will most likely meet a great woman who will be able to contribute to a home with me. My reality is, a future of prosperity, growth and opportunity.

Sometimes we all need to do a reality check and take stock in what we have, the positive things in our life and most importantly…….the future direction we are heading in. Sometimes a negative state of mind is not representative of the future, we get stuck in that thought process and it fuels negativity in other aspects of life. While a long term plan is important, we need to detach from reality sometimes and build on the positive things we have already and the realistic reality of what can lay on the horizon of life.

As for Reality TV, maybe if you all join me with your thoughts of hoping it goes away soon we can make the world a better place……..or at the least, create a “state of things as they actually exist.”.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 17th, 2007 at 8:46 am and is filed under Thoughts on ADD. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.