Pills Don’t Teach Skills

Do you ever find yourself worrying for days, or even weeks before an event? Does your mind create more stress and challenges than are really necessary?

We all worry and a lot of people with ADD tend to worry because of one little thing. Their thoughts can get away from them. This results in that scattered thought process associated with ADD. Fortunately there is a lot of brilliance and high intelligence behind that scattered thought process, it just needs to be corralled.

So, how do you schedule your worry time? For me, it’s become a very simple and automatic thing. In my last post Write It Down, I spoke about……..writing everything down. In a continuation of that, part of what I do at the end of each day is organize my to-do list for the next day. Think about what you worry about? Doesn’t it make sense that, if you have a planned approach to your next day’s tasks and what you need to accomplish, it will create an organized and clear thought process in executing those tasks? It does to me and it works.

For me, my worry time is when I am planning my next day’s to-do list. I’ll do a little worrying about what needs to get done, the priority or importance of tasks, time specific tasks or commitments and how my next days needs to come together. It is this worry time that allows me to strategically plan my next day. As a result, I end up with a smoother day, less stress, it helps me focus and maintain a direction.

Once the worry of what needs to happen tomorrow is over and your next day is planned, there is no need to worry. Plan your tomorrow, tonight.

“Forget and forgive. This is not difficult when properly understood. It means forget inconvenient duties, then forgive yourself for forgetting.” - Mark Twain

Perhaps Mark was referring to someone with ADD? I know I used to be somewhat forgetful, but that all changed years ago when I developed the habit of writing it down. I had a particular job back then and my boss gave me a black leather bound book with crisp, clean, empty white lined pages. He told me to write everything down. Thoughts, reminders, tasks, notes of a conversation and anything else I could put down in it.

Quickly, the habit became second nature for me. Why? It helped to gather my thoughts and created a way for me to remember. More importantly, it offered a way for me to review my notes of the day and plan my tomorrow.

Do yourself a favor, get a book like the ones I use and keep it at your desk, beside your bed, in your purse, in your brief case, take it with you on errands and make it a part of your life. Writing it down is the key to an ADD’er succeeding.

Kind of gives a new meaning to, The Little Black Book.

With having placed so much effort and dedication into working through the challenges of ADD, it was brought up during my last coaching session with Pete Quily that……..we don’t always have to be working on something. It’s OK to let go sometimes and take a break. We all need to push off from our efforts to recharge, enjoy the rewards of a job well done and live in the now.

Being located in Vancouver BC, I’m lucky enough to receive the Seattle based PBS KCTS9 station http://www.kcts9.org/, in HD too!!!!!

Take a little ADD, add a TV show about the brain and what do you have? A great PBS show called Brain Fitness Program. This show is billed as “Learn how to drive beneficial chemical, physical and functional change in the brain.” I enjoyed it, learned a lot and can certainly sit back and see many benefits in assisting in the fight against ADD.

If you can pick up the Seattle PBS station, I have listed the times this show reruns. If not, hit the National PBS web site http://www.pbs.org/ to find a local broadcast you can tune into.

Perhaps Homer Simpson would benefit from this show?

Brain Fitness Program – it reruns on the following dates on KCTS9
Friday, June 13, 1:30am
Friday, June 13, 12:00pm
Saturday, June 14, 4:00pm
Sunday, June 15, 1:30am
Thursday, June 19, 11:00pm
Saturday, June 21, 11:00am

Hmmmmm, good question!

I asked that exact question when I Googled him and I actually got the result “Who’s Pete Quily”!!! Pete is not a politician, a sports figure, a Hollywood celebrity, a chef nor is he a Chip ‘n Dales Dancer, sorry ladies. In fact, I didn’t even find a search result indicating there was another Pete Quily. I guess that makes Pete, pretty unique!!

Pete Quily has quietly gone about his business of supporting the ADD community in many different parts of North America and I think it’s about time Pete got the recognition he deserves. Today I officially nominate and award Pete Quily with the first ever ADD Oscar for dedication to ADD and bettering the many peoples lives he has touched.

Pete dedicates himself to what just may me the most informative and comprehensive ADD site in the world (in my humble opinion) http://addcoach4u.com, he is an ADD Coach, he runs the Vancouver ADD Support Group and is also involved with Vancouver Chapter of CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder).

So today, June 5th 2008, is Pete Quily day!!! If you meet Pete, give him a pat on the back and say…… good job sir! But be careful not to knock that ADD Oscar out of his hands, because he certainly deserves his 15 minutes of fame.

Yup, there is definitely a cost. Nothing is free any more!! As an ADD’er, I have become aware that there is a financial cost to not properly managing ADD. According to NewsMedia.net, U.S. household income losses due to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) total nearly $77 billion each year!!!

It’s really amazing how ADD has such an impact on people in our society, yet so little attention and medical funding is offered to assist. Just think about how you or someone you may know is impacted. ADD can impact a career, a marriage, spending habits and so many other aspects of life. Each one of these impacted parts of a person’s life is financially affected, be it good or bad. Seems like we’ve stumbled across another reason to work on managing ADD, the cost of not doing so can be expensive.

I have a good friend Michelle Hargreaves, who is a coach http://www.hargreavesco.com. Michelle has some great things to say and as we were catching up this week, she said something to me that spawned a great conversation……and this post too!

“When you try too hard the wheels fall off” is what Michelle said. I thought that was great! It really holds true for a person with ADD. When a typical ADD’er is engaged in a task, or many tasks (ha-ha) they will sometimes be trying too hard. By trying too hard, this could mean trying to do too much, or their hyper-activity results in pushing too hard on a particular task. When an ADD’er is trying to do too much in a rush and not paying attention to detail, things can go wrong……the wheels can fall off.

We need to ensure those lug-nuts are securely tightened to be sure the wheels don’t fall off. What does this mean? From my perspective it really means being sure I don’t try and accomplish too much at once. As an example, I have a tendency to try and multi-task when I am on a phone conference. My mind kicks into overdrive and I feel like I can listen in on a conference call, read & send emails and do other things at my desk. The truth is, I can’t do all that. My wanting to take on too much at the same time ends up hurting me. The end results in this particular situation;

1. I miss out on certain details of the phone conference
2. I misread emails and miss out on important details
3. I make mistakes in sending out emails

In summary, my wheels fall off!! It reminds me of the kid’s song The Wheels On The Bus Go Round and Round:

“The wheels on the bus go round and round,
round and round,
round and round.
The wheels on the bus go round and round,
all through the town.”

Ya, the song doesn’t mention that the wheels on the bus fall off, does it!! LOL!

What is the cost of trying to do too much? That is a loaded question with many different out-comes that can create a domino effect of results.

Today more than ever, people are outsourcing in business and personally. On a personal level, maybe someone hires a housekeeper, or a gardener to cut their lawn. It saves time and effort. When a person has ADD, a typical challenge is trying to take on too much. Yes, we ADD’ers will beet ourselves up for not accomplishing everything we set out to do. We all need to take a step back and realize nobody can accomplish everything, or be perfect. We can’t take everything on and be successful. Heck, a Major League baseball player is doing a great job if his batting average is above .300. For those of you not familiar with baseball stats, a .300 batting average means a baseball player gets a hit 3 times in every 10 at bats. That’s a good deal…..getting paid millions to fail 7 out of every 10 attempts!!!

Getting back on track, when it comes to outsourcing in our own lives…..we need help. We don’t have to be perfect at everything. We must let go of that thought process and apply our focus and energy on a number of key tasks or objectives that are manageable. It’s OK to ask for help. It’s OK to delegate. It’s OK to say no. Why is the President of a company successful? Because successful Presidents will lean on a good support group or supporting cast to help in achieving their goals.

I had a great coaching session this week with my ADD Coach Pete Quily and much of this post was discussed. I took an awful lot from this particular session with Pete. Over the past few weeks I have learned a lot about not trying to do too much, about allowing people to assist and realizing it’s OK if I can’t do it all.

I’d rather succeed at a few things, than achieve mediocrity or perhaps fail by trying to do too many things. OK, time for Domino’s pizza accompanied by some classic Van Morrison…… “I said oohhhh oohhhh domino”.

Sounds like an oxy-moron. It’s true though. How can you be productive if you are worn out, stressed and you need some down time. Our bodies and brains need to be relaxed in order to be productive. There is of course the odd example that contradicts this and some people simply come alive and thrive in stressed out and intense situations. But hey, let’s not forget about the forum we are in right now, ADD right!

A typical ADD’er is not productive when they are worn out, stressed and need that down time. It is so important to take that time for yourself to recharge. It may be as simple as a 20 minute cat-nap, or even a walk around the block to give yourself a break from your work.

For an ADD’er there is one simple formula that is successful and will enhance results, Relaxation = Productivity.

Just a quick post to thank everyone from 25 countries around the world for making the past 30 days the all-time highest site traffic we have ever seen! Your comments and direct emails are really appreciated. Thank you!