Overcoming Distractions

We talk a lot on this podcast about how to have a positive mindset when you have ADHD. And we’re going to discuss the topic again this week, taking a different angle and a different approach. We look at mindset through the lens of the beginning stages of entrepreneurship and career development.

Our guest this week is Tom Bergeron, co-founder of Inventive Labs based in Massachusetts. The organization helps different learners and those of us with different brains with career prep, making use of a gap year as well as helping young people develop an entrepreneur mindset.

Tom is a lifelong entrepreneur and brings incredible experience to the organization including a strong emphasis on acceptance.

Tom introduces us to Inventive labs and just how important these programs can be for different learners.

We discuss how important it is for the organization to help those that come to it create a positive mindset and how they do that through a positive environment. He talks about what happens when individuals come to the organization with negative thinking and how they work together to turn that around into a growth mindset.

Tom also talks about how fostering positivity is one of the foundations of Inventive Labs and why it is so important to focus on growth. He talks about accommodations and acceptance, how to build an environment of positive energy, the importance of that, and why it is important to be who you are.

As always on Overcoming Distractions, we like you to walk away with tips and advice you can use in your own life and Tom helps us through that.

Learn more about Inventive Labs on their website.

https://www.inventivelabs.org/

How can I have a positive mindset when I have ADHD? That is a question we hear all the time, and we are going to do our best to answer it and offer some expert advice on the subject in this episode. Some people call it a growth mindset in the world of ADHD and other areas of personal success, but whatever it is you call it, we are going to talk about staying away from negative thoughts.

Back on the podcast is Dr. Sharon Saline. She is the author of the book What Your ADHD Child Wishes You Knew. Dr. Saline has been on Overcoming Distractions a few times and always offers some great advice and expert knowledge of ADHD in both adults and children.

First, Dr. Sharon defines a positive and growth mindset. She discusses how the ADHD brain can sometimes automatically lean toward a negative mindset and why this happens. And we of course talk about how many have slipped more heavily into negative thinking during this past year of the coronavirus.

Sharon gives us clear examples of both a growth mindset and negative thinking and she also discusses how a positive mindset helps us, particularly people with ADHD to be more resilient.

Dave asks the question of whether adults with ADHD let their minds take over with negativity more than we should and sharing gives her tips for how we can continue to make the year 2021 better and focus more heavily on a growth and positive mindset.

Make sure you visit her website for more information as well as links to her books and blog posts.

https://drsharonsaline.com/

If you have ADHD and you want to set some goals for the coming year, we’re going to take a fun approach in this episode. Back on the podcast is Dr. Lara Honos Webb, a clinical psychologist specializing in ADHD.

Dr. Lara is also the author of several books on ADHD including Brain Hacks, life-changing strategies to improve executive functioning.

Dr. Lara takes ADHD goal setting through the past, present, and future model. She talks about how you need to look at your past successes in order to build confidence as well as challenge that self-doubt in your head.

She talks about practicing being present in the moment and how to create fun for yourself and not worry about the past or the future in this part of your goal setting. She talks about the power of now.

And, Doctor Lara talks about how we look to the future when it comes to ADHD goal setting. She suggests that you imagine talking to your future self, looking at a year and even five years down the road. What advice would you give your future self, right now?

Dave and Dr. Lara also talk about the importance of practicing optimism, practicing gratitude and being proud of your accomplishments in life. Staying positive goes a long way in setting and achieving goals for yourself.

Want to find out more about Dr. Lara Honos-Webb? Find her at:  https://www.addisagift.com/

Back on Overcoming Distractions is ADHD coach Jeff Copper. Dave and Jeff tackle the subject of ADHD and self-regulation. One of our core executive functions as humans is self-regulation. It is important to understand this in ourselves and how to be more self-aware about our emotions in various situations.

Jeff says that self-regulation is the ability to direct an act back on yourself to change your behavior to change the future. Jeff also states that it’s the ability to pause and ponder before you proceed. In other words, those of us with ADHD need to think before we act or react.

Jeff walks us through why the ADHD brain has challenges with self-regulation as well as some of the more difficult aspects of self-regulation including some of the more common ways we struggle with this.

Jeff discusses with Dave some of the ways we can do a better job with self-regulation and some of the systems he works with his coaching clients. That includes limiting temptations, learning how to downregulate, limiting choices, how to override certain situations and more importantly, how to become much more self-aware of our emotions.

Jeff also lists several examples of how dopamine plays into self-regulation including instant gratification and delays in gratification.  He talks about many strategies for self-regulation including exercise, pausing and more.

Jeff talks about his approach when he’s working with coaching clients as well.

Find ADHD Coach Jeff Copper here: www.digcoaching.com

This week we discuss how you can serve as the creator of your own life with the goal of living big. As our guest says, when we actively create each day, we live big!

Rochelle Seltzer is our guest. She is the author of Live Big, A Manifesto for a Creative Life. She’s also a coach that works with women, but her advice rings true for both men and women.

Rochelle wants you to live big and she is going to discuss how in this engaging conversation.

Rochelle talks about how she feels we are all creators and that we do have the ability to create our own path. She talks about the importance of building a proper mindset so we can create our own path and vision for a big life.

Dave and Rochelle also discuss how many of us miss opportunities that could be staring us right in the face. How does this happen and what can we do about it?

Rochelle then walks us through the process of setting up a vision so we can live big. That includes understanding what you want to be, how you want to do it and what is worth having in your life. She talks about the power of clarity and understanding your whole life, how to set intentions and even the power of creating a vision board.

She talks about how to reframe questions in your head so you can create the life you want and live big. She lays out the small steps we need to take to create the life we want.

Get in touch with Rochelle below.

www.LiveBigcall.com

https://www.rochelleseltzer.com/

This week we are talking about how to celebrate small wins when you have adult ADHD and how to learn from those little slices of success.

Daniel Warren is the guest. He is an entrepreneur and a law school graduate. Dan like many of us with ADHD had some challenges navigating the school system when he was younger. He talks about growing up and go into school with ADHD and includes the bad and the good experiences. He even talks about the stigma associated with ADHD growing up.

Dan talks about how he eventually attended law school and how he succeeded with intense demand on studying in good grades. He talks about adjustments he needed to make as well as holding himself accountable and taking responsibility in order to get through law school.

Dan talks about how to celebrate those small wins and how when you have ADHD the meaning of success can mean something different for everyone.

Dan talks about how to find those wins and to try new things in order to thrive with adult ADHD.

And then introduces us to his full metal intensive 90 day leadership seminar which he conducts.

And Dave and Dan discuss changing the term of ADHD from the word disorder to variance and why Dan thinks this way.
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In this episode we talk about getting your ADHD life back on a positive cycle and identify the lessons learned from the past year. While there has been a lot of negativity in our lives the past year, we know we can find some positives to help us through the coming years as well as lessons learned.

This week we have back Dr. Sarah Cheyette who has incredible knowledge in the world of ADHD. She has been on the podcast several times and offers tremendous insights into how we can thrive with ADHD.

This week we discuss how many with ADHD may have let certain things in our life and business get a little out of control due to the circumstances of the pandemic. They may be subtle things but are issues we need to work on to thrive in the coming year.

Sarah and Dave discuss how many of us may have lost our job, started a new job or career, had increased family obligations and how we have had to prioritize those to create a so-called normal life during these times.

Dr. Sarah digs deep into why many of us have let our negative thoughts take over and how this has happened. You do not have to have ADHD to have negativity slowly fill your life because of what we are living through. Everyone is experiencing some form of negative thinking.

Sarah talks about how we can look back at what we have learned in the past year and how much of this can benefit us in the future. That includes learning new skills, developing new routines, finding new ways to work as well as get things done around the house and even learning to be a home cook.

How can we improve focus with these new skills? Sarah offers her advice. She also offers her professional advice on how to set goals given our current circumstances.

Sarah walks us through how to get back on a positive cycle and slowly shed that negative thought process. She helps us be slightly better today than we were yesterday.

If you feel like negativity has been taking over your life this past year, this is a great discussion and worth your time.

Find Sarah Cheyette here: https://sarahcheyette.com/

Communicating in a remote workplace is much different then how you communicate with coworkers and others in person. We have all found this out since COVID-19 struck us. This podcast is going to go through how we can improve our communications when we have different brains, as well as communicating with other different brains.

Back on the podcast is Grant Crowell the author of Grantasms- Twisted Creative Words for Cool People.

Grant also serves as a trainer for various individuals and organizations and helps to train those with a neurodiverse background.

Grant and Dave discuss the fact that communication has changed and suffered in this new remote world we are living and working in. Grant talks about some of the biggest struggles with online communication and specifically for those with ADHD or other different brains.

Grant discusses the differences between face-to-face meetings and online meetings as well as the challenges that both have presented us this past year.

Grant talks about some of his strategies for better communication and he talks about how two different brains, example two people with ADHD can communicate more effectively with each other.

Grant offers his tips for better communication including coming to commonality with others, the power of listening, the power of follow ups, mimicking communication styles and making sure you do not assume anything especially when it comes to communicating online. He also discusses the power of a communication audit in an organization.

Find Grant’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/GRANTASMS-Creative-twisted-words-people-ebook/dp/B07ZY9JDPP

We are continuing to learn the lessons from the year 2020 in order to have a much more productive 2021. Many of us have lost track of time, had to adjust our routines because of COVID-19 and have found out what it really means to be productive.

In this episode, we are going to discuss what productivity really means to an individual and will focus in on how to identify the productivity strategies that work for you. We have back Dr. Sarah Reiff-Hekking of True Focus Coaching. She is a time management and productivity guru and has been on Overcoming Distractions before with her expert advice and tips.

We start by discussing some of the lessons that many of us may have learned about productivity as a result of the year 2020. And Sarah asks the question, what went well? A question we should all be asking ourselves. Focusing on the negative aspects and what we did not get done, does not help us at all. How did you move the ball forward this past year?

Sarah and Dave also discuss that there is not one bulletproof productivity technique. Everyone is different and you need to experiment with different strategies to find out how you can be most productive and manage your time officially. Experimenting is the answer to finding this out for yourself.

Sarah discusses other aspects of productivity such as having a good relationship with your calendar in your to-do list. She discusses the importance of building tools for productivity and finding simple tools to help you get more done with the time that you have.

And Dr. Sarah discusses what productivity is. When you get to do what is important to you, when you can be effective been getting things done, and how you could achieve your own goals with increased productivity.

She ends by asking you one important question. What is one meaningful thing you have done this week?

If you are struggling with productivity after this past year and you want to figure out how to take the lessons from what COVID-19 has forced us to do and turn those into positives for 2021, you need to listen to what Dr. Sarah has to say in this podcast.

You can find Dr. Sarah Reiff-Hekking at True Focus Coaching; www.TrueFocusCoaching.com

If you went through the year 2020 then you probably experienced a lot of ups and downs. All of us ADHD or not experienced a lot of emotions and the year was quite a rollercoaster. Because of that, many of us probably did not have as much fun as we wanted to in our lives.

Dr. Kirsten Milliken is back on the podcast to discuss ways to have more fun in 2021. And boy do we need fun after the year we’ve had. Kirsten is a big advocate of using fun and play to manage your ADHD and to help you thrive in life and in business.

Kirsten is also the co-founder of World of ADHD. The project profiles many successful individuals that just happened to have ADHD. Anyone with ADHD can submit their art, writing, music, and other creative projects to show the positive aspects of having ADHD. Kirsten gives us an update on this important project.

Of course, having a discussion about fun, would not be fun without some laughs and there are plenty of laughs between Kirsten and Dave in this discussion.

Kirsten discusses is why play and fun are so important to the ADHD brain. Having fun keeps us motivated in other areas and activates that all-important dopamine that we need to get through the day. She gives us examples of how we can stay motivated and how we can actually play better.

Kirsten wraps up with her tips for incorporating fun into our lives and staying connected even in a pandemic like we have been experiencing. That includes incorporating fun in smaller environments in ways we can still meet new people.

Have you found something new and fun this year? Maybe it was cooking, a new form of exercise or you found a new TV show to binge-watch. Whatever it is, make sure you have fun this year.

Find World of ADHD here: https://www.worldofadhd.com/

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