Are you good at starting things but not finishing them? Does your mind wander? Do you sometimes spin in circles unable to gain traction? Did impulsiveness get you in trouble at school? Has it hurt you at work and in relationships?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you could be one of us, and if so, you have a liability -- your mind operates in ways that can hurt your career. But here’s the good news: you can turn this liability into a positive asset. That’s right; with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) comes great power, and it’s time for you to harness ADHD’s awesome potential for success and change the trajectory of your life.
I know all about the double-edged sword of ADHD, because it has propelled most of my life’s disasters. And yet, since I’ve learned to harness it, it has become one of the driving forces behind all my greatest achievements.
Many of the World’s High-Achievers Have a Dirty Secret
Let ADHD propel your success as it has these household names: Presidents Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson are ours.Creative geniuses Mozart, Picasso, Dali, Walt Disney, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs are ours. Entertainers like Stevie Wonder, Will Smith, Whoopi Goldberg, Kate Beckinsale, and Pink are like us too.
Major achievers in every field of endeavor are our fellow travelers, and when you learn to harness ADHD’s special powers, you too can achieve success and fulfillment in ways you never thought possible.
The Kid Who Never Finished Anything He Started
Growing up, I was always in trouble. Family and teachers constantly told me I was a screw-up and that I would never amount to anything because I never finished anything. You have probably lived through the same criticisms. But what they saw as a defect is in fact something I have come to see as the greatest blessing of my life.
What happened to the kid who couldn’t finish things? Today, I am a NY Times bestselling author, and many people say I have redefined the way we understand modern career management. I have 14 books in print in some 63 languages around the world. I co-own a couple of optical patents for red eye reduction. I last danced with a professional ballet company at age 55— oh, and I’m probably the world’s worst bass player.
I screwed up so many things over the years, but then in my 30s I stumbled onto the code and life blossomed.
Your Two Special Powers
What everyone has always told you are problems—you can’t sit still, and your mind skips around—are actually tremendous powers.
First, you have a mind with a natural aptitude for multitasking. Multitasking is one of the most highly prized of all professional skills, yet most people think multitasking means being reactive to all incoming stimuli and therefore jumping around from one task to another as the emergency of the moment dictates. When these people “multitask,” it looks like they’re the ones with ADHD. And guess what? Nothing gets done.
But in reality, multitasking is about time management, organization, and establishing priorities. With your ADHD mind, you are uniquely suited to this priority-based changing of activities. You just need to take your brute ADHD strength and channel it in the directions you want.
ADHD has not just given you the ability to juggle multiple projects at once; it has also given you the rare ability to focus with laser-like intensity when you want to. This is your second special power, and like the first it can be harnessed.
This ability to hyper-focus for long periods of time, combined with your Energizer Bunny physicality, gives you an ability to outwork and -- with the right focus -- outperform just about everyone around you. You can probably learn to be twice as productive, everyday, as many people around you.
Now apply this not just to today, but to a year and to your life’s goals, and you have better tools and a better chance of reaching those goals.
But to do this you need to discipline yourself, and turn that focus into something that you make happen, rather than something that just happens to you.
Harness Your Powers
So how do you harness these tremendous powers? The following secret has been the biggest discovery and source of fulfillment in my life. Your mind, like mine, skips, but here’s the big secret: you can control where it skips!
You have one of those minds that demand something to chew on—always. It skips because you get bored easily and your mind looks around for something else to sink its teeth into. The solution: feed it nutritious challenges. Harnessing your mind begins with something as simple as making two lists of what’s important to you:
- One list for the things you need to do at work today.
- Another list for the things you want to do in life. Then learn to recognize when your mind starts to wander, and give it productive choices to latch onto from one or the other of your lists.
If you keep the focus on your day’s priorities, everything and more will get done. You won’t work any harder, but you will get more of the right things done more quickly.
Make Time for Your Mind
End each day by thinking over what you’ve been focused on, and what you have achieved on each of your two lists. Plan what you will do tomorrow and know why you will do it. Then start each day with the same goal-oriented meditation, looking for ways to streamline your activities and move forward with different projects simultaneously.
Embrace yourself for who you really are and learn to harness your very special powers of achievement to change the trajectory of your professional life. Crack the code and you really can move from frustration and failure to success and fulfillment.
