Harness your ADD and ADHD so you can kill it professionally.
By Pat King, Metro
Hyperactive disorders like ADD and ADHD have carried around
complicated stigmas. If a child is labeled with one of these syndromes,
it generally brands them as the uncontrollable spazz that disrupts
classrooms and pays no mind to the benefits of having a never-ending
well of energy. It’s a narrative that needs some reshaping and that is
exactly what entrepreneur Peter Shankman has been trying to do with his
popular podcast Faster Than Normal.
His podcast has set out to help people understand that both of these
disorders “are a gift, not a curse” and with its success he has been
able to write a new book that acts as a companion to the podcast titled Faster Than Normal: Turbocharge Your Focus Productivity and Success With the Secrets of the ADHD Brain to give more advice to those in need.
[post_ads]“When I was growing up in the 70’s and the 80’s, I was a public
school New York City Kid and ADHD didn’t exist,” remembers Shankman, “It
was ‘sit down, you’re disrupting the classroom’”. It’s a story that
many who have struggled with hyperactivity understand. Many are just now
joining the workforce and have always lived with a negative outlook on
their roadrunner style attention spans. “My weird quirks and the things
that drove my mom crazy were ways of self-medicating,” he says “I was
the class clown and what I was doing was working towards getting the
adrenaline or serotonin that my brain craves but doesn’t get because of
ADHD.”
Shankman believes that the teachers and parents that view
hyperactivity as a detriment, do not view it as the superpower it really
is. “We can hyper focus sharp enough to melt steel,” he says and with
all of his success, it’s hard to disagree with him. But with an
overactive mind, you run the risk of losing productivity or worse,
developing poisonous habits that could derail your life if they are not
corrected. For Shankman, the ground rules he has set for himself are
“eating cleanly” and most importantly cutting alcohol out of his life.
“You have to understand what your triggers are. That’s why I don’t drink
because I don't have ONE drink,” says Shankman, “I tell people I have
two speeds: ‘Namaste’ and ‘I’ll cut a bitch’.”
[post_ads_2]
So what advice does Shankman have for people who may need to focus
their wild energy in a constructive way? He believes that by depleting
your brain of its frantic energy you can clean your slate and focus with
razor-sharp attention. “Early morning exercise for me is a given. I
have to do it,” he explains. But with more monotonous situations, he has
other effective methods. “Before I go into a boring meeting I don’t
want to attend,” he says, “I’ll walk up the stairs, I’ll do 20 jumping
jacks, anything to alter that brain chemistry.”
Shankman believes that his book is not
only for people with hyperactivity disorders but for “regular people who
want to get four hours of their day back for productivity.” By
harnessing your restless energy, you can actualize your creativity and
focus on crushing it professionally. Don’t believe him? That’s how he
wrote this book. “This book,” says Shankman, “was written in two round
trips to Asia in its entirety.” With results like that, who says you
need to “sit down”?
COMMENTS