#069: In this episode, I share a mental model that has positively changed my life with ADHD. I discuss the challenges I faced, feeling dumb and struggling with procrastination. I explain how I shifted my mindset and started seeing tasks as opportunities instead of annoying duties. By choosing to approach tasks with gratitude and a positive attitude, I found that they became easier and even enjoyable. I encourage you to try this approach and see how it works for your ADHD brain. Enjoy listening!
ADHD POWER LINKS
Sources Used in This Episode:
Timestamps
(00:00:00) Introduction
(00:01:02) Struggles with ADHD
(00:03:14) Shifting Mindset
(00:06:43) Building Identity
(00:13:38) Embracing Unconventionality
(00:16:08) Discipline and Productivity
(00:17:40) Mindset Shift for Thriving with ADHD
(00:19:55) Gratitude and Perspective
(00:21:51) Concrete Example
(00:25:06) Making Tasks More Exciting
(00:26:02) Recap and Conclusion
#069: In this episode, I share a mental model that has positively changed my life with ADHD. I discuss the challenges I faced, feeling dumb and struggling with procrastination. I explain how I shifted my mindset and started seeing tasks as opportunities instead of annoying duties. By choosing to approach tasks with gratitude and a positive attitude, I found that they became easier and even enjoyable. I encourage you to try this approach and see how it works for your ADHD brain. Enjoy listening!
ADHD POWER LINKS
Sources Used in This Episode:
Timestamps
(00:00:00) Introduction
(00:01:02) Struggles with ADHD
(00:03:14) Shifting Mindset
(00:06:43) Building Identity
(00:13:38) Embracing Unconventionality
(00:16:08) Discipline and Productivity
(00:17:40) Mindset Shift for Thriving with ADHD
(00:19:55) Gratitude and Perspective
(00:21:51) Concrete Example
(00:25:06) Making Tasks More Exciting
(00:26:02) Recap and Conclusion
The most successful ADHDers in the world see ADHD as a superpower. This podcast, adhd Power, is my attempt to document the many failures and lessons I've learned on my journey of living a high performance life with ADHD. My hope is that you use these lessons to increase your productivity and maybe someday soon, turn your ADHD into a valuable asset in your life. Please share and enjoy A small change made my ADHD days so much better. In this episode, I want to share a mental model with you that has positively changed my life and the way I tackle difficult and annoying tasks as someone with ADHD. I first came across this approach in 2021 from productivity YouTuber Ali Abdel, and he, in turn, got this idea from a blog article by author Seth Godin. By the way, you can find the links and sources mentioned down below in the description. Now, addressing annoying tasks with this new mindset I will share with you has positively changed the quality of my days and the way I think about work and life in general. So let's get started, guys. So living before with ADHD was pretty, pretty tough. Living with ADHD was tough, especially in the time while I was doing at high school, especially then, and also when I started my university degree my bachelor's degree at the University of Basel was there as a freshman. It was quite challenging and one challenge that came up was I felt dumb, I felt stupid, like I'm not as smart as others, I don't have enough intelligence, and that was really a limiting belief of myself. And, interestingly, I started to identify with this limiting belief or identity. And I give you a concrete example. I was, for example, speaking over myself that I'm not good at math and I really started to think that I'm, in general, not good at math and that really set me. That was like following a fixed mindset. But over time, over the time, I realized that speaking things like that over myself doesn't serve me anything or it doesn't help me to live up to my full potential. So I stopped speaking things like that over myself. That doesn't serve me. So I had really those limiting beliefs and sometimes also nowadays I have them, but most of them I could really overcome with a growth mindset.
Speaker 1:But that was simply my first struggle. I felt dumb, I felt stupid, like I don't have enough intelligence, for example, to do my do university. On the other hand, I put things off, I was procrastinating. Yeah, I told myself I can do it tomorrow. And I give you an example. Especially when I started university as a freshman, I told myself I will do it next day, I will do the task the next day.
Speaker 1:But the point was really I told myself that because I was so overwhelmed by the amount of work that laid in front of me so many tasks that I need that needs to get done in order to pass my exams and also I had this fear failure. I was stressed out and especially in that time I was really struggling with depression, which was quite difficult. I couldn't focus so good. It was quite a hard time and I wanted actually to be disciplined to an end. To a certain degree I was, but in the end I only passed three out of five exams in my first semester. But I knew I am capable of way more.
Speaker 1:So I was procrastinating in that time because of that feeling fear failure, overwhelm and also depression. So procrastination was definitely a challenge, and the next one was definitely also overthinking. I told myself, why did I say something silly like this, especially when it comes to or came to, conversations, and that was sometimes pretty, pretty demanding for my brain. I was thinking for days about insignificant conversations, like why I said that why I said something stupid like this. So to a certain degree I was an overthinker, which is now part of my old identity.
Speaker 1:But you see, I really had those limiting beliefs. I procrastinated, I was overthinking and this made me really sad and stressed to a certain degree, especially when I had, in my first semester, those big exams, big university exams, because I knew I'm capable of more. But something is holding me back. It's like going through life with the handbrake constantly on. Yeah, something is holding me back. Now, time passed and nowadays I see my ADHD as something really really special. I see it nowadays as a trait, as a unique character, traits or trait, a gift that enriches my life, when I really stopped thinking that it is a disability or something bad at all. It's something to be grateful for. Because, as and why is this so important for me personally to think positively about my ADHD? It is because, you know, I read in the book of James Clear.
Speaker 1:In the book Atomic Habits, he wrote something like research has shown that once a person believes in a particular aspect of their identity, they are more likely to act in alignment with that belief. So, to bring that point home, to drive that point home, if I think I have a disability, I'm more likely to act in alignment with that belief that I have a disability. But if I think I have a superpower, that's a way different approach. It's a more strength-based approach and that in my life definitely helped me a lot. And in general, I think this identity, thought or identity in general is a crucial thing. Because I wrote, I read in Atomic Habits that identity simply means repeated being. So something that we are doing over and over again builds up our identity. Like, for example, if I want to become an athletic person, if I do sport, if I eat healthy and so on, I will, that will become my identity. Yeah, that's my identity. Then in the end, so something that I do multiple times, a lot of time, becomes my identity and that was a huge realization for me.
Speaker 1:And it was also a realization that I need to be really careful when it comes to my words, what I speak over myself. Is it actually helping me if I tell myself I'm not good at math? And I realize it's not helping me at all Because, interestingly, once I stopped saying things like that over myself, I started to thrive in mathematics, because I'm nowadays doing my master's degree at an elite university in general management in Switzerland and I have pretty decent grades. I'm doing, I'm pretty successful at it, and also, when it comes to math calculations, I'm not struggling at all. I'm actually doing a pretty good job, yeah, or at least I try to give my best, but the results speaks for themselves. I would say yeah, and the point here is being careful. What we speak over ourselves is, I guess, so crucial, and that's also a little bit connected with I'm really careful which kind of content I consume.
Speaker 1:I actually realized and that it's quite interesting because sometimes I got asked during that time, when you struggle with ADHD and when you change your life, what was the content you most consumed? And in my case it was not ADHD content at all. I didn't specifically consume ADHD content in that time. It was more self-help books, like, for example, I was reading seven habits of highly effective people. I was reading atomic habits. I was reading books of, for example, jordan Peterson, 12 Rules for Life or Beyond Order, but especially 12 Rules for Life, for example. And it was not the ADHD content directly, but I simply started to take responsibility over my life. I was figuring out ways how I can thrive. I was watching YouTube videos of, for example, youtuber Ali Abdal, this productivity YouTuber that helped me tremendously to live a productive and healthy life. For example, I started to read a lot of self-help books. I was researching a little bit and I got some recommendations. Ali Abdal was recommending some things, other successful people and I was reading that literature and for me, that was my path.
Speaker 1:For example, how I figured out how to live best with my ADHD brain or how I can overcome those challenges, and I guess that is also pretty important to mention in general Like to figure out a little bit Euro, let's say, unique way of how dealing with ADHD, and maybe not always. If something tells you you should do X, maybe it's something else what you can do, because every brain is a little bit unique, and sometimes it's also cool if you hear a strategy or a tip or a tactic. Take responsibility, make it work for your ADHD brain. Maybe you can change certain things, you can alter it a little bit that it works for you. Yeah, so with that, I simply want to share with you I'm nowadays pretty, pretty careful what I consume, especially to the ADHD content, because most of it what I realized is sometimes pretty limiting or is really focused on this identity Because I hear things like we are not good at X, we are not good at Y, and I also did that in the past and maybe I will do it in the future.
Speaker 1:But I try to remind myself always like, hey, if I tell, if I say I'm not good at X, I already identify with that. But I can say something. If I really want to say something, I could maybe say I have the tendency for Y, like, for example, I have the tendency to be impulsive, or I have the tendency to struggle with focus, because then we don't entirely identify ourselves. Yeah, we are aware of our struggles and maybe we can find ways to improve that and have really a growth mindset is for that Purpose is really, really helpful. So that was simply a short deep dive. Which kind of content I consume in those days when I really started to change my life and was mostly General self-help books like, for example, atomic habits, the seven habits of highly effective people.
Speaker 1:What else I've read? Yeah, jordan Peterson books were also great. That helped me tremendously. Oh, a great one is, of course I have it here next to me man search for meaning from Victoria Frankel, a wonderful book. I learned so much of that book as well and, yeah, that's maybe, maybe that will help you.
Speaker 1:Nowadays, of course, I'm reading a lot about ADHD also, since I coach my clients. Obviously I all my life is about ADHD. I figure out how to live best for myself with ADHD and also to pass that knowledge to my clients, that they can thrive with ADHD, and but I found really the point here is really to find a good mixture between ADHD content, like books, for example, and other content that is not directly related to ADHD but Related to self-improvement in general. I would say, yeah, because you have so many great books, because the point is really I learned sometimes I have feeling I learned more about how to thrive from non and that's actually fact. I learned more sometimes to live a good life with ADHD from non ADHD content, which is sometimes quite interesting, but that's everybody's a little bit different. In my case, it was like that Long story short and the point I wanted to make here simply yeah, we ADHD years can have some struggles, as I, yeah, and we need to be careful what we speak about, about over ourself, or at least that's what I figured out for myself.
Speaker 1:Now let's start to focus a little bit on the positive aspects and later I will share this mental model I promised. Promised you in the beginning. Now, nowadays, I see my ADHD really as something special, as a strength, as a power, because I give you three strength of my ADHD, or of my personality more precise. Well, quick, guys. You guys maybe know that we don't run any ads through this podcast, so the only ask that I have for you guys is that you help me spread the word to help more working Professionals and entrepreneurs with ADHD or come procrastination, be more productive, have their life in order and use their superpower to make the world a better place. And the only way we do that is if you could rate, review and share this podcast. So the single thing that I ask you to do is just leave a review. That takes you 10 seconds, or one click with your thumb. That would mean a lot to me and, more importantly, it may change someone else's world.
Speaker 1:It is sensitivity. For example, I notice small things when I talk with people. Yeah, that's a wonderful gift. Imagine like many ADHD has have this gift of. If we speak with other people, we see small details that are crucial for a conversation that maybe other people can't see, but we can see them a Incredible, valuable gift. That's also the reason why many successful sales people are ADHD years. That's also quite interesting and also in my case now I got called from some people good, a good listener, empathic or charismatic. I'm really grateful for those compliments, but point is, sensitivity, I would say, is a strength of fine, also Creative problem-solving.
Speaker 1:As you know, many of us with a tree, we are highly creative people, ideas all the time. We can start a new business we can do, xy said, and in my case I really can think through tough stuff and especially entrepreneurship is a great thing for my ADHD brain because like that I can really leverage or use the skill of Complex problem-solving. And, as you know, the best entrepreneurs on this planet have ADHD. I would say so many greater wonderful people like Richard Branson, like Ikea founder Neilerman and so on and so forth Bill Gates, you name it and interesting. A quick side note here If you have ADHD you are 300% more likely to start your own business.
Speaker 1:Only that's quite interesting and of course that's also to relate it to our own, I would say, this unconventional aspect that goes along with our personality that many ADHD years have. Like we are unconventional people. We sometimes do exactly the opposite what many other people are doing, like in my case, I try to build up a big, big business to help as much ADHD years, other ADHD years as possible, to overcome procrastination, to establish consistent productivity. Yeah, and in my case, I work really, really long hours. I optimize a lot of things in my life and the cool thing is oftentimes I find myself that I'm doing exactly the opposite that many other people are doing. Like I'm eating healthy. Many people are not eating healthy. Or I don't do party. So many people are going out on Saturdays and drinking. I don't do that or almost never do that. I stopped entirely, almost. And because my sleep, for example, is crucial for myself, yeah, sleeping on the weekends in 8 30, waking up in 4 30 in the morning currently, yeah, the point I'm making here simply is, yeah, sometimes doing the ADHD year can be a little bit unconventional Definitely also in my case. I would say it is the case.
Speaker 1:Another thing is, I would say, discipline. That sound may be a little bit counterintuitive because many ADHD are struggling with discipline, but in my case, once I really started to understand myself and how I work best and what I need to do in order to leverage my unique brain. Then I could thrive and I could be disciplined, and I could be disciplined to a level that nowadays I work crazy long hours, but not it is like a burn for me. I love doing that. It's an active decision. I exactly want to spend my time like that. I want to be disciplined, show up every single day as an entrepreneur, serve best my clients over the liver like crazy working. So having one, two, three hours, one on one cause with my clients, I help them so much because I simply want to over deliver. I want to make this world a better place, yeah, and as an entrepreneur, I can really express that and I love that.
Speaker 1:But this discipline also shows up, like, for example, with this podcast. Maybe you can see the history since more than a year I publish every single week and episode, but also my past podcast, many weeks. I'm actually on both podcasts, if that, if you count that up, I'm I have 130 weeks in a row. I'm publishing every week at least one episode. But also on my social media you can see it. I publish seven days a week when I work out. I've worked out five days a week since 2019 summer I guess more than four years now eating healthy, the same. And I don't say I also struggle with certain things, that's not what I'm saying here. But or I also struggle with certain things. The point here is my ADHD or that strength of discipline is really started to be become really strong once I understood my unique brain and how I work best with it. Yeah, so three cool things about my ADHD sensitivity, creative problem solving and discipline.
Speaker 1:So now, long story short. I share with you already a few things. Now we will come to the major thing here Now, this little mindset shift that tremendously improved my life as someone with ADHD and that actually could thrive. And it's a fundamental part of my entire productivity system to live a healthy and productive life, and it is half to versus get to. So what changed everything in my life? With ADHD?
Speaker 1:I start to think about work and life differently Nowadays. Now I see tasks as a special chance, or special chances, not annoying duties. I tell myself if I'm faced with something difficult, I get to do these things, not I have to. And I remember that I'm lucky, because not everyone can do what I do. When I don't want to do something, I say to myself I'm lucky to have this work. I choose to do it and not everybody or everyone has the chance. And this small thinking switch made my ADHD life so much happier. Simply saying I get to do instead of I have to do, because if I say I get to do something, I'm grateful for it. It's a huge privilege to do the work I'm doing.
Speaker 1:For some people, working a lot is like I have to do that, but that's not my life philosophy. I'm more a supporter in my life of work life alignment, that work life everything is aligned. I don't see life as a separate thing of work life balance. I like work life alignment, that everything is aligned with my core values, because obviously I spend a major part of my days working and I want to really that this is aligned with my core values. Because what I definitely don't want I don't want an average life, I don't want a normal life. That's not my way of living. I want an exceptional life, a life that is worth living. I'm looking forward to it every single day and of course it gets challenging, that's clear. But the point is, every single day I'm looking forward to it and I have a little practice what I'm doing in the morning, always when I wake up currently in 430.
Speaker 1:The first thing what I do is I'm grateful. I tell myself, really I'm grateful to leave this wonderful life, to have this privilege to be born in Switzerland. Yeah, now to do an internship in the US, one of the richest country in the world. That's a huge, huge privilege and I'm so grateful for it. And I actively tame myself Each day. And that's also the reason why I have this incredible desire to do something productive in my life, because I have sometimes this feeling of if I don't use my time in a productive manner, like A lot of people, they want to do exactly the same thing, but I don't have the opportunity. And I have this opportunity. I have a fit, healthy body. I have a loving of loving people around me, my family, my wonderful girlfriend. I'm so grateful for I can't describe that in words how grateful I am for that and why not?
Speaker 1:And then, or what I want to say, it's so then it would be like not nice not to use this wonderful opportunity and therefore, really, I want to make sure that I get the most out of my life, that I do something productive, make maybe this world a little bit better by doing something productive because every second I do something stupid, like would go out or Whatever I have this feeling of I shouldn't do that, you know, and of course that can, to a certain degree, can get a little bit, let's say, extreme, but what I actually realized is it's average people Will achieve average results, but extreme people achieve extreme things. It's like you can't expect abnormal results if you're doing normal things. That's something lessons I feel, or lesson I've learned from novel that we can't Quite. Interesting person, investor, startup, founder I would say incredible, intelligent, intelligent gentleman at the same time. At a point I'm making here, being grateful for the things I'm doing, tremendously improve my life, saying I get to instead of I have to. Now let's get a little bit more precise and I give you a concrete example how you can apply that.
Speaker 1:Apply that to your ADHD work days. So let's assume it's five PM at work and you're packing up your stuff to go home and at the last second your boss comes and asks you to do a short, annoying task. Maybe it's also a longer one, who knows? Now you have two ways to approach this task. You might say to yourself oh no, I have to do this now. You might be in a bad mood, thinking why did he give me this annoying task at the last second? Maybe you're also tired from the work day and just want to go home. And all the while you are doing then the task, you're in that bad mood and feel it's taking an incredible long time because you tell yourself I don't want to go home, I want to go home, I want to go home. And that's when the negative self talk common with ADHD kicks in. Yeah, but there's also a much more pleasant way to handle this situation. From my point of view. You could tell yourself I get to do this now or I'm allowed to do this. A significant difference, right? If you tackle the task keeping in mind that it is a privilege to do it, you might find it much easier.
Speaker 1:Do the task with a smile and be thankful that you get to do it. And doing with a smile is task, from my point of view, is crucial. We think we should only smile when something external happens, but we can also do the opposite simply smiling without a reason. It makes me feel happier and enjoy doing things more. And I give you an example when I'm actually practicing that when I finish my workdays yeah, I had a long workday. It was tough, it was hard work, but I loved it. And then I simply smile while I'm working to the gym because I had now a great workday and I'm smiling, I'm grateful for it, and now I'm going to work out, which is also great. So I'm simply smiling and telling myself actually it's a wonderful life. I'm capable to do all those things, I have a healthy, fit body, I can move, I can do sport and, at the same time, follow the things I truly love in my life, and that was really a huge one for me. Simply smiling without a reason, yeah, and especially, I would say, in those situations where everything like everything, is terrible, then you, then I realized smiling that makes a huge difference.
Speaker 1:So, coming back to the major mental model here, that is, simply I get to instead of have to, it's a simple redefinition of how you handle such situations, like you get a, let's say, annoying task in five PM, but a whole new perception of work and how you can deal with supposedly annoying tasks. And I have made this a routine for many of the annoying tasks I undertake because I always sometimes I have tasks to do that are a little bit, maybe less enjoyable than others, and that's fine. But I can find ways how to make it more exciting, and that's crucial for our ADHD brain. How can I find ways to make that overall experience more nice, that I really am looking forward to it? And even if I don't manage to approach every task this way, each time I succeed and remind myself that I get to do it, not have to, it becomes much easier and even enjoyable. It's a way to tackle annoying tasks which could potentially improve the quality of your days. So you can try it out and see how it works for your ADHD brain.
Speaker 1:So we covered quite a lot in this episode. What is now what we've covered and what is now the major takeaway for you? So first of all, I share with you some past struggles of mine feeling stupid, procrastination, overthinking. I talked about ADHD and identity, my journey, how to thrive with ADHD. Especially in that moment where I changed my life and could start to really use my full potential, I didn't consume too much ADHD content. That's my ADHD journey.
Speaker 1:Later on, I started to read more about it, which was also quite interesting. Every ADHD journey is a little bit unique, or is unique, not a little bit. And then I share with you three strength of my ADHD sensitivity, creative problem solving and discipline. And then I share with you a simple mindset shift how we can approach tasks, and the major takeaway now here for you is simply the next time you are faced with something you find difficult, or it's annoying, or you don't want to do, you simply tell yourself I get to do this instead of I have to do this. So thank you so much for listening to this podcast. I'm so grateful for your support and see you maybe in the next episode. Bye, bye.