Updated: Sep 1
Boost Your Focus by Understanding Your Brain
“I just can’t seem to focus and get my work done!”
“I feel so scattered right now.”
“I don’t even know what I did today.”
Sound familiar? Clients often come to me with challenges of time and productivity. They’re frustrated with themselves and feel that they can’t get their stuff done. This view comes with a heavy dose of self-judgment and often completely glosses over all they are doing. However, when I hear challenges of focus and time mentioned repeatedly, I get curious about possible neurodiversity.
Merriam-Webster defines neurodiversity as "Individual differences in brain functioning regarded as normal variations within the human population." The coaching program I graduated from, Coach Approach Training, was founded by two amazing coaches Denslow Brown and Cameron Gott, who also happen to have ADHD. Neurodiversity awareness and education is built into every part of the program and is foundational to the way Coach Approach graduates work with their clients.
When we speak of neurodiversity we can be referring to ADHD and executive function challenge as well as other brain-based differences, but even if you don’t identify as neurodiverse, we can all benefit from understanding our brains better. To be clear, I am not a mental health professional or physician and do not diagnose clients. My goal in discussing possible neurodiversity with clients is to help them get curious about their brains and how their wiring may be impacting their experience.
When we bring curiosity to our experience, we start to build awareness around the things that will set us up for success such as:
Voicing Your Values: knowing what you value and why is the North Star of coaching. Keeping these values in mind helps move you toward your big-picture goals.
Focusing on Strengths: recognizing the things you’re already amazing at (that you likely take for granted) helps you start using them to your advantage.
Uncovering Modality Preferences: finding the situations in which you function best helps build awareness about your wiring and design informed actions.
Building Supportive Routines: we all have routines, but not all of them are supportive. To function our best it’s helpful to identify and build upon routines in our life that are supportive of our goals.
My question for you: Are you curious if ADHD is at play in your life? If so, I highly recommend checking out the resources below.
ADHD RESOURCES:
Translating ADHD Podcast - I like this episode about the barriers to journey thinking.
This is a great podcast created by two ADHD coaches (who also have ADHD). Cam happens to be my mentor coach and teacher. I recommend starting around episode 185 where they do a series of shows about ADHD and the coaching process. This podcast can help supercharge your learning as a coaching client!
ADDA is a community and resource for adults with ADHD. It has many facilitated support groups for all kinds of adults with ADHD.
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