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ADHD, Strengths & the power of ongoing growth and play
Episode 16 • 17th April 2024 • ADHD Powerful Possibilities: New and Late Diagnosis & Beyond • ADHD Coach Katherine Sanders
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ADHD Coach Katherine Sanders

In this inspiring episode of "ADHD: Powerful Possibilities," your host Katherine explores the positive aspects of ADHD, especially in the context of entrepreneurship.

From the scenic backdrop of spring in Edinburgh, Katherine explores how understanding and leveraging character strengths can significantly enhance personal and professional life for individuals with ADHD.

This episode challenges the negative stereotypes often associated with ADHD and provides listeners with actionable tools and resources to help them identify and harness their unique strengths.

Listen in for a deep dive into how these strengths can lead to exceptional entrepreneurial success and a sustainable fulfilling life, whatever the challenges ADHD might pose.

💡Get on the waitlist for my book 'ADHD Entrepreneur's Procrastination Pivot' with an exclusive discount for waitlist only. Just Click Here ⏰

Connect with Katherine here:


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VIA Character Strengths Assessment (free):

Gallup Strengths (paid)

Signup for the Possibilities Post here.

You can try out Notion for free here (affiliate link).


White, H.A., & Shah, P. (2011). Creative style and achievement in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(5), 673-677. DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2010.12.015

Barkley, R.A. (2014). Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: A handbook for diagnosis and treatment (4th ed.). Guilford Press

Seligman, M.E.P., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55(1), 5-14.

Davidson, D.J., & Kemp, A.I. (2012). The role of hyperfocus in entrepreneurial success: An ADHD phenomenon? Frontiers in Entrepreneurial Research.

Williams, J., & Kumar, A. (2023). Mediating role of self-concept on character strengths and well-being among adolescents with specific learning disorder in India. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 132, 104372. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2022.104372

Taylor, E. C., Livingston, L. A., Clutterbuck, R. A., Callan, M. J., & Shah, P. (2023). Psychological strengths and well-being: Strengths use predicts quality of life, well-being and mental health in autism. Autism. DOI: 10.1177/13623613221146440

Nocon, A. S., Roestorf, A., & Menéndez, L. M. G. (2022). Positive psychology in neurodiversity: An investigation of character strengths in autistic adults in the United Kingdom in a community setting. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 99, 102071 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2022.102071

Qin C, Cheng X, Huang Y, Xu S, Liu K, Tian M, Liao X, Zhou X, Xiang B, Lei W, Chen J. Character strengths as protective factors against behavior problems in early adolescent. Psicol Reflex Crit. 2022 Jun 1;35(1):16. doi: 10.1186/s41155-022-00217-z. PMID: 35641705; PMCID: PMC9156651.


Transcripts

Speaker:

Welcome back.

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My friend.

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It is ADHD.

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Powerful possibilities.

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I am your friend and the

host ADHD coach Catherine.

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Coming to you from a very windy.

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But sort of sunny Edinburgh as Magnolia

trees and Terri blossoms bloom.

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And suddenly spring

doesn't feel too far away.

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I loved hearing your feedback last week

aDHD and procrastination is clearly

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a hot topic, which is great news

because I have a book, which I have

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created that explains the clear method.

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And I'm really looking forward

to sharing that with you soon.

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So keep your eyes peeled for the ADHD

entrepreneurs, procrastination pivot.

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But this week, I wanted to

focus on something positive.

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And I used the word

positive intentionally.

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Because obviously there's been

a lot of negativity in the press

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about ADHD and neuro divergence.

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It feels like almost every other

week, a celebrity or a newspaper

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publishes what feels like a hit piece.

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On people with ADHD or autism,

especially those of us who

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are diagnosed later in life.

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And who may have an atypical to

the general public presentation.

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There so much negativity

around at the moment.

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I wanted to take some time

to look at strengths because

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they really really matter.

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For all humans.

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Knowing what your strengths are.

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Understanding what you are good at.

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Fills you up?

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What recharges your battery?

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What your natural gifts are.

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When you know that.

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It makes daily life easier.

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I will explain why during the course

of the episode, But when you have

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ADHD, It often feels like we're

swimming upstream against the tide.

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So knowing that you have these

strengths, think of them as.

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Secret engine on your back as you're

trying to swim against the tide or.

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An extra advantage.

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You have these strengths and

ADHD is part of you as a human

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being, but not the whole package.

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And let's remember.

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Our thoughts are things and we can

choose the ones that we believe.

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If thoughts are aeroplanes, we get to

choose the ones that land at our airport.

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And I want you to focus on.

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Ignoring the ones that make

you feel worse about ADHD.

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We know ADHD is a.

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Whole life condition.

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That is founded in a neurological

difference in your brain.

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Not the type of juice that

you have for snack time.

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It goes way beyond

attention sitting still.

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Managing our impulse control.

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All of our executive functions are

affected by the difference in our brain.

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And the difference in

our neuro transmitters.

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ADHD, isn't just about what we eat.

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Or what we watch or what games we play.

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And it affects so many people.

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Around 5% of the population globally.

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Could be classed as ADHD brains.

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But we also know that are some people who

are more affected by it in a negative way.

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But for all the negativity about ADHD.

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It's just part of our general humanity.

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We have other things going on

in our brain and in our life.

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At ADDCA we used the machine

mind and mission model.

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So your ADHD affects your machine.

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That's your brain, how it's

structured, how it functions.

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Your mind.

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are The thoughts and the beliefs that

we have about ourselves and the world

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and other people and our mission.

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Well, that's our goal, our

vision, our driving purpose.

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And if we focus too much on the

machinery, We can forget about

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the mission part of things.

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And we can forget about the mind.

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So that's one of the reasons I

want to spend some time today.

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Talking about your strengths of character.

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And your other strengths.

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Because when we focus only on

our deficits or challenge or

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disability, and ADHD is a disability.

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It's easy to lose sight of all the

great things about you as a human being.

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Some people might think, well,

people with ADHD are always creative.

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They're always resilient.

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They have all these strengths, which

are typical of people with ADHD.

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I know what anecdotally I see,

which is great resilience.

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Great creative problem solving.

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A lot of empathy.

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A lot of compassion for other

people, less for themselves.

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But what are character strengths and

how to, you know, what yours are?

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That allows me to introduce you

to the via character strengths

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assessment there are other character

strengths assessments out there.

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Via is the one that I know.

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And the one that I like.

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And it's a psychological tool

that you can do at home for free.

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That allows you to understand

what your main character strengths

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are, what your profile is.

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If you like.

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Studies are inconclusive about

whether some character strengths

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are universal for people with ADHD.

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But via have done some studies

and their research indicates

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that a group of strengths may be

more common in people with ADHD.

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And these include creativity,

which a lot of people would expect.

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enthusiasm which they describe as

zest and that I definitely can see.

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And most of my clients.

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Bravery, which I kind of wonder, I'm

not sure if that's inbuilt or because

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we have to deal with so much as people

with ADHD brains in a neurotypical world.

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And perseverance.

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Perseverance, I think is.

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Definitely something that I've seen.

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Almost universally and my clients.

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But I'm aware that could be a bias

in terms of the people who come

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for coaching and who are ready

to make changes and move forward.

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When they say creativity, They

don't mean mean, we're all

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Leonardo DaVinci or Pablo Picasso.

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Creativity in the context

of a character strengths.

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Means we're more likely to

find an innovative or unusual

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solution to a problem.

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Situation a challenge.

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We're more likely to have a

divergent way of thinking about

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a problem that other people.

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would just try and resolve the same way.

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And this is one of the reasons I

think that we tend to end up more in

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the entrepreneurial side of business.

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Or we find ways that we can

use it, whether we're at

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home or at work or in school.

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And unfortunately it may be something

that students in particular, in a

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school system where uniform answers

are required struggle with because

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they may see a new way to do things.

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That may be not what the examiner is

looking for, but certainly in business.

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There are lots of opportunities for that

new divergent, creative way to solve a

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problem that spotting the problem in the

market that other people haven't seen.

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That's definitely a strength, but it

doesn't mean you have to be artistic.

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When we're talking about enthusiasm or

zest it's not something that can show

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up really strongly for ADHD people

because of the interest involved.

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When we are involved in something

that stimulates our interest.

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You will find it, your

energy, your enthusiasm.

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Your passion for a subject.

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Quite often lead you

to achieve things that.

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Other people who don't have that character

strength that would really struggle with.

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And that is one of the reasons

that when people with ADHD are

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doing well, we can do really well.

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And it can almost feel

like, Hey, wait a minute.

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This isn't really a disability because

if I didn't have ADHD, I might not

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be able to function in this way, at

this level for this length of time.

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And that my friends is when you have to

be very careful observant, and self-aware.

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To look out for things that

may crop up like per night.

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Anyway, we're going back to

strengths because we're focusing

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on strengths rather than.

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Possible dangerous this week.

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One of the things that we often

hear about ADHD is this impulsivity.

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And I think there's two ways

to cut this on the one hand.

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Impulsivity is definitely something

that can lead to dangerous situations.

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Unmedicated teenagers for example are

much more likely to be involved in

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accident incidents, unplanned pregnancy.

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This kind of behavior.

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Impulsivity is definitely an

element of the ADHD neuro type.

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At the same time.

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We could look on it as spontaneity.

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We could also frame it as.

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Bravery that willingness to take

risks that other people may avoid.

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But which can create life changing.

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world Changing differences.

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I'm pretty sure that most

people who took a risk when you

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were inventing a new service.

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A new idea, a new machine.

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Somebody somewhere took

a risk they were brave.

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And they impulsively.

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Followed their dream.

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But at the same time, we want

to make sure that we're no.

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Romanticizing impulsivity too much.

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And spontaneity on the

one hand is a great thing.

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Not so great for when you do something

like buy a house, which I did do.

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fairly impulsively ditto.

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A car.

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Anyway.

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The final strengths that I wanted

to look at in this section.

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Is.

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Perseverance.

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now, we are always told.

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ADHD people struggle with attention.

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We struggle with focus.

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And indeed one of the presentations

of ADHD is called inattentive.

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But again, when our interest

button has been pushed.

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We are capable of focusing

and paying attention.

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For extended periods of time.

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And we often focus.

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Beyond what other people

might do because we have this

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perseverance, this dedication.

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Which aligns with our

interests and our passions.

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It's one of the reasons why.

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When I start working with clients.

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Very early on.

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I asked people to think about their needs,

their strengths, their values, and we

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create this can a map of who are you?

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Nevermind.

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The challenges that come

with your ADHD, who are you?

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When it comes to things that

you need, things that you value,

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things that you believe in.

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What are your strengths?

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And these are all really

important for you to know.

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So that instead of thinking when I

have the perfect routine or the perfect

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planner, that perfect spreadsheet.

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I'll be able to do all the

work that I have to do.

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And then I'll be happy and fulfilled

and reliable and all these great things.

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instead.

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When you are happy.

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When you are fulfilled.

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When you are aware of yourself.

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Then you will be able to do

the work that you need to do.

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And you will have discovered.

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The system that works for you.

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So turn it on its head.

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It's not what we have is who we're being.

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And when we knew who

we are, Then we can be.

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The person that we need to be.

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And want to be.

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To fulfill our vision or mission.

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And I've included a couple of papers

in the references, for example.

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The role of hyper-focus and

entrepreneurial success.

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Which is from 2012.

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And of course Seligman's

work on positive psychology.

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Which I think is really

relevant for people with ADHD.

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But you can get the links to those.

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In the show notes below.

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What I want you to do now is

think about your ADHD strengths.

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Obviously there's the via character

strengths, you can find it from

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the address in the show notes.

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Or you can just search via that's V I a.

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Character assessment.

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Because you really want to have that.

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Self-awareness.

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That comes from knowing your own

strengths and then think about how

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you have succeeded in the past.

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Are you somebody who can see patterns?

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Are you somebody who spots opportunities?

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Do you have that impulsive leap into them?

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It may not always work out.

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But I can guarantee that if you don't

take the leap, it will never work out.

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And once you knew what your strengths are.

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You've spent a bit of time

thinking back to how you've behaved

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that you may have recognized.

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Think about the kind of

environment that you need.

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For that to happen.

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Do you need to be in an office

that's fairly open where you have

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lots of people coming and going

where there's always company.

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Without body doubling happens naturally.

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Do you need to work somewhere?

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You can have these bursts

of sprints of creativity.

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Or where you have scheduled work

slots, wrote the D so that you're

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not trying to push beyond that.

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Initial four hours.

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Of productive cognition.

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One of the things that for me embodies

the ADHD paradox best is that.

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We work best generally in a cluster free

environment, but more often than no.

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ADHD people struggle with

accumulating clutter.

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And right now, after a very busy weekend,

my own workroom is very cluttered.

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So I know that tomorrow I'm going to take

an hour, I'm going to clear everything

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out and my brain will feel so much.

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More open and spacious.

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So think about.

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Is your working environment conducive

to your creative problem solving?

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Your pattern spotting your leaps,

your impulsivity or bravery.

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Your perseverance, all these

wonderful ADHD characteristics.

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And your personal strengths.

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Do you need to include something

like noise, canceling headphones.

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If you're working in a shared office,

they can be an absolute game changer.

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You might want to also think

about what kind of chair you have.

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I've seen these wonderful meditation

chairs where you can move around and sit

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and all different kinds of positions.

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For me.

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Standing up walking around or having just

a really nice, comfortable office chair.

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That's free, supportive.

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And something under my

feet, which tend to be bare.

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Are most helpful.

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And finally, the other element in

your environment is your support

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system that people around you.

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If you're working solo, if

you're an entrepreneur who

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works alone, you're a startup.

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You might want to look at something like

a coworking space most main towns or

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cities have at least one coworking option.

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But equally.

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A cafe, a library or both.

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Good choices.

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And you may also want to

find a group or a cohort.

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A mentor some system of

support that works for you.

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You may want to find yourself a coach.

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You may want to find yourself a.

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A discord group as well that you can join.

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And once you've got your strengths, your

self awareness, you found and designed

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the environment that works best you.

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Next step.

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Is.

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Reframing our challenges as opportunities.

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now.

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I want to use a quote here, which I love

from somebody called Angus Fletcher.

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Who wrote a book called story thinking.

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And he said.

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Magical thinking is ignoring reality.

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Optimism or what I call possibility.

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Optimism.

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Is engaging constructively with reality.

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Magical thinking is I will.

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Optimism is thinking I can.

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. Magical thinking is believing that if I.

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Imagine myself flying

I will reach the stars.

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Optimism is building rocket ships.

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That explode and explode until.

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Obviously one day they reached this stars.

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For me, that is what.

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Reframing our challenges as

opportunities involves, we're not

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seeing these things don't exist.

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We're asking you to think.

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Differently about the possibility.

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That these challenges are actually, An

opportunity for you to approach things.

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Radically differently.

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Obviously, there are ways

that you can do that.

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For instance, if you are somebody

who struggles with juggling

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lots of different projects.

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And prioritization is a real problem.

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How can you solve that in a way

that works with your strengths?

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If you are somebody who's very visual.

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Can you design a project management

board that allows you to see at a glance?

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What is required next?

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Can you make it fun?

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Can you make it like a Reese

track with different markers

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for each project to get past?

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Make it funny and creative and silly.

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But make it work for you.

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Maybe you're struggling with the routine

parts of your business or your job,

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whatever project you're working on.

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Once, you know, What your strengths are.

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For your past successes have involved.

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Bring them in.

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To when you're trying to.

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Solve that problem of managing

a dull routine repetitive task.

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Of course, there's the Eisenhower

matrix there's the old.

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Do delete, delegate idea.

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There's an idea that I've been

working on, which is good.

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Should encourage.

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And I will explain more

about that next week.

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That maybe.

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You can create a game, a

reward system for yourself.

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And.

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This isn't about making

up something that's fake.

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It should be a real reward and it

shouldn't involve any force because

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as soon as we try to force ourselves

to do work, It immediately becomes.

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So much heavier.

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And so much harder.

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And that creative story thinking

a possible part of our brain

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switches off and we fall into logic.

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This idea that.

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A routine task is necessary in dull.

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So I must approach it in a logical.

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Managed.

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We.

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Is one of the reasons why we get stuck.

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How can you make it?

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Fairly wild.

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Can you make it interesting.

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Can you throw in a game?

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And that brings me to the.

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Idea of continuing to grow

and experiment and play.

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When we stop trying to

grow and learn and plea.

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Our brains will inevitably get bored.

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And we will.

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Maybe find that our work isn't

as exciting as it used to be.

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We may distract ourselves.

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Looking at the phone more.

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Looking at various websites more and maybe

going to the snack cupboard a bit more.

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When we find we delay starting work

because we're no longer experiencing

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the reward that we once had.

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Because we're not giving

ourselves time to grow and learn.

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Both about ourselves and then

applied that to our work.

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And one of the ways that I manage

this is constantly learning.

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I'm start a positive psychology

course training in social skills

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for autistic teens and young adults.

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This continuous development.

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It's not about adding more

things to my coaching.

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It's about learning things that are

interesting and that connect with

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the things I passionately care about.

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And there are things that will work

and things that won't work for you.

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But if you don't keep learning

and experimenting and growing.

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Then you're not giving your

brain your opportunity to

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do the problem solving part.

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Which ADHD brains are better at doing.

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We always finish with some practical

tools and strategies that you can

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take away and work on this week.

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So obviously first up is the via

character strengths assessment.

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It's something I've

done a couple of times.

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And what I've noticed is that.

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My top two or three might move

around depending on what I'm

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doing, but they're always up there.

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So it's highly recommended, but there

are other ones you might want to try it.

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Like the strengths finder.

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.

These are linked to in the show notes and I'll put them together and my

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newsletter for this week as well.

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That comes out every Wednesday.

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It's called the possibilities post.

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And I try to keep it to

under one minute of reading.

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That is one of the educational resources

you might want to access to think about.

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What are my strengths?

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How can I develop them?

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What do I need in an environment that is

going to support me to do my best work?

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For books as well as resources.

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I don't think you can go wrong with ADHD.

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2.0.

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:

Or driven to distraction.

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Both served by Dr.

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Ned Hallowell and John Ratey.

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And of course the other books I

always recommend is still distracted

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after all these years by Dr.

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Kathleen Nadeau.

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. Other things that might help

you when it comes to keeping

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track of your strengths and.

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Bringing all your information

together so that you can then.

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Tease out the things that work for

you, the strategies, the tools.

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The project management side of things,

especially if you're in business.

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Our visual planner tools.

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I've spoken about these a bit before.

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There are hundreds of them.

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Personally, I love notion I have

a digital template coming out soon

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with some really wonderful tools and

it's laid out in a way that I find.

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Very efficient.

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For ADHD business orders.

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But I also love just using my whiteboard.

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My notion template on my planner pad,

which Tracy Otsuka mentioned years ago.

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I've been fabulous for me in terms

of creating a visual structure.

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And a collection of tools.

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The allow me to use those ADHD

strengths, lead creative problem solving.

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And thinking visually for

me, that's really important.

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And obviously things like

coaching workshops, education.

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These can all be really powerful when it

comes to understanding your strengths.

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Using them in a

constructive, positive way.

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And allowing you to continue

that growth and development.

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Whoever you are, and if you're in

business, if you're an entrepreneur,

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have a new 12 week program specifically

for building that wonderful

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:

foundation and taking you through.

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The tools that I use for

ADHD business owners.

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Because one of the most

powerful things you can do.

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Apart from understanding yourself

as connecting with other people

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:

and having a supportive group.

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That has that has that

neurodivergent edge.

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But also allows you the

freedom and the framework.

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To develop who you use your

own strengths to get your work

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:

done and take you forward.

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:

Once we understand our strengths.

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We can start to focus on those.

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:

More than our deficits or weaknesses or.

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However we choose to name the

things that are difficult in life.

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And that matters.

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:

Because what we focus on is what grows.

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So I'm asking you this week

to focus on your strengths.

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Let me know when you've done

the via assessment and what

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your top two or three are.

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If you recognize them.

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:

And how you're going to apply them

to a challenging area in your life

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or how you can remember to use some

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:

the next time.

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:

Things get tricky

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again, thank you so much for your time.

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And I love hearing

feedback from listeners.

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If you want to get in touch

with me, you can email me or you

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can contact me on social media.

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And I'm wishing you a very successful

and strengths filled week ahead.

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Take care of yourself until next time.

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