"Thrive with ADD"
IS MOTIVATION OVER-RATED?

In this Issue:

• IS MOTIVATION OVER-RATED?
  When to "Just Do It!"
• COACHING GROUP - "REACHING YOUR GOALS"
  Five Monday evenings in March - New York City

Sidebar:

• COACHING FOR ADD ADULTS
  Is Coaching for You?
• Coming Soon!
  Audio Recording, Strategy E-book, Coaching Video
• Celebrate the Difference
  Fun Illustrated Products Show Off ADD Strengths

I've felt a need lately to revisit my thoughts on the importance of motivation, when it comes to ADD. We know our brain-wiring doesn't respond to what we "should" do. Unless we're really interested in a task, we have a pretty hard time staying focused on it for any great length of time. Sometimes, we require the stimulus of a looming deadline, or last-minute panic, to goad us into action. So lacking a crisis, I've encouraged my clients to create pre-rewards to motivate their minds into beginning a task that seems dull.

A new client, Bruce, stated a realization that he had been waiting for motivation to strike so that he could begin a project that was important to him reaching his business goals. His standard rationalization for not beginning it was that he was "just not motivated." One day, he decided that motivation was beside the point. He hired a coach - not to get him motivated - but to work with him on developing strategies that would help him DO IT.

I was again reminded of motivation today after two different conversations with entrepreneurial clients who reported the strong influence of their mood on their decisions to complete stages in their plans. It's quite understandable to feel unmotivated after your sales presentation falls on deaf ears, or your manuscript is returned with a "no thank you." If you have a boss to report to - and you want to keep your job -- the structure of your organization replaces the need for motivation as a driving force. The downside of entrepreneurship is there is no one to fire you for not following through, no one who will ask whether you've entered your contact list in Outlook.

To succeed at your goals, a strategy is required that doesn't depend on motivation or your mood of the moment. So your actions for the day will be based on your long-term vision and strategies, not only on what you feel like doing. This doesn't mean the entire day has to be rigidly scheduled with no flexibility - but it probably does mean you have some firm commitments to a few steps that you will accomplish no matter what.

Committing to do a step or two towards your larger goal might mean spending an hour of time on something you're not inherently motivated to do. So your best strategy might be to split that hour up between morning and afternoon. Or find a way to make it more pleasant. You may also need to practice a different habit in that hour, in order to cut out your distractions or roadblocks. For an hour, would it really hurt to:

• Stay off email
• Turn off the phone
• Plan ahead to make sure everything you need is in place
• Remove the clutter from your desk
• Enter that task in your calendar for a specific time of day, and make yourself NOT AVAILABLE!

After you've accomplished your task, you can "reward" yourself by returning to your unmotivated mood. But you may find it's not so easy - the feeling of accomplishment itself has been known to create motivation!

Want some help with strategies to reach your goals? Read on...

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© Copyright 2003 Bonnie Mincu. The "THRIVE with ADD Newsletter" may only be redistributed in its unedited form. Written permission from the author must be obtained to reprint or cite the information contained within this newsletter.

"Coaching is a way to develop effective strategies to help you reach goals of greater performance, change or transformation in your life. Coaching will help you reach important decisions, and deal with people, events and organization in an optimal way. As an ADD Coach, I help you understand how ADD works with you in particular, so that you can work WITH your own flow and rhythm, rather than against it. You can reach goals you never thought possible!"

Visit www.thrivewithADD.com first to find out how ADD coaching works. Then, contact Bonnie to set an appointment for a free 30-minute phone coaching session.

Several affordable resources will be up on my website by the end of September.
See www.thrivewithADD.com.

"Thrive with ADD" CD / Audio Recording

Based on my popular teleclasses and New York workshop, this 74-minute recording contains all the learnings from Overview of Adult ADD, and Work, Tasks, Projects and Study. It contains strategies, anecdotes, to be used for self-observation to help you coach yourself. It's also great for helping your loved ones understand you.

Strategy E-Book:
"The Keys to Getting Started"

In a survey of my readers, you indicated Getting Started as your biggest challenge (I can relate!) So this is the first book in what will be a "Keys to..." series of strategy e-books.

Video segment on Adult ADD for Public Broadcasting

I had a short video produced on adult ADD, that will be sent to all the Public Broadcasting (PBS) stations in the U.S. in the fall.