Pace yourself!

Has anyone ever told you to pace yourself? Doesn’t that sound very odd to be telling someone with ADD or ADHD? Most of the time a person with ADD ADHD is more likely to hear derogatory lazy comments and be questioned as to why he or she is so slow or uninterested. BUT, and I have capitalized the ‘but’ part, when an Adder becomes interested in something STAND BACK!

It seems every time I get interested in something which matches my talents I become immersed and it’s very hard to get me off that track. I keep going and going and going—just like the energizer bunny! This can be a very good thing and at the same time it can be not such a good thing. When we Adders become hyper focused we tend to pay less attention to other things we need to get done—that’s usually not good. In these situations I suggest a PDA with a calendar for appointments and an alarm! Seriously, if you can get yourself to put in all your appointments and tasks with an alarm you will save yourself a lot of headaches! I do it and I put in my appointments as I go. If I put off putting in my appointments, well, then it usually gets put off forever… it’s a vicious cycle. I try not to rely too much on other people to remind me because what if they forget? A good battery, a good PDA and the resolve to input the appointments is much more reliable. My outlook calendar is very helpful in this regard too.

So, what about pacing yourself when you become immersed in something? If you are an Adder and you want to get something done you must find your own pace! Pacing yourself, because someone else thinks you should, is not necessarily a good idea in my opinion. ADD ADHD is as internal as is your heartbeat and we all know you cannot set the pace of your own heartbeat. Your heartbeat has its own rhythm and beat. You have to settle for what it is and only medication can change it—same with ADD ADHD, sort of. I do my best work when I just let myself go and enjoy my hyper focused immersion. I keep going and going and going, but when I try to control it and maybe slow down the pace I usually start to lose interest and even start to make mistakes.

I think it is absolutely crucial for us Adders to not always try to circumvent our nature, especially not when we are using our innate talents for our own creative purpose. Try driving your car with the hand break up.  My latest “Positive Adder Quote of the Week” got me thinking about this and I will probably return to this subject more in the future, especially when it has to do with pacing yourself when you are facing a work deadline! Ouch! That’s when you have to learn how to turn your hyper focusing on and off like a light switch! It’s no easy feat, but with practice it can be done! Any Adder who has become an accomplished pool player can attest to this fact—I will write about how I have done it in an upcoming article!

~Bryan 

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