The benefit of ADHD – is there such a thing? To a degree, I believe there is. It’s hotly contested and some are very upset when the word benefit is even remotely used in conjunction with ADHD. I am not going to try and reinvent the wheel here, let’s push forward. The most obvious difficulties for ADDers have to do with standards. People with ADHD have difficulties coloring within the lines or complying with routine, predictable standards. Today’s world is all about standards and since those who have ADHD find such difficulty living within the rules of standards, they often suffer and some suffer extraordinarily. It is devastating for too many. There are Laws are in place to protect people with ADHD in certain situations, it’s gone that far.

I highly recommend several books which are written specifically about ADHD. My book, One Boy’s Struggle: A Memoir, is one of those books, – It is about my life growing up with Undiagnosed ADD and how I eventually overcame my struggles to become successful and happy in my own right - my story and the lessons learned from the hindsight of my life thus far. I have had a many ups and downs in my life, twisted roads and seemingly endless loops of taking steps forward only to find myself at the start again, or further behind. In order to get better and overcome many of my struggles I had to give up on certain things and some things I had to remain steadfast with, even when it seemed the worst was still to come.

In the last few years I haven’t been that interested in reading fiction. I guess I had lost my interest in fairy tales and things which simply are not real or actual. But for some reason I recently picked up a book called The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. I was compelled to read this book out of nowhere, can’t really explain it, but the story within The Alchemist explained the reason to me.

The Alchemist is a story about living your dreams, searching out your destiny and believing in what you can’t always see.  It’s faith really, faith in yourself and that your purpose for living has meaning. “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve your dream” is, in my opinion, the central message within The Alchemist.

It is about time that books for Adults with ADHD start becoming popular and not just popular, but relatively main stream. It’s estimated that 9 million people in the U.S. have ADHD in one form or another. That’s just what is estimated and the reality could be that several people you know personally have ADHD; it is probably more common than we realize. The fact is, and Nancy’s  book will prove it, is that real life skills (not the medications) utilized to combat the symptoms of ADHD work for just about anyone whether they have ADHD or not, actually, skills for ADHD can make people’s lives without ADHD even better, more efficient. That’s what I believe. 

Central Station Amsterdam

Joan and I spent a wonderful clear day in Amsterdam on Saturday. We had a great time and were relieved to have such splendid weather. The day before, while we were in Utrecht, it had rained the entire day. Saturday started out a little drizzly too, but by the time we reached Amsterdam the weather had cleared and the sun was breaking from the clouds.

Van-Gogh-Museum

Joan is an art history buff and the museums are always on our agenda. We have visited Amsterdam several times in the past because my family, on my mother’s side, is from Holland. This time, though, other than the Van Gogh museum we didn’t really have any other plans and spent the day walking through the city. It was great because we got to see several sites we usually do not come across.

How many books do you read a year? I read somewhere between 20 -30 and more than half usually have a close relationship in terms of what they are about. When I am trying to learn about something I can never seem to get enough information and sometimes there just doesn’t seem to be enough information in print. Hard to believe, but it’s true.

Here’s the last string of books I read and thoroughly enjoyed. I want more of the same to continue this string:

• The Google Story – David A. Vise
• Good to Great – Jim Collins
• How Dell Does it – Steven Holzner
• Small is the new big – Seth Godin
• The Apple Way – Jeffrey L. Cruikshank
• Freakonomics – Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

Hello everyone, today I would like to point out a wonderful book which is a Neat and Simple Guide to Organizing Your Home Office. As you know from reading my blog I do not promote a lot of products or have any advertisements on my site; however, this book by fellow ADDer Ariane Benefit, M.S.Ed. is about something just about all of us ADDers dread. I certainly can use a neat and simple guide for organizing. For more information you can check out Ariane’s helpful book here. Highly recommended.

+Have you tried to get organized in the past, but given up because the systems were too cumbersome to maintain?
+Do you work from home and want to get your office under control, but don’t want to spend a lot of time doing it?
+Are you looking for better ways to manage your “TO DO” Lists?
+Are you a professional organizer, or do you live with someone who is disorganized, and would like to get more insight into why people struggle to maintain organizing systems and how you can help them?