When my mother passed, I found a red box with all my old report cards.
It was an amazing walk down memory lane. The thing I loved most was reading the handwritten comments from the teachers.
Mrs. Jefferson had me figured out in third grade.
"Dean is able to achieve excellent results with what seems like little effort. Imagine if he applied himself."
That pretty much sums up my entire life.
Even when I discovered I had ADHD as an adult, I just thought of it as information.
But when I really started studying my friend Dr. Ned Hallowell and his colleague Dr. Russell Barkley, I had a life-changing insight.
For the first time, I was introduced to the idea of treating ADHD as a real disability — not a character defect.
No "fixing" my willpower. No "trying harder."
This shift - treating it like a disability - allows for making accommodations and setting up a support scaffolding around me.
This shift - treating it like a disability - allows for making accommodations and setting up a support scaffolding around me.
So far, this has been an amazing shift for me.
I've embraced "Imagine If You Applied Your SELF" as my secret formula...each word a step in the process.
It starts with IMAGINE. Letting myself see a vision without limitations or concern for my ability to pull it off. Just giving myself permission to imagine.
Then it moves to IF - where I start to think about the logistics of what would need to happen for this vision to be real.
This is one of the great functions our minds are built for: identifying and overcoming obstacles.
Once I have the Vision and the Logistics, the whole thing moves to the YOU column - deciding what I actually want to move to the applied side of the ledger.
The Imagining and IF-ing are all inside my mind.
The real challenge is the jump from intention to real-time action...actually applying myself.
For years, I read the word "myself" as one word and felt bad because I couldn't get myself to take action on the things I really wanted to do.
My breakthrough was separating the MY from the SELF ...and treating my SELF as something under my direction.
I use SELF as an acronym to describe the actual things I can apply:
S = Sphere. This is any tool, service or technology I'm aware of that could do this for me.
Dan Sullivan has a great question he asks when he wants something new:
"Is there a way I can get this outcome without doing anything?"
That's what examining your sphere for resources and capabilities can do...it helps move things into the applied column.
E = Energy. What are the things that require MY energy?
Once I know what needs to be done by ME in a situation, I can ask Dan's follow-up questions:
"What's the least I could do to get the result?"
"Is there a who, who can do my parts?"
L = Leadership. If I know what my vision is...and I can describe it clearly...I can enroll others to help make it real.
F = Finances. Many, many things can be done when you add finances.
If you have a problem that can be solved with money, you don't have a problem.
(Even if you don't have money...but you know someone who does, and they are enrolled in your vision...you don't have a problem.)
This framework is a work in progress for me… and so far, it's working amazingly. I'm much more excited and empowered to Imagine If I Applied My SELF.
Stay tuned...