Ep. 37 ADHD and Reducing Gravity
This past week marked an interesting event for me. After 54 years of living, I got officially diagnosed with ADHD. It's clicked together some long standing puzzle pieces for me.It helps explain why......writing an email that should take 2 minutes takes me 10 minutes...even though I do get stuff done, it always feels like I'm grinding vs being in flow...once I solve the hardest problems of a challenge, I lose interest in the easy finishing stuff...I have a habit of cutting across another person sentence before they've finished it...it takes me forever to start something that requires deep thinking I suspect this has been a constant in my life. But I grew up in the 70's and 80's so it wasn't really diagnosed so much back then. And when I was younger, I had the youthful energy and drive to push through it. As I've gotten older, I've found it's harder and harder for me to focus on anything for nearly any length of time. It goes beyond the typical resistance and procrastination. The net result has been I have to work far more hours than I need to. I've found hacks over the years. For example, having to prepare for a specific event definitely gets me moving and through the resistance.But the reality is ADHD has been a huge net drag on my ability to achieve the things I'd like to in my business and life. While I have all the other challenges of business building, they are ALL impacted by this root problem of ADHD.It's been there the entire time, hiding in plain site.This is my first week on Adderall, and I'm noticing a different. I'm able to jump in to deep thinking projects easier. I'm more able to stay on task and get into flow. Stuff is a little easier.This is as great parable for our businesses. Sometimes there's a root problem that we've become so acclimated to, we don't even see it. But it's making everything we do harder.But if we address it, everything gets easier.Here's the analogy. Imagine you have a rocket. To get it to go higher, you can build a bigger engine. You will go higher, but you'll have to carry and burn more fuel (which means your engine needs to be bigger).But you can also think about ways reduce gravity. If you can go faster than if you just built a bigger engine. (And when you do build the bigger engine, you will get more out of it). In this week's Rocket Ship Founder episode, I cover: 3 ways to recognize a root problem hiding in plain site What to do once you find it (ie. reducing gravity) How to make sure you nip these problems in the bud in the future This 16-minute listen is will get you thinking about your business from important different angles.PS I have one open spot to for a Seed Stage Founder to work with me one-on-one. If you're a Seed Stage Founder needing to accelerate your progress towards your Series A, let's talk.