It’s really easy to forget to exercise, and yet, I pay for it when I don’t. My thinking is muddled and it becomes harder to focus. I’m able to focus more easily when exercising, but when i focus better, it is really easy to get absorbed in just one project. If I do this for a few days, my computer screen sits blankly in front of me, cursor blinking slowly until i realize I’m frustrated because I can’t think…if I think hard enough and long enough, it happens that I’ll realize that my heart rate hasn’t been elevated naturally. (Caffeine is not equal to exercise!)
One of my favorite pastimes is dancing. Dancing doesn’t just make me feel good but fulfills multiple core values including being social, exercise and participating in activities I’m good at.
It struck me today that I *AM* a dancer. This is a funny thought, but I’ve always thought of dancing as something I do, maybe a hobby, but I’ve never considered assigning myself the label “dancer”. Yet reading blog and Facebook status updates, I”m often listing these very words to describe myself.. Saying I AM ___fill in the blank___ is one of the most powerful phrases in our mind. It’s how you identify your self, the images you create and believe and relay your self concept to others to help them understand you. A friend recently actually described me as athletic, even though this would be one of the last words I use to describe myself. Maybe it’s time to let go of old labels and use some new ones that the world sees me as.
What labels do you use for yourself? Are they positive? Can you change any of them or should you?
I have spent a lot of time thinking about how to impose my own “structure” on life. As I am contemplating entreprenuership, how do I balance and manintain separation? So often, I want to structure my time as “now” and “not now”. I came across this excertpt again:
The roles of wife and mother add new dimensions of complexity to daily life of a woman with AD/HD. In our society, women often bear more of the responsibility for maintaining the household and raising the children. We expect the homemaker to provide organization and structure for the rest of the family members. Office jobs often have specific schedules and clear job descriptions. The home is much less structured. Tasks may not have a clear beginning or end.
It’s the clear “begenning and ending” that jumped out at me. I’ve often when I’m finding myself overwhelmed, or dissatisfied with a project, task or job, is because I don’t see an end to it. If there is an end–in a significant type of way, I might be able to push through, but finishing a task, just to have to do it over again, or something that is almost the same, often feels defeating.
In this way, something about project management work seems interesting, because if I can keep my head wrapped around the details, some of the projects do end. One thing I was starting to recognize even before I had begun to think about an ADD diagnosis was that I wasn’t good with coming up with beginnings and endings. I have tried to figure out how to impose an end, or know when something is “done.” I’m still working on this one.
ADD always makes me seek new ways to do things. One of the beauties of the web is that you can have scripts that do things automatically. I set them up once, figure them out and they fix themselves after that.Tag Clouds have fascinated me for a long time. Here’s one from Amazon. I figure this will fall off the page here soon.
I’ve been thinking about labels this weekend. I’m doing some research for a contracting position I’d really like to land and so I’ve been looking into a number of books on Autism and getting help for “disorders.”
I don’t want to minimize the importance of any help that people need or should advocate for, but after reading so much about “labels” and stereotypes, my mood is down and my thinking is trying to define me in terms of being different and not capable, which I know to be absolutely false.
Labels end up putting you in a little box, if you let them. Sometimes they are helpful to give a quick and dirty overview/summary of a situation. But labels can quickly become stereotypes. It’s kind of damaging to think of myself as the hyperactive ADD child, who is a disaster, underperforms, and has potential but can’t live up to it because they’re “lazy” or “spacey”.
I am not a label…as long as I remember it. The proof? Today while having coffee with a friend: explaining my current exploits–podcasts, a gymnastics class that I registerd for, attending an arts and social events with friends, learning to surf, and running a business, and getting ready to go back to school. She took one look at me and said, “I don’t know how you do it or find the time!”
This, from a woman who I respect highly for her time management; depth and breadth of activities; and think of as fully successful. (She works full-time as a software developer, and she an her husband also ran a restaurant and specialty food store in their free time!)
The term is handy to explain my way of thinking. I am not a lable. I define my own success. Do the same. I am not a disabled child or a labled woman.
It’s been an intense day. I’ve always been amazed at the amount of information that people manage to share with each other. I’m still processing information from a number of sources and finally things feel like there falling into the right place.
While it sounds strange to say, it seems that there is something from the universe pushing me in the right direction.
While I haven’t spent much time exploring the link between Autism and ADD, I know that I”ve heard high-functioning Aspergers and ADD mentioned in the same sentence. Here’s an article mentioning the possible DNA link:
I was lucky. School always interested me so I didn’t have the same problems as a lot of kids with attention and focus. I saw an article today while I was looking at the news about swine flu, and wondered if my life would have been different if I took meds during school.
These days, I take a low dose of medications as needed on advice of my doctor. They do improve the level and quality of work I do, but sometimes I wonder if I’ll stick with them in the long run. But, this reinforces my thoughs for now to stick with them.
As is so often the case, this first post for my new blog has been in the “to do” reminder list for over a week now. Mind you, it’s not that I don’t want to write it, it’s just that there are so many other things I”m trying to do at the same time.
What am I working on? Oh, web development, two classes, applying for a couple jobs that I want, trying to get an event put together for “It’s Worth Your While”, my women’s social-edu-working hour. (That’s social/educational/networking–duh!).
Then there’s been the fascination with technology and trying to install a event management system on my blog before I send out the event notification, and before I did that, the computer needed to be reformatted and other stuff.
I’ve finally realized that it’s not that I never get anything done, it’s that I can’t possibly finish all the projects I start, especially when I’m interested in maintaining a social life, and some sleep.
Anyway, welcome to my thoughts! Stay tuned for some interesting materials. I’m working on a ways to keep myself inspired, a podcast and also getting ready to start a coaching certificate program here in the next few months.
I’ve been thinking about labels this weekend. I’m doing some research for a contracting position I’d really like to land and so I’ve been looking into a number of books on Autism and getting help for “disorders.”
As is so often the case, this first post for my new blog has been in the “to do” reminder list for over a week now. Mind you, it’s not that I don’t want to write it, it’s just that there are so many other things I”m trying to do at the same time.