One of the hardest things for many people with ADHD is to stick with things until they are completed. This is an executive function weakness that you can overcome with the help of a coach. To get you inspired, we encourage you to think about those times you get bored doing something you like to do. Take a page from that experience and try to apply it in one of those situations you have to stick with something you hate!
For example, imagine you have a goal of kayaking across a wide lake. You know you have the strength to do it, but you’ve never done it before. You start off all excited about your goal. It’s fun as you glide through the water but pretty soon the action of paddling over and over again starts to get boring. You look at the shore ahead and you don’t know if you’ll ever reach it. “Why did I ever want to do this in the first place?” you ask yourself. You try to push yourself to keep going, but pretty soon you’re seriously contemplating turning around and heading back.
Fortunately in this example, you’ll have to keep going somehow. So what can you do to change your attitude and get a fresh perspective? Try varying your speed. Do some slow strokes until they get boring, then do some fast ones until you get tired, then coast for a while. As long as you are heading forward, you are going in the right direction. Eventually you can see the shoreline ahead is reachable and renewed energy can push you the final distance.
Any athlete will tell you training can get boring. Varying routine, easing up at times, pushing with wind sprints, cross training – these are all techniques used to keep moving forward. You’ve probably figured out how to push past the boredom or the pain when you are exercising, what can you use from that experience in the rest of your life when boredom or inertia threatens to leave an important project unfinished?
Give this a try today and let us know what you think!