The Mindset Mentor - Unleashing the Power of Your ADHD Brain

Episode Date: February 26, 2024

First off, let's debunk the myth that ADHD is a disorder. It's just a different way of being, like having curly hair or being super tall. I'm all about embracing what makes us unique, and ADHD is no exception!We're breaking down the three main traits of ADHD: inattention, distractibility, and hyperactivity. But get this—these so-called "problems" can actually be our greatest strengths when we know how to use them.Think about it: inattention just means we're not into boring stuff. When we're passionate, though, we're like laser-focused superheroes! And distractibility? That's just our curiosity at work, leading us to brilliant ideas and outside-the-box thinking.And hyperactivity? It's our boundless energy fueling us to go after our dreams with gusto! I'm talking sports, dance, creative projects—anything that lights us up and gets us moving!So, let's ditch the stigma and embrace our ADHD awesomeness. It's not about fitting into some mold—it's about owning who we are and using our unique traits to make magic happen.📺 Watch this Episode on Youtube The Mindset Mentor™ podcast is designed for anyone desiring motivation, direction, and focus in life. Past guests of The Mindset Mentor include Tony Robbins, Matthew McConaughey, Jay Shetty, Andrew Huberman, Lewis Howes, Gregg Braden, Rich Roll and Dr Steven Gundry.If you like this episode… Make sure to share it with someone that needs to hear it and help us get the message out there so that together we can help make people’s lives better and make the world a better place. And BY THE WAY:My first book that I’ve ever written is now available. It’s called LEVEL UP and It’s a step-by-step guide to go from where you are now, to where you want to be as fast as possible.Within its pages, you'll discover powerful insights and practical steps that will revolutionize the way you approach your goals, personal motivation, and mental focus.📚If you want to order yours today, you can just head over to robdial.com/book Here are some useful links for you… If you want access to a multitude of life advice, self development tips, and exclusive content daily that will help you improve your life, then you can follow me around the web at these links here:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robdialjr/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@robdial?lang=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/themindsetmentee/Or visit my Youtube page that is designed specifically for anyone desiring motivation, direction, and focus in life: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHl3aFKS0bY0d8JwqNysaeA Want to learn more about Mindset Mentor+? For nearly nine years, the Mindset Mentor Podcast has guided you through life's ups and downs. Now, you can dive even deeper with Mindset Mentor Plus. Turn every podcast lesson into real-world results with detailed worksheets, journaling prompts, and a supportive community of like-minded people. Enjoy monthly live Q&A sessions with me, and all this for less than a dollar a day. If you’re committed to real, lasting change, this is for you.Join here 👉 www.mindsetmentor.com My first book that I’ve ever written is now available. It’s called LEVEL UP and It’s a step-by-step guide to go from where you are now, to where you want to be as fast as possible.📚If you want to order yours today, you can just head over to robdial.com/bookHere are some useful links for you… If you want access to a multitude of life advice, self development tips, and exclusive content daily that will help you improve your life, then you can follow me around the web at these links here:Instagram TikTokFacebookYoutube

Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor podcast, the number one mindset podcast in the entire world. I'm your host, Rob Dial. If you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so that you never miss another podcast episode. If you're out there and you love this podcast, do me a real quick favor. Just give us a rating and review on whatever platform you listen to us on. It actually helps us grow and to have more people who have never heard of this before actually discover this podcast. Today, we're going to be talking about your ADHD, and I'm going to be talking to you and teaching you how to actually use your super-powered brain. And before we dive into it, I want to talk about it this way first.

If you do have ADD or ADHD and you've actually been diagnosed, not self-diagnosed, like, oh my gosh, I'm so distracted all day long. I have ADD. That's not false. That's not true. That's completely false. You need to go and see somebody. If somebody does say that you have ADD, I'm going to just tell you this.

The whole view of ADD and ADHD in the world is completely false it's completely wrong you know ADHD means it's a disorder it's a disorder in some sort of way which means that it is not right it is wrong is the way that it's viewed in the world

and it's not a disorder it is a trait you know some people that you meet in the world. And it's not a disorder. It is a trait. You know, some people that you meet in the world are calm. Some people have lots of energy. Some people in this world are outgoing. Some people are shy. Some people have brown hair. Some people have blonde hair. Some people are tall. Some people are short. But none of those are disorders. They're just traits that somebody has. are short, but none of those are disorders. They're just traits that somebody has. You know, like for me, I'm six foot two. The world is different for me than it is for someone who's five foot one. But it's also different for me than it is for someone who's seven foot tall. None of those are good. None of those are bad. They are just traits of us as humans. They just are. So we need to be able to work with who we are.

So for instance, I'm 6'2". Imagine if I was like, oh my God, this is stupid. I want to be seven feet tall. I don't know why I'm seven feet tall. And the person who's seven foot tall is like, I don't want to be seven foot tall. I want to be five foot one. This is stupid. Why am I seven feet tall? It's just, it is what it is. So to fight with it is ridiculous. So what we have to do is we have to say, okay, this is who I am. How can I use this thing for good? So if you do have ADD or ADHD, cool, let's work with it. Because when you learn how to work with it and you don't see it as, oh, this is a disorder, there's something wrong with me, you actually find that it's your superpower. And the way to think about it, I've been that it's your superpower. And the way to

think about it, I've been doing some research on this. And one of the doctors that I found is an expert in ADHD. He's got ADHD himself. And so he teaches how he works with children and how he works with adults who have ADHD. And he says, here's the way that you want to think about it, as simple as possible. You've basically been given a Ferrari brain. A Ferrari is not good. A Ferrari is not bad. But a Ferrari brain goes super fast and it can think a million things at once. And it only becomes a problem when you need to hit the brakes or slow down or stop, or you don't know how to steer and you don't know how to use it. So it's like, we've all seen the videos of somebody who doesn't know how to drive a Ferrari. They turn the corner,

they hit the gas, and because they're turning the corner and the gas at the same time, they slip, they lose control, they slam into another car, right? But we also know people who could drive a Ferrari and never crash, and people who go even faster, like F1 drivers, who are able to harness the power of the car that they're in. It's the same thing for your brain. Can you harness the power of the brain that you have? You know, if you use the Ferrari brain correctly, it will become your superpower. And so when you look at ADHD, there's three main symptoms of ADHD that we're going to go over. The first one is inattention. And so if you have inattention, that's something that say you could obviously have ADHD. Distractibility is another one in

hyperactivity. And I'm going to go through all three of these and I'm going to show you how they've been said that, oh yeah, these are not good. Which basically means like disorder means like you're not like the herd. You're not like everyone else. But when you flip them on their head, you actually find that every single one of these, if used correctly, can be really, really good for you. They can become your superpower. And so we can look at inattention and we can say inattention. Okay, what is that?

That's to drift away from tasks that don't interest you much. And so it's been found that the people who have, who have ADHD, it becomes very hard for them to focus when they're doing something that they don't like to do, or they're doing something that's very similar to what they've been doing. So, you know, if their job is the same thing over and over and over and over and over again, it's going to be really hard to have attention and to focus onto something. And so what's interesting though, is even though when we think of ADD, we think, oh yeah, not able to focus. Well, what's interesting is when you find somebody who has ADHD and they find something that they love, something that

they're passionate about, they actually have stronger levels of focus than someone who does not have ADHD. It's also called hyper-focused. That's what they call it. Someone who has ADD or ADHD who uses, who goes and uses their brain and they do something they absolutely love, like say they just love art. When they do art, their brain is hyper-focused to a level that the average person can't get to. And so we can say, oh, inattention is a problem. It's not really a problem. It's just showing you that you don't like what you're doing with your life or you don't like how you're currently spending your time right now so if you're distracted often and you have ADD or ADHD you're just not doing something that you enjoy and so inattention is basically showing you you're not doing something you enjoy so here's the cool part

of inattention though if you think about like the kid back in school who had ADD or ADHD in school, what were they always caught doing? Just not paying attention, right? They'd usually be like, hey, Johnny, what do you think? And they'd be like, huh? They'd be like, were you paying attention? No, I wasn't. What were they usually doing? They're usually daydreaming in some sort of way. So your brain wants to leave this crazy, monotonous, same thing over and over again situation. And your brain is searching for something that's interesting and something that's exciting. This means that you're also naturally great at discovering new things. You're naturally more creative. So people who have ADD are naturally more creative than other people. So if you have ADD and you have a desk job where you do the same things over and over and over again, well you're probably very easily distracted and

you're probably thinking about other things. Your brain was built for creativity. So to do the same thing over and over again, that, you know, not, not the, to sit down and say, okay, I'm going to just log this information. I'm going to log this information. I'm going to log this information. You do the same thing over and over again, you're going to be very inattentive. You're going to be all over the place. Your brain's going to be thinking about other things. And so what you can do is you can use your brain, what it was built for, use it as a superpower. So you've got to be the type of person where if you do have a desk job and you have ADHD, you might want to

consider doing something different with your life, right? Let your curiosity lead the way in learning. You might find out that you're really into science or into art or into history. And that is something that you actually are really passionate about. And when you find yourself something that you're passionate about, people have ADD can go hardcore in all day long, all night long. And so you can use that and you can use your creativity for that. Another thing you can use your creativity for is to problem solve. So creatively problem solve. Since your brain jumps from idea to idea to idea, you're more likely to come up with creative solutions that other people might not think of. Awesome. So inattention basically means that you're not doing something that's creative. You're not doing something that you want to invest your focus into. So if you can find something that is more creative, that can allow your brain to do what it is good at,

you'll actually find yourself more focused and more attentive, but also at the same time, you're going to find yourself doing something that you love more than just doing the same thing over and over again. So that's the first trait that you find that that trait can be flipped on its head and actually becomes a superpower. The second one is distractibility. And so somebody who is, you know, it's like the, I always think of when I think of distractibility, I think of that, uh, that cartoon that's like squirrel and it's the dog, like that's the ADHD dog, right? Sure. Yeah. That could be seen as something that's really bad when you're sitting down and focusing, trying to focus. Once again, you're going to be very distracted when you're not really finding something that you're, you're passionate about, something that you don't like,

but your superpower of distractibility is curiosity. So a person with ADHD tends to be much more curious than another person. You know, that can be used for good. It can also get them into trouble. And so once again, it's about harnessing this side of you. And a great part of it is to be somebody and to use that curiosity to be someone who comes up with amazing ideas. Some of the greatest inventors that have ever lived were people who had ADHD. When you look at the guy who started the electronic, he actually started JetBlue, but he also started the electronic paper.

Instead of using paper tickets everywhere when you jump on a plane, he started the electronic tickets. And he was a guy who started JetBlue. And when JetBlue went public, it was worth hundreds of millions of dollars. And after making hundreds of millions of dollars, you know, he was like, oh yeah, well, what's the next thing for me to do? I got to figure something else to do. His creative and curious brain just immediately clicked on. And so you're the type of person who most likely has really good ideas and really good ideas by thinking outside of the box. And so the thing that it can be used for, the ADHD can be used for, is to see things from a different point of view than the average person,

to see things from a different perspective, which also helps a lot with problem solving. So if you're at a, like I said, if you're at a job where it's just the same thing over and over and over and over again, you're not using your curiosity and your problem solving skills to help you get better and to help you be excited and passionate about something that you're doing. So once again, I'm not telling anybody to quit their job. What I'm telling you is you probably should do something that is more exciting to you, that you are more passionate about, that's going to hold your attention. It's going to help you be more curious, help you be more creative, think outside of the box, work on problem solving. Those are types of jobs that people who have ADHD usually really excel at. So that's the second one, which is distractibility. And then the third trait of

somebody who has ADD or ADHD is hyperactivity, right? And I remember when I was a kid, my cousin was diagnosed with ADHD and they gave him Ritalin and he was just hyperactive, which is not a bad thing. I don't know why just somebody who has a lot of energy is seen as a bad thing. So, you know, when you give somebody some sort of medicine to calm them down, why don't you try to use that hyperactivity for good? So with people who you know, when you give somebody some sort of medicine to calm them down, why don't you try to use that hyperactivity for good? So with people who I know, I have another friend who's got ADHD, and although she loses her phone pretty much every single day, almost every time we've ever gone somewhere to eat,

she loses her phone, right? What it really is, it is an endless supply of energy. And the doctor that I was watching, that's the expert on ADHD, was actually saying now that he's in his sixties, he's so glad he has ADHD because the average person that he's friends with in their sixties doesn't have a whole lot of energy. Him, it's like, he's like an energy powerhouse as he gets older. And so while other people might get tired, you might be the type of person just getting started. So you're just an energy powerhouse and you're able to go further and work harder than the average person. And so how do you actually use this energy for good? Well,

the first thing that I think is important, if you do find yourself with ADD or ADHD, what they found is really good is to make sure that you're more active, right? Put your energy into sports, into dance, into working out, into physical activity, make sure that you're more active, right? Put your energy into sports, into dance, into working out, into physical activity, doing something that you enjoy. But just try to get yourself to be more active. It's a good way to also learn how to focus your mind and use the power for good when you are in the middle of doing something active. Maybe you want to go for a run and when you go for a run, that's when your best ideas come in, right? So use it. Try to see how you can use it for good. Another thing that's really important with someone who has

a whole lot of energy is to take on new challenges. Give your brain new challenges to work through. Your brain's creative. Your brain's curious. Your brain has a lot of energy. Give yourself new challenges, right? You have stamina to see things through when other people might get tired and give up, right? And so really what it comes down to, and what I think is important, what I really want to get across in this episode is that we have been told that ADHD and ADD are disorders. There's something wrong with that person.

That is the way it is communicated. That is the energy that it is communicated to is there's something wrong with you. We've got to give you pills to fix it, right? When in reality, I think people should take a step back and say, hey, I've been given this brain instead of another brain, not a normal brain, but I've been given this brain instead of a different brain. How can I use this brain for good? Because it's just a trait that you have. It's not a disorder. Having ADHD is like having a toolbox that's filled with unique tools.

How can you use those tools for good? How can you use them to do something that you're passionate about? Something that's fun, something that's creative, something that actually makes you feel alive. And so really what it comes down to is embrace it and accept it. It's not a bad thing. It's not a good thing. It's just a thing, right? Just like someone who's seven feet tall isn't a bad thing. Someone who's five feet tall isn't a bad thing. It just is what it is. Someone who has brown hair, it's not a good or bad thing. It's just a thing, right? Just like someone who's seven feet tall isn't a bad thing. Someone who's five feet tall isn't a bad thing. It just is what it is. Someone who has brown hair,

it's not a good or bad thing. Someone who has blonde hair is not a good or bad thing. It's neither. But it's definitely not a bad thing like you've been told. It is a trait. It is who you are. It is part of you. Use it for creating amazing things in your life. What I would recommend is that if you're listening to this podcast episode is try to start finding, and you feel like, yeah, this makes sense. This is me. You need to find something that you're passionate about. You need to use your creativity, your curiosity, your energy to find something that you love doing. You know, people with ADHD have really low tolerance for stuff that they don't like. So you better find your passions. When you're passionate about something, your ADHD

can actually help you excel. And so, you know, when you look at ADHD, it's just a sign that your brain is equipped with some different features, some pretty awesome features if you actually use them. So it's time to stop looking at, stop looking at ADHD as like, oh, these are a bunch of challenges. There's something wrong with me and go, you know what? These are my fucking superpowers. How can I use these for good? So whether it's using your curiosity, using your creativity, your endless amounts of energy, when you use ADHD for good, all of these will actually help you get further along in life. So that's what I got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode, please do me a favor. Share it on your Instagram stories and tag me at RobDialJr,

R-O-B-D-I-A-L-J-R. We don't have any huge companies pushing this podcast out or anything like that. The only way that we grow is through grassroots of you guys actually sharing it. So if you would share it, I would greatly, greatly appreciate it. And it would help the podcast grow and help us help more people. And with that, I'm going to leave it the same way I leave you every single episode. Make it your mission to make somebody else's day better. I appreciate you, and I hope that you have an amazing day.