As Turbo Thinkers, our minds tend to race like the wind, like Category 5 hurricane winds. How can we put our brains in the eye of the storm, where peace, calm and quiet reside? How can we let the storm pass, taking all of the debris with it and leaving us with our most important thoughts intact?Mindfulness is the ability to pay attention to the present moment with kindness and curiosity. It involves pressing the pause button to thoughts racing into the past or into the future.

Summer is here! At least in New Orleans, we are up to 90 degrees fahrenheit daily with high humidity. It is downright steamy! The change of seasons introduces a new variety of challenges that crop up in my ADHD coaching practice.

Even with the prevalence of vaccines and many people opting to go back to the office, many of us choose to remain working from home. Some of us have always worked from home, as solo-preneurs, digital nomads or remote workers. What elements might you consider when you have ADHD? What does your turbo thinking brain need to ensure your success?

One of the reasons I came up with the term “Turbo Thinker” is that it fits all types of ADHD, including the inattentive type. I personally find the term “inattentive attention deficit hyperactivity disorder” to be both confusing and misleading. While we may appear to be just staring at the wall or daydreaming, we are in fact hyperactive in our minds. Our thoughts can be racing from one idea to another, making all sorts of connections and leaping to various conclusions. It’s the reason we can come across as “scatterbrained” or “flaky”.

Very often, our Turbo thinking brains can go down the road of rumination and regret. We may put off a project because the conditions aren’t perfect, because we fear being judged, or because we simply don’t like it. We may imagine all of the different ways in which it could go totally, absolutely 100% wrong. We may wallow in the misery of the end result when, in fact, we haven’t even taken the first step.

When I first discovered ADHD coaching, I yearned to help high school and college students. I saw that their academic struggles related to their turbo thinking brains. I wanted to help the whole child rather than slap a band aid on a symptom of a bigger problem.

Many of my clients often experience a sense of being overwhelmed, sometimes daily, when they begin the coaching process. They may feel like they are juggling too many objects. They feel like someone is constantly throwing more things at them to keep in the air. And maybe some of those objects are water balloons, raw eggs or newborn babies.

“Why can’t I just do it?” “Why am I so bad at this?” When clients first call, I hear this all the time. There are many coaching strategies to reverse a negative mindset and push through limited beliefs. In the short term, I try to use a two pronged approach.

Turbo Thinkers all have their own unique strengths and challenges. They also have some challenges that are common to all brains with ADHD, mostly related to executive function skills and self regulation. In my years working with Turbo Thinkers, I have also discovered some common strengths. I get to work with people who are…

This article makes me so happy. Major corporations, even those in the world of finance, now see that hiring non-traditional thinkers will help them solve complex problems, while spotting market opportunities, competition and risk. A variety of brain types on the same team is crucial to innovation and creative problem solving.

So in our universe of expanding galaxies, spinning stars and swirling planets, experiences of time vary: everything’s past, present and future is relative.

I read this article and thought of how it applies to Turbo Thinking brains. Read it with an ADHD lens, and it becomes even more fascinating and sometimes funny. Are we just tapped into the universe more? I think so.

Last week, I had to meet my family in the local hospital. They wanted to know why I parked across a four lane avenue in a parking lot far away rather than in the giant, dank hospital garage. The answer was simple: so I could more easily find my car. And, bonus! I got the benefit of extra steps, fresh air and sunshine too.

As Turbo Thinkers, we know what we need to do, but we just can’t always get ourselves to do it.Self discipline doesn't work. Willpower doesn't work. Wishful thinking doesn't work. Nagging certainly doesn't work.And so it begins, the cycle of disappointment. You tell yourself, “I SHOULD be able to do this! Everyone else can do this!” You can go down the road of blame and shame, comparing yourself to others and feeling incompetent.

This weekend I took myself on a solo retreat to the Atchafalaya Basin with not much more than my tent and a pile of books. My top highlights of camping in the swamp were spectacular stargazing, including a stunning streak of the milky way, canoeing alongside alligators that had just woken from hibernation, and reading all of ADHD 2.0 by Drs. Ned Hallowell and John Ratey, the updated version of Driven to Distraction, first published in 1994. 

Do I write the article? Study? Do laundry? Call back my aunt? Order that book? Go to the grocery? Go work out? Get my car repaired? Do my taxes? So much to do! Maybe I’ll just research the article first. Or watch just one episode of the new series. Or this. Or that.

Shoutout for Detroit! Detroit is now one of the only places in the country offering Covid-19 vaccinations to all residents with developmental and intellectual disabilities, including ADHD.With the recent research regarding ADHD and longevity, this just makes sense. Turbo Thinkers can be impulsive, hyperactive and have difficulty focusing.

Many Turbo Thinkers come to learn about coaching after spending hours consulting Dr. Google. They are sick of not “living up to their potential,” frustrated and disappointed in themselves for not being able to meet their own or other people’s expectations. Many of them have been newly diagnosed with ADHD and many were diagnosed as children, but had never been taught what that meant.

Many of my clients share Turbo Thinker superpowers. These are strengths that tend to exist in greater quantity, frequency or higher intensity than many neurotypical brains. My clients tend to be:InnovativeThey are natural problem solvers. Whereas some people can accept things the way they are, Turbo Thinkers can get frustrated with something and figure out a better, easier way to achieve it. I’ll go out on a limb and say that most of the major inventions by mankind were created and built by Turbo Thinkers.

I’m sure many people have wondered what happens in such a brief consultation by phone, especially when it’s free. You might be surprised by the breadth and the depth of such an intense call. I know I am. I absolutely love these calls (as I also love all of my coaching sessions) because I never know what is going to come out of them.

Something that I personally struggle with is the feeling of not being ready. It’s that classic Turbo Thinker limiting belief of “I’m not good enough.” For others, it can be “My product is not good enough,” “My skills are not good enough, “I do not know enough,” or simply, “I will be rejected.”