ADD ADHD Help -- Dana Rayburn ADD ADHD Coach

Simple Steps for Soaring with Your Strengths
By Dana Rayburn, Adult ADD Coach

Sarah is creative and an excellent writer working as an administrative assistant for a large corporation. It's not a good match. Her job requires detail-oriented tasks like tracking schedules, arranging travel plans and organizing large office parties. Try as she might, she just can't do well at her job. She finds her days exhausting and overwhelming. How different Sara's life would be if she instead could focus her work on her strengths as a writer and creative thinker.

As a coach, I too often see people with ADD who set themselves up to fail because they center their world around their weaknesses. They focus on things that are a struggle for them rather than tasks at which they can excel. When you orient your life around your strengths, you have more energy and joy. Your self-esteem thrives. The day-to-day becomes seemingly effortless.

The first step to creating a strength-oriented life is to recognize what strengths you have. According to Donald Clifton and Paula Nelson in their book Soar With Your Strengths, a strength comes naturally to you. When you practice it you get better at it. When people applaud you for something that is a strength, you feel pride and pleasure.

The next step is to identify your weaknesses. When you operate in the realm of your weaknesses, you are often defensive about your performance, have a difficult time learning how to do something, become easily overwhelmed and experience burnout. Life is a struggle. You CAN manage weaknesses. Figure out an easier way to do something, decide you just aren't going to do it anymore, delegate to someone who is better at it than you or create alliances with others.

A trap for many with ADD is to confuse dreams with strengths. It's easy for us to get carried away dreaming about all the marvelous things that we are capable of doing. One way to tell if you are pursuing a dream instead of a strength is if you know the basics of how to accomplish something but make little real progress toward your goal. It's often tough to admit you are on a fantasy track, but once you do and re-orient yourself around your everyday strengths your life will be a thousand times more satisfying.

Here is the coach's challenge:
What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? What will you do to focus on your strengths and manage your weaknesses? Go forth and soar.

*** The Fine Print ***

Published by Dana Rayburn, Copyright 2008, all rights reserved.

Permission is granted to forward or post this content in full for use in a not-for-profit format, as long as this copyright notice and full information about the author, Dana Rayburn, is attached intact. If any other use is desired, permission in writing is required. Questions? Contact Dana

*** About Coach Dana ***
Dana Rayburn, A. C. T., is a life success coach with an international practice who helps people reach their goals and create the incredible life they have always wanted. Most of her clients are business owners or professionals who want to live more easily with AD/HD, get organized so they can stay organized and/or embark on a rewarding path of personal development.

Dana's coaching career began in 1998, evolving from nearly eight years as a professional organizer, popular for innovative and practical ways of conquering clutter and creating easy to use organizing systems. Prior to that she spent eight years as a corporate systems analyst and strategic planner. She is a graduate of Coach U and the Optimal Functioning Institute's training for ADD coaches.

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