Happy New Year!!

I hope that you all had an amazing past couple of weeks and were able to spend your time off doing whatever makes YOU happy!

Today I want to talk about how investing in ADHD coaching changed my life in 2018. I’ll later point out how you can do the same to make 2019 the year you harness your ADHD!

How I Invested in Myself and ADHD Coaching in 2018

I wanted to start off this blog post by explaining (as fast as possible) why 2018 was so pivotal for me.

1. I was at a point where I was sick of myself and what I had (or didn’t have) going on in my life. I had the “poor me” attitude.
2. Then BAM! I was diagnosed with ADHD back in 2017, in my late 20s, and finally felt like I had an explanation for the way my life had been going. It was great that I had an explanation/diagnosis, but what could I do with it?! My psychologist didn’t have any resources for me and my doctor wanted to prescribe medication. I knew there had to be some other way that I could help myself…
3. I craved other people who could understand exactly what I was going through so I started an in-person adult ADHD support group in the West Island of Montreal with the help of Nathalie Pedicelli (who is a fellow ADHD-er and an ADHD/Organizer Coach).
4. I needed a way to get my built up feelings out so I started my blog and an Instagram account, Missleadingly ADHD.
5. I still craved more information, a better understanding of ADHD and what exactly my diagnosis meant for me so I invested in myself and enrolled in the Simply ADHD and Personal Transformation Course at the ADD Coach Academy. I fell in love with what ADDCA was doing and how great I felt and wanted to help others better understand themselves. This led me to continue my training at ADDCA and start the coaching program.
6. When I was training with The ADD Coach Academy, I had an amazing group of classmates who were also going through their own journeys. These women became my personal coaches that helped me to grow in ways that I can’t even begin to explain. I will always be grateful to them and the roles that they have played and will continue to play in my life. Special shoutout to Mama Bear, Natalie Nolan, who was my personal transformation learning parter (we would text all day, everyday and have 2hour+ phone conversations where, naturally, the time flew by).
7. I finished my training at the ADD Coach Academy back in October 2018 and am now launching my business as an ADHD Coach.
8. Lastly, I got my own coach! I practice what I preach and invest in myself. I have my own coach, Maddy, to help me manage my emotions and have a sounding board to ensure that I stick to my goals.

How you can do it too:

Get a coach!! Hells yeah I’m biased, but for good reason… Coaching completely changed my life and was the best investment I have ever made. This is what coaching can do for you:

1. Personalized, personalized, personalized.
   Why is this so important?! Each and every one of us is unique! If you are trying to find a job in carpentry because you heard that your brother’s, wife’s, cousin also has ADHD and is doing really well as a carpenter, hate to break it to you but it probably won’t work out. Together, we look at who you are and what works for YOU. We investigate how your current efforts may not be tailored to your unique self.
2. Change your narrative
   Self-talk is something that bogs most, if not all of us down. If we are continuously telling ourselves stories like “we can’t do the thing”, then how will we ever do it? I reiterate to my clients how they are speaking to themselves and we look at ways to change their self-talk so that the conversation they have with themselves will better suit them and their desired path.
3. Reach your goals
   Whenever I see the line “reach your goals” I can’t help think that it is so cheesy. That said, I’ll explain why it is important to mention. We are often living in the present and don’t stop to think about what our goals even are. OR, our goals are extremely vague. For example:  “move out” or “buy a car”. These goals don’t get reached for a few reasons:
   • “Move out” and “buy a car” are extremely vague. These goals need to be broken down into more manageable steps. I use a software called Coach Accountable with my clients, which sends text reminders to remind them which action steps they want to complete in order to reach their desired goal.
   • The perfectionism monster gets in our way. The perfectionism monster drags us down before we even start our goals. We tend to think “it isn’t going to be perfect, so why even start”.
   • There are other things that get in our way and the list is lengthly because we are all unique! What may be getting in your way may be completely different to what gets in another persons way. That is why coaching is so powerful; we are looking at who YOU are and what gets in YOUR way so that we can jump over that hurdle and cross one finish line at a time!
4. Put yourself first
   Learn how to be selfish and put yourself first! My clients and I look at what is getting in their way of doing the things that they want to do for themselves but never seem to find the time to do it. A few examples could be journaling, going to the gym and cooking healthy meals. The culprits that we see getting in their way are often:
   • guilt,
   • disbelief that they deserve to have/accomplish their goal and
   • they don’t believe that they can actually accomplish what they would like to do since they don’t think they have in the past.
5. Find your voice
   There is a huge shift that I noticed within myself and with my clients. When we start to:
   1. Pay attention to what we want,
   2. Start speaking to ourselves nicely and
   3. Start to take action to get what we want

The result is assertiveness! We start to understand who we are, what we deserve and start to actively act on the pursuit of what is best for ourselves and who we are!

If any of this rings true to you, please know that you don’t have to go through life having ADHD alone. Reach out, whether it be to partner with me as your ADHD coach or just to chat!

Stay tuned! Next Friday I will be posting “How to explain Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria“.