ADD – ADHD: Are You Headed In The Right Direction?

Whenever I work with people in reaching their goals, our first step is making sure that they are clear on their values. This is key because their values should serve as the foundation for all of their goals.

When people ask for my help, it is because they want to become more effective and efficient in reaching their goals. They are ready to work hard on building their strengths and countering the challenges of their ADHD symptoms in order to do this. Together we make sure that they are heading in the right direction by looking at their values, first.

To give you a taste of what I am working on, I thought that I would offer the exercise below to help you look at your values.

Are you heading in the right direction?

Below is an exercise that you can use to help clarify your core values. Please be aware that this may take some time to complete. Please take your time so that you can get the most out of it. The goal of this exercise is to create a set of about a dozen statements that indicates what you think is important in a particular area of your life.

Imagine you self at an award ceremony and you are the guest of honor. The room is full of friends and family members, like a spouse, parent, and friend who have assembled to talk about you.

So what are the people saying about you?

If you are feeling particularly pessimistic, on the day that you do this exercise, you might imagine someone saying something like: “He was always struggling to find a meaningful career.” Since this is your imagination, imagine an eraser and cut that line out of the script.

Now imagine what you would like that person to say about you, and you might come up with: “He struggled for a while and then everything changed. He found a career that was meaningful for him.” If that statement makes you feel good, it’s reasonable to say that doing meaningful work is a core value for you.

Statement: “He struggled for a while and then everything changed. He created a career for himself that had meaning.”

Core Value: “I believe that engaging in meaningful work is a valuable and admirable accomplishment.”

Using the above example, come up with twelve statements you would like people to say at an awards dinner for you and the twelve associated core value statements.

You may want to write at least one statement for each of the following areas: Career, Family and Friends, Physical Environment, Personal Growth, Money, Health, Fun and Recreation and Significant Other/Romance. Be sure to write a statement for any area that is important to you, but is not on the above list.