Motivation…where does this elusive, inconsistent, and essential inspiration hide? How can you tap into it and stay motivated with ADHD? What makes the day you decide to put your foot down or your tennis shoes on and act differently than all the other days you don’t? How wonderful would it be to know how to consistently follow through and not let the short-term distractions derail your longer-term outcomes?
Motivation is different for everyone, and when you have ADHD, the key to this take-action inspiration is knowing your unique source of motivation. What is your catalyst, the spark that works for you? Long-term change results from riding the wave of consistent motivation until you build habits, routines, and long-term systems that sustain each day.
One Source of Motivation
As humans, we notice and pay attention to pain and frustration. This response has been in our DNA for thousands of years and has kept us alive. Although it may not always feel good, negative emotions motivate us more deeply than positive ones.
Examples of negative/frustrating emotions that motivate include not finding an essential household item where it belongs, a store receipt, or a file on the computer. For me, it feels like I am wasting time… and as one of our most precious commodities, wasting time irritates me. The risk of being frustrated is a great motivator when I don’t want to do something.
What pain points or frustrations do you have? Do you get frustrated when you feel like you are wasting time, like me? Do you get frustrated when you forget to pay a bill and end up paying more with late fees? Does the messiness of your environment interfere with you enjoying your home or work? Are you hard on yourself when you realize you are not doing the things you want to be? What about the frustration of dealing with people who don’t understand ADHD? That tends to be a biggie. The thing is, frustrations don’t go away unless we do something to change them.
If you notice frustrations in your life…good! These frustrations might be great ADHD motivators for you. When I notice my frustration with wasting time, I am motivated to organize. The reward of finding things I need quickly is the reward. I remember how good it feels not to waste time, and seeing a neat home can double as motivation to tidy up regularly.
Another ADHD Source of Motivation
If frustration is one source of motivation, inspiration at the other end of the spectrum is another great one for people with ADHD. For instance, you see somebody doing something you want to do or try. There is an optimism that motivates you to enjoy that for yourself, too. There are times when you see somebody doing something you want to do with your life; it’s encouraging, and you say to yourself, “I can do that” or “I want that for myself.” This motivation comes from hope and confidence to do something, even if it isn’t easy. This source of motivation feels empowering.
Successfully using this inspiration for people with ADHD is similar to leveraging our strengths and ignoring those pesky negative thoughts. Try on the perspective that allows you to use inspiration to practice, explore, try, and work towards a goal. It is possible to do what it takes to have that thing or life. And when you follow through, despite mistakes and failures, you’ll smile to yourself, remembering the doubt you used to have.
Life Event Motivation
The driving force behind another type of motivation for people with ADHD is life events. Events that cause a shift, a new perspective, or have us make a difficult choice about the direction we want our life to take. At the time, these life events can be very challenging. Like being fired from a job, a relationship ending, the death of a loved one, or a pandemic.
Ironically, these challenging life events often force us to act and make changes, whether we want to or not. These are great examples of why we don’t have to feel motivated to change our lives. Sometimes, life will take care of that for us.
Losing a job allows us to consider what we really want to do for work or to consider the difference we want to make in the world. A near-fatal car crash completely changed my oldest son’s life trajectory positively. A pandemic makes us consider the resilience that we, as individuals, families, communities, and the world, are capable of during a crisis. These moments don’t need to be extreme. If we pay attention, many smaller moments in life have seeds of opportunity.
An Unusual, Useful Source of Motivation
Early in my career as an ADHD Life Coach, I lacked many skills. So, instead of envying others’ knowledge, I watched, learned, and often paid more experienced coaches to teach me what they knew about coaching and business. Their success encouraged me and inspired me to keep trying to become one of them. Comparison is natural. Please be sure to harness that energy to stay focused and motivate your accomplishments.
A Source That Never Runs Out
Use your fantastic, creative ADHD mind to harness one of the most motivating and effective techniques: visualization. See yourself having the life you want in the future and the steps that will get you there. What do you want your health, relationships, work, and life to mean?
Doing this right now will benefit the ‘future you.’ And yes, you can change your mind if you want! Visualizing yourself in the future in no way limits your choices. If your preferences change, change the vision. Close is good enough. The important thing is to start envisioning it now.
Imagine the life you want. Then, you only need to generate enough motivation to take consistent “turtle steps” to achieve your goals over time.
For people with ADHD, motivation can come in surprising ways: frustration, inspiration, life events, others’ accomplishments, and visualization. Leverage one or use them all. Even if they feel a little uninspired at times, people with ADHD can create motivation for themselves.
What is your favorite way to motivate yourself with ADHD? I’d love to hear your ideas. Please add your comments in the section below.
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