Do You Know the 4 Steps That Are the Key to Unlocking ADHD Motivation?

DESCRIPTION: Inconsistency is one of the hallmarks of ADHD. And one of the places where this is glaringly true is motivation. Unfortunately, you may be using strategies to motivate yourself that don’t serve you well in the long run. To turn this around, check out the four strategies you can use that can help give you the motivation you need more often. KEY TAKEAWAYS: * Your ADHD brain wiring contributes to your challenges with motivation *  Force does not work as a means to motivate you. *  You can’t depend on waiting for motivation, either. *  Over relying on urgency for motivation comes at a cost. *  Knowing your reason why can help you choose to do a task. *  Having the clarity of what you are going to do can also help motivate you. *  Knowing how you are going to do the task also helps with motivation. RESOURCES: * Article: How to Create ADHD Friendly Accountability Partnerships * Book: Willpower by Roy F. Baumeister * Tool: Focusemate – Virtual coworking TRANSCRIPT: (00:01): As an adult with ADHD, I know there are times when you just can’t motivate yourself to do something you need to and even really want to do because it’s important to you. Especially, of course, when it’s not intrinsically interesting to you. And then you may immediately jump to all sorts of conclusions as to why this is happening. Believe me, it’s not because you’re lazy or that you don’t really want to do it, as others might suggest, and you might even believe at times (00:33): You’ve tuned into Scattered Focus, Done – Reimagining Productivity with ADHD, a podcast for ADHD adults like you who want to learn how to adopt the best strategies, tools, and skills to get your essential work done in a way that works with the way your brain is wired. I’m Marla Cummins and I’m glad you’re joining me today on this journey to reimagining productivity with ADHD. so you can get what is important to you done without trying to do it like everyone else. (01:06): To start, I want to make sure we have a shared definition. So, according to Roy Baumeister who wrote the book, Willpower, the simplest definition of motivation boils down to wanting. That is, motivation is when we want to act or make a change. And I’m sure there’s a lot you want to do right now, right? But when you think of motivation, you’re probably thinking of the definition provided by another motivation researcher, Robert Franken, who defines motivation as the arousal, direction and persistence of behavior. And this is what you want to figure out how to do. How to get yourself to do what you say and is truly important to you. (01:53): The first step is to acknowledge and understand how your ADHD brain wiring makes it difficult to create the motivation you need. As with this understanding, you’ll be in a much better position to create the right workarounds. (02:11): Let’s start by looking at the reward system in the brain. Simply put, we act, are motivated,