Your Past Can Fuel a Successful Future

by Ben GlennEncouragement, Inspiration, Personal DevelopmentPosted on Comments are Disabled

I’ve been a public speaker for close to 20 years. Spoken to groups as big as 75,000 people and as small as 5. I’ve been all over the world and have maintained a busy speaking schedule consistently for almost two decades with no marketing save word of mouth. You might say I’ve done alright for …

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Finding your Motivation and Staying the Course

by Ben GlennADHD, Encouragement, InspirationPosted on Comments are Disabled

There are days when you just don’t feel like doing anything. What’s the point? you ask yourself. I’ve been slaving away at this job/project/idea/marriage for days/weeks/months/years and there doesn’t seem to be a pay-off in sight. I’m tired of this whole thing and it’s time for a change. Usually, this is the point where a lot …

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Are you Proactive or Reactive?

by Ben GlennPersonal DevelopmentPosted on Comments are Disabled

Getting a grasp of this proactive vs. reactive concept is hugely important to not just how successful you can be in life, but also how happy, or shall we say, content. Becoming proactive, not waiting until something is handed to you on a platter (usually doesn’t happen anyway), anticipating life’s curveballs and taking responsibility for …

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Baby steps

by Ben GlennInspirationPosted on Comments are Disabled

You’ve heard it a million times, but I don’t feel bad repeating it once more: To achieve any goal, big or small, is rarely a leap, (unless your goal is to go sky-diving!), it’s mostly a series of small, but vitally important steps. The steps you take often feel tiny, especially if you have a …

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Excuses are a dead-end!

by Ben GlennADHDPosted on Comments are Disabled

I mastered Excuses 101 somewhere around the 5th grade. And I rode that wagon all through school, and to some degree, through college.

Having ADHD is hard enough when you’re in junior high/high school, but at least (hopefully!) you have parents and teachers helping you. When you move onto college, that structure, the support that used to be there is removed. You’re an adult now! No one is going to be hounding you to do your homework, reminding you to go to your next class or telling you how to balance studying with socializing. That’s really bad news for college students with ADHD, especially those living on campus.

The first thing, and you really can’t take control of your ADHD struggle unless you deal with this challenge, is to be very aware of any excuses that might be coming out of your mouth when you fail to do the things you’re supposed to be doing in order to keep up with classwork. Hard truth? No one cares! The bigger the school, the less likely will a professor take a special interest in you and your challenge. The most important thing to remember is that hiding behind ADHD and not taking charge of the challenges that go along with having it, will only hurt you in the long run. Don’t cheat yourself! I know you’re too smart for that!

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#51

by Ben GlennMusingsPosted on Comments are Disabled

Setting realistic goals is one way to get & stay motivated. The trick is to learn how to break down long-term goals into smaller chunks so as to experience frequent bursts of achievement which will keep pushing us forward with the promise of reward. Of course breaking your goals into manageable chunks is harder than it sounds, but here’s an example to get you going. (I would love it if you would share one of your big goals and how you think it can be broken down to be achievable.)

Big Hairy Audacious Goal: Write a book
1. Pick a topic (reward: guilt-free Little Debbie Snack Cake!)
2. Figure out your audience (take a half day and go watch a movie at a movie theater)
3. Research other books in the market (big, juicy 12 OZ steak at your fave steak place)
4. Come up with a catchy title (go to Target and pick up a Star Wars Lego toy)
5. Write an outline (put together the above Lego toy and run around the house making Darth Vader sounds)
6. Write a page a day (treat yourself to a Starbucks Carmel Soy Latte when each chapter is complete)
7. First edit (instead of giving into despair at how bad you suck at writing, go buy a book about a favorite hobby, artist or musician and take a few days off from writing)
8. Get others to read it and make edits/suggestions (You’re so close you can taste it, take yourself off for a full day of fishing)
9. Edit again (if fishing is your thing, go fish again!)
10. Edit again (that expensive pair of jeans you’ve been eye-balling, yeah, go on, buy it. You’ve earned it!)
11. Edit one more time (it might be time for a good therapeutic neck massage – do it!)
12, Voila!! You’ve just written a book! Pull out all stops! Mega-party! There’s no stopping you now! You’ve done it! And the feeling of accomplishment is sweeter than all the things that you’ve rewarded yourself up to this point.

#50

by Ben GlennMusingsPosted on One Comment

One of my biggest struggles is prioritizing. The concept of “what’s important NOW” is often pushed aside by “what’s FUN NOW!?”. At the end of the day though, I am left with a pile of hard tasks and am overwhelmed and frustrated. Having “FUN” is hard-wired into ADHD brains like nothing else, but I’ve learned to use FUN as my reward and motivation for completing the tasks I set for myself. What motivates you?

#38

by Ben GlennMusingsPosted on Comments are Disabled

An Enemy Called Average by John Mason is an oldie, but a goodie. Filled with over 100 “nuggets” of motivation, each is no longer than two pages and some are just quick quotes. I like to randomly flip to a page and see what I find. Today: “Am I on the path to something marvelous, or something absolutely mediocre?” A good question to ask yourself on a daily basis!