Were you a question machine when you were a kid? How come dogs can poop outside, but you won't let me? Why do raspberries have seeds? How do you know for sure that Santa Claus is watching me every single day? Doesn't he have more important things to do?
If you were lucky, your parents made up some kind of answer, if they didn't know it already. But, more often than not, kids that ask a lot of questions are told to keep still. If you have ADD, this was probably you, and it probably made you feel weird because people just got so exasperated with all your questions.
I know I was just determined to figure out how things work--everything. My brain wouldn't rest until I knew why things are the way they are.
With many kids, ADD doesn't just go away when they grow up. So, ADD adults are still asking questions, wondering about everything from their job to their baby's development. The whole thing about that is that our questions make other people uncomfortable. When we ask a whole bunch of questions, it just throws them off track. But we see things from so many different angles! Yet, because there are so many more linear-thinkers than adults with ADD, we're the ones who feel out of place.
Why?
That's because most people just hate to ask questions at all. They feel stupid, and get embarrassed. When we're there asking tons of questions, it frustrates them and throws everything out of whack.
Yet, getting answers to questions that nobody else really thinks about can be very empowering. Not only are you able to spark new ideas that lead to bigger and better plans at the office, and you may get a million-dollar plan of your own. You need to take that idea and get started with it immediately! Right away, not sometime... Now.
So, what if it's not a million-dollar idea, after all? What if it kind of sucks? Oh, well. Finish what you started anyway. Never put the first thing away because you're already thinking about the second and third things that you want to work on.
Just don't do it! Finish your first idea, and maybe use parts of the 2nd and 3rd ideas that work with what you're already working on. You'll have a gazillion more ideas after these, so don't worry about losing just a couple. You really aren't losing them at all. You're using them to make your original project stronger.
Here's the thing: Never stop asking questions, even when the people around you are fidgeting and uncomfortable. Then, be sure to implement your great idea, even if you find out later that it sucks. Trial and error is what it's about, not trial and abandon.
Think about this: If it wasn't for Einstein's ADD, were would we be in the development of the theory of relativity?
No comments:
Post a Comment