By Jeff Copper, MBA, PCC, PCAC, CPCC, ACG – June 13, 2022
What is self-awareness? Is it just being aware of your own internal emotions and feelings? Is it being able to see yourself in the third person? Or is it being able to see life and situations at a higher level, not just awareness of yourself, but awareness of others? Many people with ADHD struggle with self-awareness.
They feel threatened by it because they are sometimes lost in their head. They are also unaware of the plights of others. They’re often consumed with their own challenges and sometimes don’t realize the challenges of others. Sometimes we need just to step out of ourselves to understand it. Continue reading “A Lesson in Self-Awareness”
In my talks, podcasts, and videos, I relate information and helpful advice on various topics concerning ADHD and attention. From time to time, I receive comments and questions from folks disagreeing with what I say, because they “feel” what they are doing works for them. 
The common theme to all of my newsletters is how paying attention to the wrong belief leads us to the wrong solution, and how being stuck is a symptom of paying attention to an inaccurate belief. As an attention coach, I find that, for most of my clients, the hardest part is not paying attention to the right things, but rather unlearning, letting go, or not paying attention to what the Ego believes it should pay attention to. 
The band Three Dog Night sang it best in their song titled “One,” with the lyrics that go like this:
Untangling a knotted fishing line because it was miscast might be frustrating, but it will pass. Being miscast as a fisherman? Now, that is a problem! As an ADHD and attention coach, I define “miscasting” as placing someone in a role and asking them to do something with an expectation of performance that is not supported by their underlying abilities. To better understand miscasting, let’s use horse racing as a metaphor. 
Social media, YouTube, video games, advertising… they are all about getting your attention.
In Super Bowl XXXVII, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ defensive lineup took the field for the first time. Each player introduced himself on network TV by stating his name and the college that drafted him. When Simeon Rice’s turn came, he stated simply, “Simeon Rice, the School of Hard Knocks.” Get it? Football? Hard knocks? Well, I got the pun and a whole lot more! Here’s what I got. 
Did you know that 50 percent of all doctors graduated in the bottom of their class? Early in my sales career, I loved sharing this very interesting fact; it proved especially useful when I was selling against HMOs in the days when indemnity plans meant you could choose any provider. That’s when I realized most anything that can be measured by definition is at or below average. This simple concept has fascinated me for years. 
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. There are times when a picture or a symbol can communicate things that are quite complex in a way that brings instant clarity. When you run across a graphic that really communicates and explains a concept, it’s transformative. Recently I stumbled onto a graphic that was so powerful I had to recreate the concept for my own so I could share it with you.