I received this email last week from Marcia Hoeck and without a doubt, it caught my attention. The subject line read: Entrepreneurs and ADHD. Here’s how first few sentences went:
Do you ever feel like you have ADHD?
A lot of entrepreneurs feel that way. And there are a lot of surprising similarities between the characteristics I’ve found most entrepreneurs and small business owners have, and adults with ADHD.
There’s the procrastination, the tendency to not finish projects, the feelings of over- whelm, the flitting from one project to the next, the "bright shiny object" syndrome — sound familiar?
Boy, did it ever! Now I don’t believe that I have ADHD, but I do have a propensity, at times, to be easily distracted. Often this occurs when I have many projects pulling me in different direction. They could be writing newsletters, feature articles, information sheets or even special reports. All are important, yet I can’t possibly work on all of them at the same time. Sometimes what occurs then is the “bright shiny object” syndrome – where you lose focus and start jumping from one project to another to another – almost as if you are a bumble bee buzzing from one flower to another to another.
My “bright shiny object” syndrome most often happens with books, which should be no surprise since I am a copywriter. I usually juggle reading two books at a time – one fictional book and a business/professional development book. This is on top of the dozens of trade journals, blogs, online articles and newsletters I also read on a monthly basis (I am always reading something.).
So after I got my latest Amazon.com and BuilderBooks.com orders a few days ago, I, naturally, couldn’t resist a new-smelling book and started reading my latest gems. Then it occurred to me that I had done the exact same thing with the last few batched of books I’d received. This made me wonder: Just how many books am I reading right now? SEVEN! 7 books with bookmarkers, post-it flags, highlights and notes penciled into the margins. SEVEN! (Holy Cow!)
So I took this picture to show you.
But wait, there is more. I also have a pile of e-books in a corner of my office, and about once a week I grab a few that I have printed out and read them. Here’s a picture of those (As you can see, some of them are so large they have their own 3-ring binder!).
Keep in mind this only represents the ones I’ve printed out; I have “reading” file on my desktop of other e-books that caught my attention that I want to also read when I get a chance.
So my question to you is this: As an entrepreneur, do you also suffer from “bright shiny object” syndrome? Or are you going to leave me hanging and think that I am only one? My “bright shiny object” syndrome is caused by books and other reading material, but what “bright shiny objects” break your focus and get you jumping? Chime in … I’d love to hear what you have to say.
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Tess Wittler Writing Services • Dedicated to giving your visions a voice.
