Join me at the Birmingham Community House to help your child or teenager overcome attention related challenges, develop academic and social solutions, and establish time-saving routines.

This interactive class will explore the ways in which you can help your child to prevail over their challenges related to attention deficit disorders. You will learn coaching strategies to help your child right away and develop an action plan to address one of your specific goals.  Cost is $25 payable through the Birmingham Community House.

Register here to attend Turmoil to Tranquility:  Helping Students with ADHD Achieve More

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Over the last few weeks, I have been discussing the importance of setting SMART goals. If you haven’t already done so, be sure to check out Mid-year Tune Up, Set Specific SMART Goals, Measure for SMARTer Goals and Achievable, Ambitious, ADHD or Attention – what does the A mean in SMART Goals. They will all get you motivated to work on improving your goals!

It is time to discuss the R in SMART goals. The R stands for Realistic, and it is so important to be realistic when you are setting your goals. If your ADHD tends to make you impulsive, it is especially important for you to focus on setting realistic goals. You can help prevent yourself from setting goals that may set yourself up for failure. Being realistic, you can help push yourself towards success in smaller increments.

When developing your goals, always start with a draft and use the SMART methodology to refine them. For R, consider your goals and think about whether they are realistic. The following questions can help you evaluate them:

• How likely am I to achieve the goal?
• How can I split the goal in to smaller, more realistic steps?
• What would make this goal more achievable?

After answering these three questions and revising your goals, I am confident you will end up with more realistic goals that you can achieve with huge success! What other questions do you ask to ensure your goals are realistic? Leave a comment and let us know how you are doing with your goals!

Look for the importance of timely goals later this week!

Join me as I interview my special guest Jodi Sleeper-Triplett about Empowering Youth with ADHD.  Jodi is  a Master Certified Coach with over twenty years of experience in assisting individuals and organizations to realize their goals.  In 2004, Jodi expanded her company to focus on training and mentoring for coaches and has recently written an excellent book titled “Empowering Youth with ADHD”.

Join us to learn the answers to these important questions…

• What are the key things that any parent needs to keep in mind when working with their adolescents and college students?
• What is the most important thing that college students with ADHD need to do when returning to school this fall?
• How can parents and teachers empower youth who have ADHD?
• Why does coaching work for students with ADHD?

Sign up below for the registration details.  We look forward to talking with you on September 20 at 2:oo P.M. eastern.

I hope you are learning from the series of blog posts on SMART goal setting.  The goal setting part of the ADHD coaching process is critical to achieving your goals. Last week, I wrote about setting Specific and Measurable goals.  The A in SMART goals is a little harder to capture because it can really stand for a few different concepts.  I think they all have validity and usefulness for my attention and ADHD coaching clients, but don’t take my word for it.  Keep reading and let us know your input by leaving a comment.

Achievable:  Goals need to be achievable.  Many times, my new clients are frustrated because they have been unable to meet their goals.  As we talk, I learn that their goals are often set in a manner that makes them unachievable.  As you probably know, this can be frustrating.  When looking at your goals, look at them to make sure they are achievable.  If they do not seem achievable, I encourage you break them into smaller steps.  For example, it may not be achievable to get your entire house organized in the next week.  You can, however, get one specific area of your house organized in the next week.

Ambitious:  Your goals need to be ambitious to move you forward in the spirit of continuous improvement.  Without ambition behind the goal, you may not achieve anything new or implement real change with your goal. This may sound counterintuitive to the idea that goals need to be achievable.  I propose that you can meet both aspects as long as you consider both of them.

ADHD and Attention:  I bet this is the first time anyone proposed ADHD and Attention as the A for SMART goals!  If you are setting goals to overcome your ADHD or other attention challenges, be sure that they are addressing the challenges you want to overcome or the behaviors you want to change.

To summarize, you can cover all of the potential A’s by answering the question, “How will the Achievement of this Ambitious goal help me overcome my ADHD and/or Attention challenges?”  What do you think?

In my last post, I talked about how to make your goals more specific.  If you did not get a chance to read it, I encourage you to read that post first.  It will help put your SMART goals into better perspective.

The next element of SMART goals is M – Measurable.  A goal absolutely must be measurable.  When goals are measurable, we objectively know when we achieve our goals.  Without something to measure, you will never know when you reach your goal, or worse yet, when you do not reach it.

When you have ADHD, this element of goal setting becomes even more important.  Distraction can too easily take you away from your goals.  Post your measurement at your desk or put it on your calendar so you have somewhere to focus your attention.  Without something on which to focus, that distraction will keep coming back.  ADHD can also cause you to take on too much at one time.  Measurement has a way of grounding you in the critical elements of a goal.  Again, helping you to focus.

Consider the goal of managing time better.  If you give yourself a goal of managing time better, how will you know when you have succeeded?  You risk being too easy or too hard on yourself.  You do not need to take that risk.  Instead, set a goal that you can measure.  For example, you could set a goal to get to all of your meetings and appointments at least 5 minutes early.  Even if you don’t feel like your goal can be measured, come up with something.  Perhaps a percentage or time frame will help.

Leave a comment with your thoughts about measurable goals, and let us know your questions.

Are you an adult who…

• feels overwhelmed at the end of each day?

• is unable to focus on what’s important?

• feels like you never accomplish enough?

• has ADHD or ADD and needs a new resource?

• needs help getting organized and managing time?

Ready to Move from Turmoil to Tranquility?

You are invited to join Attention and ADHD Coach Laura Rolands in a thought provoking and creative program addressing attention-related challenges with ongoing coaching support.

• Dates: Thursdays (6 weeks); August 26 – September 30, 2010

• Times: 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Eastern

• Where: the comfort of your home or office – via teleconference

• Cost: $150 for the 6-week session

LIMITED TO 6 PARTICIPANTS – Register Early!

Register early to reserve your spot in this highly interactive and engaging group coaching program.

Contact us if you have any questions.  We’ll schedule a consultation so you can decide if this program is right for you!

Act fast if you are ready to invest in yourself.

Move from Turmoil to Tranquility with the support of this group coaching program.  Receive the support and structure that you need to achieve your goals with interactive discussion and coaching.  In addition, you will discover your strengths and utilize them to overcome your attention challenges.

For additional support, participants will receive the following during the coaching program:

• Unlimited email support

• Unlimited text message support

• Private Google Group discussion forum

Ready to register?   Add this program to your cart below.

I often talk about the importance of SMART goals with my attention coaching clients and workshop participants.  Over the next week or so, I’ll cover each component of SMART goals.  Be sure to review each one to set yourself up for success this year and beyond!

As you probably already know, the S in SMART goals stands for Specific.  Even though we know that it means, it can still be difficult to make sure a goal is specific.  When you set your goals, ask yourself these questions to do a specificity check.

For illustration, consider the following examples of non-specific goals:

• Organize my desk.
• Get better grades.

Okay, so I made it a little obvious that these goals are not specific.  Take this opportunity to look at these goals and figure out how to make them more specific.

Organize My Desk
Ask yourself how you will know when you have achieved this goal.  Are you looking for the top of your desk to be clear of clutter, do you need to get your junk drawer clean, or do you need to get your files organized?  Think about the end result that you want.  It may be helpful to visualize your goal.  If you can see what it looks like, you have a better chance of making it specific.  A goal such as, “Remove all of the clutter off my desk and keep my desk clear of clutter,” is much more specific than the earlier example of Organize my desk.

Get Better Grades
If a student wants to improve their grades, I encourage them to set specific grades for each class or a specific grade point average for the current or upcoming semester.  A goal of “Achieve a 3.0 next semester,” will give you something more to strive for than simply to, “Get better grades.”  The level of specificity nees to make sense for you.

When reviewing your goals to ensure they are specific, try asking these questions to yourself to help get them as specific as possible.

• How will I know when I have achieved this goal.
• What will it look like when I have achieved my goal?
• How will I be sure I have met my goal?
• Can I be more specific?

Next post I’ll talk about the M in SMART goals.  Until then, let us know what goals you are working on and how you are ensuring they are specific!

Corporations often set a requirement for employees to review their goals and career development plans in the middle of the calendar year.  It is intended to maintain focus on goals and help ensure success.  Employees meet with their managers to check in on progress and develop action plans to help them move towards their goals.  When I was working in Human Resources, we called this a “mid-year tune up”.  I like the analogy of a tune up to make sure things keep moving and working properly.

I think the idea of a tune up mid-year is a great idea for everyone and especially for anyone who has ADHD.  If you have a tendency to overcommitt, now is a perfect time to regroup and set the course for a productive close to 2010.  Do you tend to lose focus on your priorities during the year?   Take time to refocus on the priorities that mean the most to you.

Pull out your goals or resolutions that you made for 2010.  They can be personal, family and/or business goals.  Review your goals and first note the progress you have already made.  Take a moment to reflect and celebrate!  This is a step that is easy to skip, but I recommend that you take it seriously.  You need to give yourself credit for what you have accomplished.

Review your goals to see what else you need to put in place to achieve your success.  Identify action steps that you can take in the next week to move you forward.  If due dates have passed, set new deadlines that are more realistic.  Are there any goals that no longer seem relevant?  Get rid of them!  (Decluttering at its best!)  Are there new goals you need to implement?  By formalizing them and setting action steps, you can increase your chances of staying on track and achieving your goals.

Check in with us here and let us know how you will review your goals and plan for success.  We are here to help!  Wishing you a successful second half of 2010.

As Independence Day draws near in the US, my thoughts turn to how you can gain independence if you experience ADHD.  Whether you are a working adult, college student or even a younger student, I encourage you to think about how you can advocate for your self.  Do you have ADHD?  Other time management or attention-related concerns?  It is important that you self-advocate for yourself!  This will help set you up for a successful semester.

There are many ways to implement advocacy in your life.  I have listed a few thought starters here and would love your input as well.  Please leave us a comment!

• If you are in college and have been diagnosed with ADHD or a learning disability, contact the disability services office on your campus.  If you aren’t sure of the name at your school, just search for disability services and the name of your school.  You’ll find them.
• Talk to your professors and teaching assistants about the support that you need.  Even if you have accommodations from the disability services office, conversation with professors and teaching assistants will ensure a common understanding among everyone.
• Consider your learning style and how you can maximize your strengths in school or work settings.
• At work, consider the type of environment in which you work best.  I remember when I was still in the corporate world, my least favorite desk location when I was the last cubicle before the hallway.  Everyone thought it would be nice to stop in and say hello on their way to the vending machines, coffee, elevators, etc.  My friend Bridget helped me arrange my cubicle furniture to make it less inviting to guests.  It worked!  I didn’t want to be rude, but I needed to get some work done!
• Seek your supervisor’s assistance if you need help in minimizing interruptions.  It may help to explain that it can take up to 25 minutes to refocus after each interruption.  By being proactive and asking for assistance – you’ll get more work done too!  (And what supervisor can argue with that?)
• Join Barbara Wilson and I on July 21st to learn how to Succeed with Assertive Communication.  Using assertive communication can really help you in your self-advocacy journey.  Register today!

How do you advocate for yourself at school, work or home?  Share with our community by leaving a comment here.