I've Got ADHA - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Asset
Increasingly in our world, anything that isn't normal is defined as a 'disorder'. It could well be an 'asset' disguised behind shyness, up and down emotions or maybe a little bit of impatience! Dave Gilpin investigates this trend and tries to turn the tables on the doctors of disorders!
Some years ago when my wife came home from a two week trip to America, she said that she’d finally worked me out. In her hand were two books someone had given her on ‘Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder’ in adults. While she muscled through the pages on the plane she was filled with an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. She’d seen it all before – in ME! As I devoured the gospel according to ADHD in adults a huge sense of relief went through me. I’d finally seen the light! It was me - me throughout my childhood years, my teen years and all of my adult years. Finally I was being analysed and I felt good!
But was it all the truth? Each of the characteristics appeared to line up with all I'd been displaying all of my life, but there was something in it all that made me feel uncomfortable. What was it? It finally dawned on me that it was found in the small print - well actually in the largest print on the cover – ADHD. This abbreviated title masks a heresy that has created a curse. Who says that ADH is a Disorder? By what standard of normality is it mapped against? Everybody’s normal till you get to know them!
This chapter and book is dedicated to the ADH geniuses who walk the earth. It’s aim is to free them all from the judgement and curse – from the primeval knife of society that only has eyes to divide normal from abnormal and sane from insane.
It’s time to take the labels off. Farewell ‘disorder’. Welcome ADHA – Attention Deficit Hyperactive ASSET! (You have a minute right now to do a silly little dance around your room, at the tube station, at the resort, in the jail or in the waiting room of your psychologist’s office). Wherever you find yourself – goodbye Robin Island, goodbye Alcatraz – your walk to freedom has just begun! Well it certainly became the dawning of my walk to freedom.
Right! Let’s list it! They say I’ve got ADHD. I’m definitely on the autism spectrum and I’m littered with compulsive obsessive disorders. Surely I should have snapped by now. I can’t believe it – I’m a pastor, an author, still got the same wife, a motivational speaker and on two or three boards of national charity associated with the church (even with almost zero empathy!). I even have a knack for clothes shopping – but always wear a white t shirt to bed – with no exception.
There's a lot of plates spinning and I love every minute of it. All because I'm ramped with assets - ADHA, OCA (Obsessive Compulsive Asset!) plus plenty more. Life isn't just about what you've got - it's about how you look at what you've got!
They say that Michelangelo painted areas of the Sistien Chapel that would never be seen by anyone observing from the ground up. His meticulousness went way beyond that of most of the human race who simply try to do the least to impress the most! Was it that Michelangelo wasn’t just a gifted artist and sculptor but the proud owner of an arsenal of quirky gifts.
My disorders (yeah right!) have taken me out of the nice little ordered packages this world would prefer, and brought me into a chaotic world of creativity and colour. Just because guns are used to shoot people doesn’t make guns wrong, and just because money is used for greed and crime doesn’t mean money is wrong. Just because these unique mental talents have created some anti social and highly disruptive behaviour doesn’t mean they're disorders. They're a gift. And they can take one from the plains of mediocrity to the heights of genius in a nano second.
Many of the assets that have been labelled as 'disorders' can actually be used to create a world full of originality, inventiveness, diligence and design. If the gift of Attention Deficit enables people to get started on lots of projects all at the same time, then those who also have the accompanying gift of a splash of autism have the added advantage of being able to finish each project off individually and in record time! Here's the top three advantages of having the gifts most often seen as disorders...
1. Tunnel Thinking Can Tunnel Through Anything!
Obsession is always the key to success. Thomas Edison was obsessed about the electric light bulb - his attempts at creating one ran into the thousands. Mike Oldfield's obsession with music and his inability to work well in a team created a masterpiece called 'Tubular Bells' that launched Richard Branson into global success.
Obsession is only destructive when it becomes preoccupied by the unhealthy quests and fears of the Fallen Mind. I remember as a teenager feeling lumps in my chest and being convinced that they were cancerous. I told no one about it and I became totally preoccupied with it. My constant re-evaluation of the situation always led to the same conclusion! I've been obsessed about my teeth (regularly checking their colour with a small mirror at the age of fifteen), my walk (regularly checking how bouncy my strut was against the parallel beams of the wooden fencing),my body (wearing my jumper through at least two Australian summers to disguise my thinness) as well as my skin (wearing foundation and rouge from a red pencil to cover up my paleness).
In detaching my obsessive nature from fears and phobias and reattaching it to the plans and purposes of the New Mind, I've been able to use both my obsessive nature and my autistic over focussing to maximum advantage. I've written books, started businesses, made videos, established church congregations across the country - all through the ability to go overboard about the stuff that builds God's Kingdom on earth and not the destructive things that lead to a self focussed existence.
2. Attention Deficiency Means Lateral thinking!
The world has enough logical thinkers! It needs more people who think outside the box! Attention deficiency is an asset that allows people to jump out of the boxes. Instead of going down conventional routes, it sneaks around to find alternative solutions to difficult problems and new paths to the future. Instead of flowing with the crowd, it heads against the flow and seeks to be different and original. Its inquisitiveness may have got it into big trouble at school, yet it's precisely that gift that causes the big breakthroughs of life.
For those with ADHA, life on the cutting edge is the only place to live. When mixed with a melancholic personality (discussed a little later on) it's always exploring new ideas, new details and a whole new way of thinking. When mixed with a choleric personality, it's always embarking on fresh experimentation and fresh new initiatives. With the addition of the gift of faith, it's amazing where the gift of ADH can end up.
Since moving to England to plant our church called Hope City Church, we've established the second largest indoor play centre for kids in England's fifth largest city, one of the best conferencing venues in the city, a full time Leadership Academy, Megacentres in multiple cities as well as a ministry for women with life controlling issues. All because of a gift that's been severed from the Fallen Mind and reconnected to the New Mind of grace and truth. It may take a little time to free it from the dogma and potential distructiveness but it can be done - and it's a big part of God's will for every persons life who's blessed with it.
3. Emotional Detachment Creates Emotional Intelligence!
Often seen as a weakness and a disorder, emotional detachment is actually a part of the foundations of great leadership. Unbridled emotion blurs vision, causing decision making to be both inconsistent and inaccurate. To be emotionally detached yet able to understand the gravity of a situation as well as the complexity of a situation can create an emotional intelligence that can enhance good decision making and not jeopardise it.
Whenever I go to see the football or whenever I watch the television, I get slightly jealous of all of the men who possess the ability for spontaneous outbursts of emotion. There's an engagement that staggers me. They stand, they sit, they swear, they sing, they jeer, they applaud, they yell and they cry. I would love that kind of spontaneity. Yet when it comes to the art of leadership and the ability to remain calm and controlled through great disappointments and crises, my gift of being able to subdue emotion has proved time after time to be an asset worth prizing. To tell you the truth , because of the autistic layout of my mind, everything including my emotions is always at a heightened state within me. Not only are smells accentuated and the smallest of noises noticed but disappointments are actually magnified and excitements are overblown. Without emotional control and detachment , it would be impossible for me to live within respectable social conventions. Every now and again I have what I call a 'torettes' moment when my spontaneity bursts into action resulting in weird behaviour that can't be explained or excused!
It's time to take off the label of 'disorder' and replace it with the label of 'asset'. Just as the splitting of an atom can create either a bomb to destroy a city or the power to light up a city, every gift of yours is the same. It can lead to destruction or lead to great success. The problem is not the gift, but the application and attachment of the gift. It's time to set it free!
50% Of All Your Of your Weaknesses Are Mythical
If you were to count all the weaknesses that you have operating in your life right now, fifty per cent of them simply don’t exist: they’re mythical. How many people have ever told you that you’ve lacked a certain talent or failed in a certain ability? Maybe your lack, however, is no lack at all. Maybe your failure is not a failure at all. It may not be a weakness – it may simply be a ‘non strength’. I’m not a failure at cello playing – I simply can’t play the cello, don’t have a great musical ear and have no desire to learn to play. My weakness at the cello is not actually a weakness – it’s a non strength. It lies outside my domain of destiny, desires and strengths. Think about this – Is the short stockiness of a Hungarian a weakness when it comes to the hundred metre sprint final at the Olympic Games or could it simply be a ‘non strength’? With those same ‘weakness’ attributes, Hungarians have proved to the world their genius at the power sports of weightlifting, javelin, discus, hammer throwing and anything else that requires massive momentum to succeed.
For the human race (and that includes you and me) no one is ‘more’ talented than anyone else and no one is ‘less’ talented than anyone else – it’s just a different talent mix for differing things. Success comes when you find you fit with the talents and strengths that you possess. Much of what we’ve failed at in the past, has nothing to do with our weakness, but everything to do with our non strengths. We’ve attempted to use a hammer to cut down a tree – great gift but wrong application! While many have put the experience on life’s learning curve, many have never recovered and continue to live a lack lustre life while their true genius lies unused and unearthed.
It’s the same with the way you’re wired. Just because you don’t carry a Filofax or Microsoft Outlook everywhere you go doesn’t mean you have to wear a disability badge for being vague and disorganised. Just because you love being on your own and resist big parties doesn’t mean that you’ve got a weakness for socialising. It could just be one big non-strength! You may not be a deep thinker or ever get involved in heavy analysis – you don’t do it because it’s simply not you. If you try to become a deep thinker and an in-depth analyser then a real weakness does start to emerge – you’re trying to be someone you’re not. When I try and be funny, it usually falls flat on its face. I’m too self conscious and start to look stupid. When I speak somewhere and start my message off with some jokes that I read in a magazine I always end up with egg on my face for two reasons. Firstly I never found them funny to begin with and, secondly, I’m too uptight to play the role of the funny man when I first begin my message. I’m working against who I am and the way I’m wired. I’m trying to be like someone else! In fact when I speak to a group of people I need to get straight to the point because that’s me – direct, passionate and slightly obsessive.
Unless you’re great at the celebrated talents of sport, music or brains, most people are unaware of the incredible gift mix that they’re sitting on. Like someone who hasn’t realised that they actually have that winning ticket to the lottery, many never live their lives according to the riches that they possess.
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