ADHD Vocabulary:
I highly recommend editing your vocabulary and eliminating the words “should” and “have to.” As soon as we say one of these bad words to ourselves, we develop automatic unconscious resistance to doing the task. We really don’t need anything to foster our procrastination.
An ADHD Strategy:
I have recommended saying, “need to” or, “it would be good for me to.”
A Better ADHD strategy:
But this approach, of being determined to eliminate the bad words, often leads to awkward sentence construction. I recently ran across a better approach. Eliminate the bad words, “should” and “have to,” and substitute “I get to.” This changes the whole thing.
I get to carry out the garbage. I get to pay my bills. I get to write tomorrow’s blog.
It’s a positive outlook. Your life will be better.
Doug
Questions O Question the Day:
Can you tell me where I saw this “get to” strategy, so I can give credit?
Can you tell me how I can get the pictures to be side-by-side on Facebook?
@addstrategies #adhd #add @dougmkpdp
The ADHD life
Bonus Links:
With ADHD, we don’t usually start easily – unless it’s impulsive, of course.
ADDadultstrategies 
As someone who was raised by a ton of negative reinforcement – and deals with a lot of it at work, I find it hard to focus on language – and turn it completely around, for that matter. I think it mostly depends on the amount of information you have to deal with. If someone tells me “Don’t do it this way, because then ‘that’ happens and that’s not good” I usually respond pretty well to it. If someone tells me “Do it this way because it’s prettier” and they say it 10 times in the space of 10 minutes, my patience is shot to hell! I try to keep negativity in my vocabulary in small amounts, although I do realize the helpfulness of being positive most of the time.
And this blog certainly was a turning point for me, I have to say. Recently I’ve found that in bad situations, even though my knee-jerk reaction is still negativity, it comes to me naturally to thing “but still, it’s so great that…”
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ram – hope that helps. we do tend to be negative, and it just sabotages us.
this may sound crazy – what would you think of doing a translation?
thank you for contributing
doug
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A translation? Like translating “I need to do…” and “I get to do…” in my native language? I have tried and can’t quite figure it out :p
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ram – actually, believe it or not, i meant the whole book!
doug
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Ah! I see. I have yet to read it – I’ve been procrastrinating on that one – but I would consider it.
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ram do you have the book? if not, do you have a kindle or other reader?
doug
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Oh, Doug, I’m so sorry! Usually I get an E-mail with replies (or is it likes?) and didn’t get one this time. Yes, I have the book on my Kindle.
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ram – the way to read it is a little bit at a time. small steps. you could set a goal of one page a day, the first page will be the hardest. i think it could be helpful to you.
then you could consider the far out possibility of translating it, we could make a deal.
thanks for responding
doug
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ram – try it would be the best thing for me to — (need to) and
am allowed to — (get to)
does that work?
doug
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Reblogged this on ADHD Just Like Me and commented:
This is a super awesome idea, and super important to do when it comes to managing your day-to-day life with ADHD. Give it a quick read, I promise you won’t regret it!
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morgan – glad you like it.. Thank you for commenting. Doug
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morgan – thanks for the reblog. i need to check out your place.
best wishes
doug
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This is awesome! I read a study once in college that our brain can’t process/remember tasks that we use “negative” words to describe. I’ve never heard of/tried using the words “I get to” before. I am definitely going to try it. Thank you so much for sharing!
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Morgan- I hope you will report back on how “I get to.” Works for you.
Thank you for commenting.
Doug
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It’s been working so well! It makes me realize that I have so many more opportunities than a lot of people around the world. And it makes me grateful. Which makes me more likely to do the things that I originally thought were “chores”!
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morgan – great! It shows how important our language and our attitude are, and how they effect each other.
thank you for sharing.
Doug
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Who is sending these out.?
On Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 2:57 PM, ADDadultstrategies wrote:
> The Bully posted: “ADHD Vocabulary: I highly recommend editing your > vocabulary and eliminating the words “should” and “have to.” As soon as we > say one of these bad words to ourselves, we develop automatic unconscious > resistance to doing the task. We really don’t need an” >
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beverly
i’m not clear what you meant? its me?
best wishes
doug
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