“You're going too fast! Slow down!”

“Slow and steady wins the race!”

“Why do you risk so much?”

ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, the disorder that is represented by those that are quick to react, do not think things through before acting, and are always on the go! (The Energizer Bunny!)

But what if we saw this differently. I mean, suppose you see this differently. I use the name FastBraiin because that is exactly what our brains are doing, going fast! I even typed the word fast when I came up with the name, and misspelled it! So, I trademarked it, not giving into the idea that it was wrong!

When the quarterback is taking less than 3 seconds to determine who and where to throw the ball down the field, and he does it successfully, we call him a star. When a baseball player hits a home run after determining where to swing the bat within 1 second of it leaving the pitcher’s hand, we call him a star.

Yet in both cases, the quarterback may throw an interception or incompletion, and the batter may strike out. We look at what they can do overall. Can the quarterback lead his team to victory despite multiple “failures”? When a baseball player hits the ball safely getting on base only one-third of the time, we promote him into the hall of fame!

How come we don't view our children this way? We get upset with the one failure and miss the home runs they are capable of hitting. How come we treat ourselves this way?!

What gives? The Tortoise and the Hare are what started it all. I understand that it is a fairy tale, but slow and steady in business DOES NOT WIN! In the book, Good to Great, the author went to great pains in showing how those corporations that slowly grew their company, adhered to a systematic growth, and kept a slow steady pace were all successful companies and should be copied!

Now “fast” forward years later, and all those companies have taken a hit, and all have fallen. The reason they failed was due to their inability to adapt, to adapt quickly to a changing market!

If you had $500 to bet on the second race between the Tortoise and the Hare, nearly everyone would place their bets on the hare, because the hare understands why he lost the first race--he took a nap! Was he slower? No. Was he quicker? Yes. Did he think he had enough time to do the task? Yes. Truly the hare is ADHD / FastBraiin!

My oldest son is one of the quickest tennis and basketball players I have ever seen. In high school, he would be slowly going down the court and then in a sudden burst of acceleration he would explode by his opponent and either go to the basket or give a “no-look” pass to a teammate for a score.

Everyone was always amazed at his ability! Fast, not particularly. Quick, and quick to adapt and change as he saw the court or his environment? Definitely! When playing tennis for Clemson University he was the same way, always having the ability to quickly chase down a drop shot or a ball hit deep into the corner of the court. He would pivot and explode with his first step and then accelerate to hit the ball.

It's not about who's first out the gate, but who accelerates to the finish line

The same can be said of those who are trying to start fast but take a while to accelerate. The fastest runner at the Olympics was the slowest out of the starting blocks, but by the time he reached his stride at the 30-meter mark, he was on his way to passing everyone for the 100 meter Gold Medal.

Did you watch the top swimmers and how they started at one speed, only to accelerate on the last lap to win it all!? All of these are examples of people going faster to get to their goal by understanding acceleration. The FastBraiin individual loves speed and competition that involves acceleration. This can be seen in sports, the arts, service industry, or in business. (10 dream jobs for ADHD minds).

We expect the quarterback to throw a completion, and we expect the ball player to hit the home run. Yet the game is played to see if it is going to happen. In business and in grade school, how often we do not allow the mistake, the strike out, and we cut the student or business plan short. We do it short because we expected it faster, and we did it prior to the acceleration toward success.

The speed of success and the acceleration toward success are different. When a company does not accelerate anymore, we at first support their slowness to change and support the “slow and steady” mentality. When the company falls behind, or an employee fails to adapt and change with the speed of the moment, we are at a loss in understanding. We have all been told that speed is wrong!

Check out these 21 ADHD celebrities who embraced their speed and adapted quickly to changing environments, allowing their potential to truly shine!

FastBraiin is a brand. A brand of speed, acceleration, of mistakes, and of success. We learn to adapt, to see our mistakes as a pathway to greatness, and we are never complacent with the status quo. School and parents fail to see and teach this concept. Those that do, succeed and continue to succeed as they learn from mistakes. Mistakes can be the best teacher, but only if we are allowed to make them, and only if we are allowed to learn from them!

Learn from your mistakes

The hare, he learned from his mistake! In the second race, he left the tortoise in the dust, not stopping for a nap or a drink of water, but accelerated to the finish line. He still needed help in getting there, but he understood himself and his needs, calling on others to help guide him around the course.

As our expectations are allowed to change, and our mistakes help guide us to a goal that also changes. We must teach and allow ourselves to focus on the prize. It is only then that we are true to ourselves, playing the game the way our brain is wired and not by someone else’s rules. Then we can say to others and to ourselves: “We fought the good fight. We ran the good race”.

5 Quick Tips to Help You Embrace the Speed of ADHD

1. Pursue Your Passions

   What fires you up? What gets you excited? What do you dream about? Go for it. What do you have to lose? When you are chasing your dreams and operating in your gift set, your speed will come out naturally.

2. Bust your tail in practice

   You aren't going to get anywhere without hard work. Be the hardest worker you can. Practice and practice some more. After hours and hours of laboring over your craft, you will know instinctively how to act or react in any situation.

3. Embrace the certainty of mistakes

   You are going to mess up. You might totally blow it. Go ahead and embrace this fact. Fear and creativity don't mix well, they are like oil and water. As long as you are afraid of failing, you won't get into the zone you need to in order to perform well. The best performances are confident and fearless. A great step in that direction is to understand you may certainly make mistakes, and that's okay. Nothing to fear.

4. Learn from your mistakes

   The great thing about mistakes is that they become our great teachers. Be thankful for them. Mistakes are opportunities to grow, learn, and develop. What can you learn from your mistakes? Write them down. How might your practice routine or study routine need to change based on what you learned?

5. Persevere

   After you fall, it's time to get back up and get after your dreams again. Shake it off. Keep moving forward, one step at a time. You never know when your breakthrough is going to happen. Whatever you do, don't quit.

         "It was by perseverance that the snail reached the ark." - Charles Spurgeon