The Secret Plan for ADHD For Life: Part 1

Background: Basically, I’m a pretty innovative-minded, creative guy who loves starting big projects but finds it hard to maintain routine without the adrenaline rush of novelty and consistent motivation. So when I met Dr. Claire, our ideas got flowing and we saw the opportunity to combine our personal experiences of medicine, management, and ADHD to help people get out of their own way and add as much value to their lives as possible.

The initial product of ADHD For Life was group-coaching educational programs called Getting It Done with ADHD and Showing Up, Together. However, some readers may not be aware of the fact that our long term plan is to build a range of products, including affordably priced mental health support and technology. This is because the overarching purpose of Boss Of Your Brain (and the reason I am funding the company) is to move away from the burnout, hustle, break-down, and quietly quitting or resigning society towards people being more efficient with our most valuable and unrenewable resource… our time.

Critical to making this happen is coaching and software backed by research-based psychology, which is why the ADHD coaching programs are delivered with Dr. Claire Sira who is a registered psychologist who specializes in, not just ADHD, but in the executive functioning skills of the brain. Some may question whether this helps anyone aside from the person with ADHD. Will it make a difference beyond an individual feeling better? Aren’t mental health professionals already able to offer this help?

The answer to these questions is both yes and no. However, this misses the point of the plan alluded to above. When people are burnt out, it’s due to being overwhelmed with decisions, trying to remember too many things, and constantly flipping between mundane small tasks which exhausts their brains. The strategy of Boss Of Your Brain is to enter the coaching market, where customers are prepared to pay for support and community, then move into providing technology that simplifies and automates tasks for doctors when assessing for mental health disorders, and then extrapolating the executive functioning coaching into interactive software for individuals to use in their daily lives.

Without giving away too much, I can say the technology for doctors will improve accuracy of assessments and reduce the doctor’s assessment time allowing for more time spent on treatment and therapy. And the interactive software for individuals will be affordable and help people be more efficient so they have more time for education, family, and personal growth. In keeping with a fast growing technology company, all free cash flow is plowed back into R&D to convert psychology into practical, useful products, and bring new products to market as fast as possible. When someone pays for the coaching programs, they are actually helping pay for the development of practical mental health technology, so more people can be productive and better contribute to the society we all share.

Now, I’d like to address the repeated arguments against mental health programs -- only used when someone breaks, stigmatising beliefs, and the information is already out there.

Mental health is for when something or someone breaks!

I wouldn’t recommend waiting until you have a breakdown before looking at improving your mental state of mind. People often wait until they physically collapse, have a divorce, get fired, even get arrested before looking at their own wellbeing. People are willing to spend hours on their physical health by walking, running, and exercising and focusing on mental wellbeing for the same amount of time will result in significant gains and better quality of life. Boss Of Your Brain programs and products are meant to better manage your life long term and hopefully prevent problems before something, or someone, breaks.

Stigma for getting mental health

A common rebuttal to seeing a psychologist or doctor about mental health is that it’s embarrassing to need “serious” help with our emotions and mind. However, when the same knowledge and expertise is put into coaching, people are often proud of it and they will promote to friends that they have a coach. Then it’s often seen as investing in self care and “wellbeing,” instead of fixing a broken part of you.

Take this one step further with the third phase of software for individuals. The “serious” help of evidence-based knowledge and expertise is found within and delivered through a phone or wearable, so a personalized “butler” of mental health service is providing prompts and support to the customer all of the time.

This isn’t just another piece of software touting convenience. It supports the actual problem - the feelings of overwhelm, having to remember too many things, and flipping between mundane tasks that exhausts our brains and leads to burnout.

The fix is found on the internet and social media

The explosion of social media has caused a flood of information to be posted. We can learn much from people online, if we find good sources of information. To sidestep the heated discussion of misinformation and politics, the truth is, we are drowning in information. Social platforms are willing to certify famous people but these people are not true experts. With all the news, social posting, and video watching, there is little room in people’s lives for anything else. We are overloaded and exhausted from figuring out if the information pouring in is good or bad.

There are people who want to be helpful but have poor delivery, which often makes things worse. They may say insensitive things such as: “get over it”, “can’t you focus harder?”’ This is why seeking help is a vulnerable step and unless the helper is educated, ethical, and aware of the consequences of mis-steps, it’s not helpful. The alternative is that people decide to find the information themselves and have to sort through the masses of information independently.

Having an educated and ethical source, like Dr. Claire, providing knowledge and coaching in a safe environment (i.e. the ADHD For Life coaching programs), allows people to seek help and receive reliable support in a helpful manner.

Becoming Mental Wellbeing Positive

Unless you are fortunate enough to sit on a mountain top and have your food delivered to you while you meditate, you are in the thick of managing stress, anxiety, family, and work. You will therefore want to be “wellbeing positive” with respect to how you’re going about your life. This is a step beyond self help and therapy for oneself. Being mental wellbeing positive means you are setting a priority on your growth and also contributing to a system that helps others for their own betterment.

So in short, the master plan is:

1. Build coaching programs that work

2. Use that money for software to efficiently and accurately assess disorders

3. Use that money to build a personalized butler software for individuals