Overcoming Distractions The Podcast

This week we have a great conversation about schooling, music and proving people wrong. Yes, that’s a thing in the world of ADHD. Jesse Friedberg (aka Jesse Jukebox) is a Cleveland-based children’s musician who grew up struggling with ADHD and we discuss a number of topics during our conversation. In school, Jesse had challenges with paying attention like many kids with ADHD and he also had challenges in speech delay which made learning in school even more difficult. With the proper support and guidance, Jesse went on the Berkeley College of Music in Boston and studied songwriting. Jesse talks about how teachers called him stupid when he was young and how that made him feel. As well as how it motivated him to prove them wrong. Jesse went on the earn a Master’s Degree in early childhood education and now teaches among others, kids that might have been like him in his early years. He talks about what it took for a kid with ADHD to get through schooling at that level. He talks about how now as a teacher, he does

We are going right back to health and wellness 101 on this podcast episode. The guest this week is Dr. Pat Boulogne, founder of Health Team Network and the author of Why Are You Sick, Fat and Tired? And we’re talking about getting back to the basics of being healthy and fit. Dr. Pat and Dave talk about how many have either let their health decline during COVID-19 and how many others have taken this time to get back in shape, eat healthier and get on a better path and healthier lifestyle overall. Why is it a challenge for some to get healthy and stay fit? Dr. Pat discusses why this may happen and some tips to stay focused on that healthier lifestyle. Dr. Pat also talks about the signs that we need to be aware of before we let our health and wellbeing go too far. Dr. Pat walks us through some of the basic steps to get our health and wellness back in order, and back on track. We talk about how to implement healthy habits into our daily lives and how to make it easy and simple to follow. And Dr. Pat wraps up our

Are you an overthinker, procrastinator, or book lover? Are you distracted but focused all at the same time? Do you hate waiting but love daydreaming new ideas? And do you feel you have multipotentiality? You might be a gifted adult. This podcast is dedicated to those who feel they are gifted adults. The guest this time is Paula Prober, a licensed psychotherapist and the author of two books, Your Rainforest Mind and Journey into your Rainforest Mind. Paula begins by talking about her definition of someone who has the rainforest mind including qualities, and examples of those gifted adults. She also discusses some of the challenges of gifted adults including waiting for things, overwhelm and meeting up to one’s potential as well as the ability to focus. Paula talks about the many gifts of those who are gifted adults and talks about where the term rainforest mind comes from. And she gives advice for anyone who might need a little help in fostering their gifts. Find Paula Prober at: https://rainforestmind.wordpre

I’m looking for you the listener to tell your story and at the same time, give others advice on how to minimize the distractions in life, become more focused and get more out of life. It does not have to be focused around ADHD. As long as you can provide value to the listeners of Overcoming Distractions. If you have experience in creating time management practices, entrepreneurship, productivity, and solid tips for those in business, that will help others. If you have an inspirational story of how you have overcome the odds in life, or business and become successful despite some setbacks, please send in your story. Did you have a horrible time in school? Let’s talk. Have you found the perfect career and want to share that with others, lets talk. Have you come up with an awesome business idea? Cool, lets talk. Go to https://overcomingdistractions.com/ and hit the Contact page. Don’t forget to fill in as much detail as you can including what other listeners can take away from our discussion. Remember, I cannot

If you are looking for some great advice on how to achieve some peace of mind in this busy world, this is a great podcast for you to listen to. Giovanni Dienstmann is the guest and he is a meditation teacher and coach. Giovanni is also the author of Practical Medication, A Simple Step by Step Guide. Giovanni calmly walks us through some of his approach to gaining a more peaceful life on this episode. We talk about the concept of the monkey mind, what it is and what the monkey mind can prevent us from doing in life and business. How the monkey mind clutters our thoughts and ways we can tame that distracted mind. Giovanni discusses the three pillars of mindfulness including calm, centered and focused. He discussed the difference between all of them and how achieving some mastery over these traits, we can become much more relaxed and aware of our minds, body and surroundings. Giovanni gives his experts tips on how to get started on a mindfulness program and simple exercises to begin the practice of mindfulness.

For many people, feeling guilty is a daily thing. It consumes our way of thinking and it can paralyze us, and get in the way of feeling good about ourselves. It can also control our thinking and be the go-to reaction to many circumstances we encounter in life and in business. This is a podcast about guilt and other feelings we encounter in our lives. The guest is Nancy Colier a psychotherapist and author of the books, “Inviting a Monkey to Tea: Befriending Your Mind and Discovering Lasting Contentment, among other publications. Nancy talks about what guilt is and she defines guilt as well as discusses where guilt originates from in our lives. Have we trained our brains to feel guilty? She answers that important question as is there a part of the brain that feels guilty. We talk about how sometimes we feel guilt and we don not even know it because it has become a major part of our lives. Why do some people anticipate guilt before it evens happens? And how do shame and guilt live together in our minds? Nancy wa

This podcast has pretty much nothing to do with ADHD and everything to do with personal growth, development, creating successful habits and achieving goals. There’s a story here for everyone who wants more out of life. But, if you do have ADHD, or not...you will learn a lot about focus and habits from this discussion with Alicia Doyle. Alicia Doyle is the guest and she is the author of Fighting Chance, the story of her journey from journalist to female boxing champion. Alicia describes her journey starting as a reporter covering a boxing gym for youth and how that ultimately got her into the sport of boxing. Dave and Alicia discuss a number of topics about her training including the feeling she got out of training, how she gained more focus through boxing and why it was critical, and she discusses the personal benefits from training in the world of boxing. She discusses what she is most proud of as a result of training in the sport of boxing and what others can take away from her journey in the boxing world.

If you are looking for a creative outlet and have some fun at the same time, you’ll enjoy this discussion with Grant Crowell, author of the book, Grantasms. The book has hundreds of made up words created by the author to describe all kinds of people, situations and other things that might bother us, make us happy or, need a more accurate description. What is a nononoshow? What’s a social beef? And are you a gerk? ADHD or not, you’ll have a laugh and maybe learn a few things about yourself in this podcast and figure out that there is a word for everything! Grant talks about the inspiration he had in writing the book and the creative efforts it took to build a library of word to describe some of our everyday situations. He uses many in our discussion, (like they were our first language…) and he goes through some of his favorite Grantasms. He speaks about how creating and using these words, he has been able to interrupt many negative patterns in his brain and clear a path to creativity and focus. Grant also spea

We have Dr. Hackie Reitman back from DifferentBrains.org on this podcast to discuss why we all need some inspirational stories in our lives to boost our mood. Hackie is the founder of Different Brains, a website that has tremendous resources for all types of brains and is an incredible place to learn and be inspired. Hackie recently published a blog about Hunter Wittrock, a young man with cerebral palsy who trained for months to be able to walk across the stage to get his diploma. Dave and Hackie discuss that story and why others stories just like it help to improve our mood and sometimes get us out of a slump or bad day. Dave and Hackie talk about what they think his motivation might have been and what others can take away from his strong desire to make such an impact for his own life. Hackies discusses why he feels we need these stories in our live and how they help the brain cope with bad days and how they assist us in improving our moods. How can we create these stores for ourselves? Hackie talks about th

People, whether they have  ADHD or not, are always looking for ways to build more confidence and get rid of the doubt going on inside their heads. This week, we’ll talk about going from doubt, to increasing your self-confidence with Rochelle Seltzer, and executive coach based just outside of Boston, MA. Some of the discussion points we have during the conversation include talking about what cause doubt in our lives including business and in our personal life. We talk about whether doubt is the same has being stuck and how the two can work together to get in the way of moving forward in life. We discuss how some people may have a real burst of confidence and the suddenly have that last-minute doubt when it’s time to execute on a project or other large life event. We talk about self-sabotage and if they could be related. The discussion transitions to what confidence can do for us in business and in life and Rochelle talks about the process for changing your mindset from constant doubt to having more confidence.

There are many of us that have a different relationship with time. By that, some of us are what we call time blind. That is when we not only loose track of time, but also have difficulty estimating how much time you might need to perform some task or project. You do Not have to have an ADHD diagnosis to experience being time blind. All brains can underestimate time for a whole host of reasons. But those with ADHD, do get most of the attention when it comes to the subject of time. This podcast, Dave talks with Jaclyn Paul a writer and Ap developer. Jaclyn also runs the website ADHD Homestead where she writes about ADHD and all types of topics associated with it. Jaclyn wrote an article recently about how she combats her time blindness and Dave and Jaclyn discuss some of her techniques. Jaclyn and Dave discuss what being time blind looks like and what can happen when we completely lose track of time. And they chat about how sometimes being time blind can be humorous and how many times it can be frustrating. Jac

If you have ever felt like you did not belong in a certain situation or you thought you were not good enough to be working in a career or job, this is a great podcast episode for you to listen to. Impostor Syndrome is feeling inadequate in various settings or having a feeling that you have not earned the right to be where you are. Are you working in a career that you did not get a formal education in? Are you constantly in a room full of very successful people and feel out of place or feel like a fraud?  That’s impostor Syndrome. In this podcast on Impostor Syndrome, we talk with Jen Coken and she walks us through what impostor syndrome is, how it might be formed and why we think we have not earned the right to be where we are in life. Jen works as an executive coach, a speaker and she holds several other programs to help individuals achieve their best and get the most out of life and career. You’ll also find her performing stand up comedy from time to time so you know this podcast interview is going to be a

On this episode of Overcoming Distractions, we talk about a common buzzword lately and that’s the topic of pivoting. You can call it pivoting, change of direction, or change of course. Whatever you want to term it, some of us are going to make a major change in our lives more than once. For many with ADHD, we can get pretty good with this. But this podcast is a great discussion for anyone who is considering a major change in their life. You do not have to have ADHD to benefit from this discussion. The guest this week is Sherry Dutra of Dutra Associates. Sherry is a professional certified coach working in New England but has had clients all over the world. She works in the areas of talent development, career management as well as serving as a retirement coach for many. She has a wealth of expertise when it comes to making major life and career changes. We often hear the word Pivot so Dave asks Sherry what pivoting really means. We talk about some of the more common reasons that would cause someone to want to m

We have Dr. Lara Honos-Webb back on Overcoming Distractions to talk about how to make your gifts shine with ADHD. Many of us with ADHD need to work extra hard to find our gifts as well as believe that our ADHD can be a gift. With so many negative thoughts about our attention span and other traits, we often feel that our ADHD is a total curse. Dr. Honos Webb gives is a sense of why there is so much stigma in the public associated with having a differently wired brain. And we reverse that question to find out why so many with ADHD have a personal sigma about themselves and not believe in their own gifts. She also helps listeners understand how we can actually convince ourselves that we have gifts associated with our ADHD. We may fall into that negative talking trap and she walks us through how we can all better understand our gist and positive qualities. We talk about the workplace and ADHD and how we can gain more confidence in the workplace and how we can thrive and show our boss or our employer how valuable

The power of positive self-talk is the topic for this important podcast this time. There are many ways to thrive with Adult ADHD and many ways to focus on your strengths. This episode is decided to having a positive mindset and learning how to be nice to yourself. The guest this week is Lara Honos Webb, a clinical psychologist based in California and the author of many books on ADHD. We talk about how many of us, ADHD or not, get stuck in a trap of negative self talk and where that negativity comes from. For many with ADHD or other types of different brains, school was not a great place for us and in many cases, it was the cause of negative thoughts and patterns. We discuss they types of things you may find in common with people that get in this habit of negative self talk and how this can progress into other areas of life. Lara talks about how negative self talk can affect us and affect others around us and why it is such a negative force in our lives. We discuss the benefits of positive self talk and why it

This week, Benjamin Cheyette, M.D. is back on Overcoming Distractions to speak about how you can embrace your ADHD brain. Many of those with ADHD do struggle with many of the negative aspects of having ADHD but countless also embrace that ADHD brain they were given and have used it for forge great careers and launch successful businesses. On this podcast, we discuss how adults with ADHD can embrace their strengths that come with ADHD and learn how to live with and manage some of the limitations that they might be experiencing. We also first take the time to discuss why some individuals may or may not identity themselves as ADHD or having ADHD and we do address how some may struggle with getting to a place where they can feel they are thriving in life.    Dr. Cheyette also talks about the fact that some run away from their ADHD and decide not to address it or even characterize themselves as someone who just might have a different brain. We discuss the pros and cons of that situation. How do we work toward embr

The title of this podcast interview is interesting and so is the project by the same name. What would our world look like without the minds of those with ADHD? The ADHD mind is responsible for so many of the inventions, discoveries and other things we enjoy and many of us are unaware of that. Those with ADHD are thinkers and problem solvers and so much progress has been made by the minds of neurodiversity. This podcast has Dr. Kirsten Milliken and ADHD Coach Kris Mitchell as guests. Their project “Would You Want to Live In A World Without ADHD?” is meant to show the world that there have been many positives from the world of ADHD. We always hear about negatives with ADHD but the three talk about some of the positive aspects of ADHD. They discuss why those without ADHD should change their perspective about ADHD as well as individuals with ADHD. Both can have a negative view. The group talks about why so many with ADHD need to chart their own course including some of the professionals they profile on the websit

For most of us, we want to be truly happy and that involves finding out who we really are, what we were put on this earth to do and our purpose in life. Not the meaning of life, but our purpose. And that’s what this podcast is all about. Back again is Grandmaster Chris Berlow from Empowered Mastery and he talks about how to identify your purpose and get to know yourself a little better. Chris talks about ways to find happiness in your life and how to identify your own personal values as well as why that is important to everyone. He also defines happiness as he sees it and it is not all related to money. Chris also walks us through what Empowered Mastery calls the LAB Report which is the Life Alignment Blueprint which he walks many of his clients through to help them create clarity in their lives. And he talks about how to draft a Worthy Ideal which is a personal statement of what is important to you in life as an individual. You can find Grandmaster Chris Berlow at: https://empoweredmastery.com/

What is ADHD? What role does dopamine play in the brain? How does dopamine work in the brain? These are some of the questions we answer in this episode of Overcoming Distractions the podcast this week. Benjamin Cheyette, MD, Ph.D is the guest this week and we go back to some basics of ADHD and the brain. Maybe you were diagnosed with ADHD but don’t really know more about the how ADHD really works and what some of the characteristics are. Ben breaks ADHD down beautifully and with a lot of detail. Ben and Dave spend a lot of time on dopamine. What dopamine is and how it works in the brain. Dopamine is not an ADHD thing. Every human relies on dopamine as well as animals and Ben walks us through a very detailed explanation from the neuroscience point of view. Ben says that it is the reward system for the brain, and we all need it. Ben also takes time to distinguish between short term dopamine rushes such as when someone likes your photo on social media and longer term dopamine such as when you find the job and ca

This week on Overcoming Distractions, we talk with Brendan Mahan about what he calls the Wall of Awful. Brendan who has been on the podcast before and was featured in the book, Overcoming Distractions talks about how those who struggle with various takes can find a way to tackle those responsibilities that might be plaguing them to no end. Brendan is also the founder of ADHD Essentials and coaches individuals of all ages. He runs the popular podcast by the same name. Brendan says that there is a progression that many with ADHD go through when it comes to getting things accomplished. They run from failure, disappointment, rejection, worry, self-doubt and the emotions run high sometimes. There are just some days when anyone, regardless of whether they have ADHD or not, can run into this Wall of Awful and we need to find ways to tackle this wall. Brendan talks about the ways in which you can tackle the Wall of Awful. Some ways are much better than others. He talks about putting a door in the wall, smashing thoug