This Is How I Turned ADHD Into A Superpower
The Amplified Impact Podcast
June 24th, 2023
It’s been quite a journey, and I’ve been surprised by how my story about ADHD has resonated with people.
Initially, I hesitated to talk about it as I didn’t want to use it as an excuse or crutch, and at times, I even felt ashamed of it due to societal perceptions.
But as I started sharing my struggles and how I overcame them, I noticed a strong connection with others.
People were particularly interested in how I turned ADHD into a superpower.
And it all started with a mindset shift.
I had to challenge the belief that ADHD was my weakness and accept the possibility of it being a strength.
I searched for reasons to support this new belief and discovered that ADHD brought heightened creativity, boundless energy, hyperfocus abilities, and exceptional pattern recognition and processing speed.
These qualities, when applied to the right endeavors, became strengths.
This perspective shift transformed how I approached life—I played to win, not just for participation.
The key takeaway here is to examine your own limiting beliefs, whether related to ADHD or other struggles.
Challenge those beliefs and question them. You might discover something surprising.
TWEETABLE QUOTE:
“And there’s something different about how you show up to play a game that you know you can win versus a game you show up just to get the participation award.”- Anthony Vicino
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Episode Transcript:
Anthony Vicino [00:00:00]:
What’s up everybody? Welcome back to the pod One of the things that’s really surprised me over the last couple of years of putting out content is which parts of my story have resonated with people the most. It shouldn’t be surprising in hindsight, but for a long time I resisted talking about my ADHD and the struggles that I’ve had with that because I didn’t think it was unique, didn’t think it was particularly special. I didn’t want to use it as a crutch or as an excuse. Part of me was a little bit like ashamed of it because there had been this thing that had been pitched to me for a long time as kind of the reason that I wasn’t successful. And over the years of sharing more of that story and the struggles that I’ve had, and more particularly how I’ve kind of overcome them in a lot of ways, not entirely, but I’ve turned ADHD more into a superpower than into a weakness. The thing that I get questions on the most, I think, is around that concept of like, how did you turn ADHD into a superpower? And also one of the most divisive pieces of that message that gets people really riled up a lot on social media is people coming in and saying like, you know, you are diluting this thing, this neuro divergent handicap. And you are doing people a disservice by saying, oh, it can be a superpower when in fact we’re not the same, we’re less than or whatever. People get really defensive and will take up great arms to defend their weaknesses rather than fighting for their strengths.
Anthony Vicino [00:01:41]:
So that’s one thing I don’t really care to engage with. Those people who are so committed to shielding themselves in their perceived weaknesses, you’re not my people, you’re not my audience. I don’t want to talk to you. I understand that mindset, I’ve been there. But until you can realize that that’s not the way forward, that’s only a limiting belief and you can choose to either be limited or you can be empowered, I can’t help you and my message is going to fall in deaf ears. But for those people who are at that place, whether you have ADHD or you’re just a person who struggles with getting out of their own way, struggles with distraction, focus and getting shit done, all of that. And I think we can all resonate with that because we’re becoming a very add society in a lot of ways with social media and cell phones and all of it. So the question I get a lot though is how did you turn ADHD into a superpower? And there’s a lot of ways I could answer that.
Anthony Vicino [00:02:40]:
There’s the systems, there’s the processes, there’s all that stuff. And I share that in the Hyper Focus Masterclass, which if that’s something that you’re interested in learning about, go check it out@beyondthapex.com. Hyperfocus but Truthfully the Journey to turning ADHD into a Superpower not into a weakness. It really started with a mindset shift, a very simple shift, which was taking the belief that I had the belief that had been kind of beaten into me over the years when I was a child, like my mom. My teachers, the adults in my life who were telling me that I couldn’t focus, that I couldn’t sit still, that I was always bouncing off the wall and that I was hyperactive and that I was different, but not in a good way. Not the good kind of different, just the bad different. And I was disruptive in class, and I was pitched this idea that ADHD was a weakness. It was a limit to my potential in a lot of ways.
Anthony Vicino [00:03:41]:
And I believed that because when everybody in your life is telling you that, then what else will you do? Like, why would you fly in the face of the common wisdom, especially when those people are in a position of authority over you? So for many years, I was fed this limiting belief about my potential, and I never questioned it. And as Orson Scott Card said, we question all of our beliefs except for the beliefs we truly believe and those we never think to question at all and never sought to question my ADHD and how it was a limit to my life. I just knew that it was there, it was my handicap, it was my struggle, and that it was always going to be there. And so it was very easy to point to when I was getting fired or I was having bad relationships or I was struggling in school, to point to that and say, well, of course I’m struggling. I have ADHD. It’s my limit. The change in my life started to begin when I looked at that and I said, this is not helping me to believe this. Whether true or false, it doesn’t matter.
Anthony Vicino [00:04:40]:
This limiting belief is a limit. And you can only ever have one of two beliefs. You can have a limiting belief or an empowering belief. And so when you look at something in your life and you say, that’s holding me back. You can allow it to continue to do that, or you can look on the other side of that coin. You can look for the flip side and say, okay, what does it look like to turn this into an empowering belief? And that was really the start of the journey of turning ADHD into a superpower for me, which was just in the beginning being delusional and saying, ADHD is my superpower. And instead of looking for reasons to support the thesis that it was my weakness, I started looking for reasons to support the idea that it was in fact my superpower. And what I discovered was that in a lot of ways, it was a superpower.
Anthony Vicino [00:05:21]:
So it began in the beginning as like this delusional affirmation to myself. But through the search that belief I realized actually was true. And there’s an important message here which is that any belief held with enough conviction will inevitably become true. So you need to be really careful about what those beliefs are that you cling to. If you cling to your limiting beliefs, they will limit you. If you cling to your empowering beliefs, they will empower you. And so for me, with ADHD, I told myself this is my superpower, I’m going to look on the other side of the coin. I know it’s a weakness in some areas, but surely there are areas where it’s a power.
Anthony Vicino [00:05:57]:
And I found, you know, what it really is. I’m more creative than other people, I have more energy, I have the ability to hyper focus for hours on end when I’m really intrigued by thing. I have insane pattern recognition skills and I have insane processing speed. All of these things can be a superpower when applied to the right vehicle. And the problem for so much of my life and the reason it was so easy to believe the lie that ADHD was my weakness was because I was playing other people’s games. I was put into games that my ADHD was in fact a weakness. Right, school system, sit still, listen, face forward, do the assignment, raise your hand to ask your questions. I was not designed to function and thrive in that world, so of course I did poorly, which then reaffirmed, oh yes, ADHD is a weakness.
Anthony Vicino [00:06:45]:
But as I got older and I realized I get to define success and I get to define the rules of the game, how I want to play them, I started choosing games that were geared for my skills, were geared for using my ADHD as a strength and not a weakness. And what I discovered is on those playing fields, those battlegrounds, I was unstoppable that I was a different player entirely. So the way that I think about this was I was growing up and everybody was forcing me to play basketball, but I’m only five nine and I can’t jump to save my life. I was bad at basketball. And then later in life I realized I don’t need to play that game. That doesn’t have to be the game that defines my life. In fact, I can play this other game. I could play ping pong.
Anthony Vicino [00:07:26]:
And suddenly over here at ping pong, all these things that used to be a weakness are now like a superpower, right? So that was really the start of turning ADHD into a superpower, was one in the beginning, just affirming it and saying it, but not necessarily really believing it, but just knowing that the alternative was unacceptable. And through that I started to discover, oh, this belief that I hold with enough conviction, I can make it come true. And I started looking for scenarios, putting myself into positions to have ADHD actually be a superpower. And so these days I only play games that I know I can win. Think about that. I only play games that I know I can win. And I encourage you to look at your life whether you have ADHD or you have whatever your struggles are, because we all have them, whatever your limiting beliefs are, ask yourself, am I playing a game that I am just fundamentally not suited to win? And then ask yourself, why are you playing it? Is it because society, your parents, your family has this expectation that you should be playing that game? That’s not a good way to live life. You’re going to get to the end of this road and you’re going to look back with regret because you never got to stand on the podium.
Anthony Vicino [00:08:39]:
You are only ever in the game, but never actually winning. And there’s something different about how you show up to play a game that you know you can win versus a game you show up just to get the participation award. And that’s how I felt throughout my school and my 20s, was I felt like I was just showing up to get the participation award because I knew I was never going to be the best there. And when you’re not playing in a realm where you know you can be your best, your greatness just starts to shrink inside and you feel discontent and frustrated and you’re not moving anywhere, and you’re certainly not living up to your potential. So things change dramatically when you start entering into arenas where you go, I can win this game. You start playing differently, you start showing up differently, you start playing the game of life at a higher level. And that really was the beginning of the journey for me. Now, from there, I had to implement a lot of systems and frameworks and processes to help focus this wild energy.
Anthony Vicino [00:09:38]:
And I cover all that stuff again in the Hyperfocus Masterclass. Check it out. Beyond theapex.com hyperfocus. But I hope this brings you a little bit of value if you’re out there and you’re struggling with ADHD right now, and you can’t see a world where you can actually transition from it being a weakness to a strength. I hope this gives a little bit of clarity. Even if you’re not struggling with ADHD, just understand that we all have our limits, limiting beliefs that we cling to. And so I encourage you today to spend a little bit of time examining what are those limiting beliefs that you hold onto so tightly that you never even think to question. And then I want you to question them.
Anthony Vicino [00:10:12]:
So I’m psyched to see you guys back here tomorrow, but until then, stay hyper focused, my friend.
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