How was your weekend?

I can’t believe it’s Sunday!  The end of a weekend, looking back at all that has gotten done, and everything that will move to next weekend’s to do list.  Taking inventory for school lunches for the week, packing backpacks, and getting ready for another week of work.  Sometimes it seems like just as I get into the swing of the weekend, it’s over.

I had great plans for this weekend.  Stay in my pajamas all day (okay, I pulled that one off yesterday!), work on dream boards with my daughters, formalize and crystallize my goals, clean the house.  It all seemed so doable on Friday as I thought about it.  But here, on Sunday night, I accomplished probably 25% of what I set out to do, and never did get to the dream boards!

Living in a house with ADHD in all inhabitants, including the pets, can make it very difficult to accomplish the things we set out to do each day.  It takes a lot of focus and patience to get even 1/10 of what you wanted to get done accomplished.  And that focus and patience take a lot of energy to maintain.  Then, with a lack of energy our focus and patience suffer.  Some days it seems like a vicious circle that is destined to repeat itself.

This week I was asked how to help a mother who is struggling with her child’s coaches regarding his ADHD.  I will direct her to the appropriate legal information, but it always comes back to focus and patience.

In order to have these qualities and to live the best life we can, we must constantly strive to live a life of great understanding.  We must force ourselves to find patience where there otherwise is none, to bring focus to an otherwise very scattered situation.  These are the everyday struggles a family living with ADHD must face, and most importantly, overcome!

I spent a lot of time this weekend thinking about these two traits, where they are present in my own life, and where I need to build them.  It seems we are all capable of exhibiting patience and focus in the areas of our life that we find them to be critical, whether it is our work, parenting, volunteering, our relationships with our spouses.  Yet, when asked, we will all claim this as our toughest struggle.

I wonder, is operating with patience and focus the struggle?  Or is it being able to inject these highly valuable traits into all areas of our lives that seems overwhelming?  I’m not totally sure of the answer, but I will get back to you…