Today’s guest Rachel says:  I was a distraction. I could be disruptive. I used to think this was the way it was always going to be.  I used to believe the labels that had been assigned to me through my life were who I was. My brain was like popcorn and would work at four million miles per hour. I really thought this was my identity and who I was. I had allowed myself to be defined by the labels and experiences, rather than using them to shape me. I believed I would never be good enough because ‘that’ was who I was, and you can’t change …. Or can you? Powered by a supercharged ADHD driven mind. I am sharing the motivation, inspiration and perspiration from the university of my life. 

 

I’m Rachel Young, I was put on this planet to make a difference to people’s lives and to get people moving, both physically and mentally. I am a highly motivated (and very easily distracted) character.  Simply put, I love the fitness industry and I love nothing more than helping others to become the best version of themselves.  I have over 30 years of experiences, stories, highs and lows from my adventures in the fitness industry. I am driven by people but results are key and that is what I deliver. I’ve worked around the world in exciting, high profile roles and love nothing more than meeting new people and enabling others to achieve their true potential. 

I am passionate about fitness, health and wellbeing; physical, mental and emotional - you can’t be truly ‘well’ unless you focus on them all. This passion is backed up by my knowledge and expertise in all things programming, training, education, products, member experience and retention. I am an innovative motivator who thrives on rising to any challenge; I love a challenge and the thrill of the chase. I am ferociously committed to sharing my experience of refocusing, rewiring & redefining myself, my personal development, my life experiences and my life in the fitness world, with the intention of making an impact on you. My videos and stories are underpinned by my personal story of self development, acknowledging my ADHD traits and how, by harnessing these, I have been able to make dramatic change in all aspects of my life. I have had incredibly dark times in my life as I am sure we all have. I have worked through these and have grown to understand and appreciate how our brains works, especially in challenging times. This journey has been an incredible roller -coaster; it hasn’t been an easy ride, but it certainly is worth it! Lockdown forced the extrovert to look in, there were no distractions or excuses to make - its was finally time to bring all the learning together and launch my website: https://www.areyousupercharged.com/ 

 

Today we’re learning about physical, mental and emotional health. Enjoy!

***CORONA VIRUS EDITION***

In this episode Peter & Rachel discuss:

:55-  Intro and welcome Rachel Young!

1:29-  Tell us your story!

4:08-  When you are labeled in school as “one of the naughty kids” it almost becomes a self fulfilling prophecy doesn’t it; let’s talk about that.

6:58-  If you could tell your 14yr-old-self something from what you know today, what would that be?

7:33-  What do you think we’re missing or leaving out when we talk to kids about neurodiversity today?

8:44-  On the ADHD “Now” and the “Not Now”

9:26-  How do you handle people in the workplace who are not neurodiverse like us; how do you handle deadlines, schedules and so on?

10:40-  What’s a-day-in-the-life like for you Rachel?

12:07-  How do you bring yourself back, if you fall out of that “zone of focus”?

14:52-  What is your other superpower?

Find Rachel on the web at www.areyousupercharged.com and on Socials @ChargedAre on Twitter, areyousupercharged on INSTA, @AreYouSupercharged on FB and on YouTube & LinkedIn

15:25-  Thank you Rachel! And thank YOU for subscribing, reviewing and listening. Your reviews are working! Even if you’ve reviewed us before, would you please write even a short one for this episode? Each review that you post helps to ensure that word will continue to spread, and that we will all be able to reach & help more people! You can always reach me via peter@shankman.com or @petershankman on all of the socials. You can also find us at @FasterThanNormal on all of the socials.

STAY HEALTHY - STAY SAFE - PLEASE WEAR YOUR MASK.. until next time!

15:56-  Faster Than Normal Podcast info & credits

As always, leave us a comment below and please drop us a review on iTunes and of course, subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already! As you know, the more reviews we get, the more people we can reach. Help us to show the world that ADHD is a gift, not a curse! Do you know of anyone you think should be on the FTN podcast? Shoot us a note, we’d love to hear!

We have a new sister video cast called 20MinutesInLockdown! A video podcast devoted to learning fascinating lessons from interesting humans all around the world, all in 20 minutes or less!  20 Minutes in Lockdown was born in early April of 2020, when we were in fact, in lockdown, and couldn’t do much of anything. Realizing that more than ever, people could benefit from learning from people outside of their comfort zone – people with interesting stories to tell, people with good advice, people with useful ideas that could help improve lives, we started hosting short Facebook video interviews, and we grew from there. (Plus, you can actually see my hair colors change before your very eyes!) Check it out:  www.20MinutesInLockdown.com

 

TRANSCRIPT:

Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of faster than normal. I'm thrilled that you're here. We took a couple of weeks off this summer when all around the world explore and had lovely dinners.  No we're not going any of that crap, we're still in a little pandemic. Wear your masks! But that being said is great to be back and we get a great guests. 

Today we're going all the way to Nottingham England to welcome Rachel Young, Rachel is a director of business development in the fitness industry, and she has had ADHD pretty much all her life and she realized what used to be a horrendous challenge has moved her to what she calls a supercharged, ADHD, driven mind, and she shares what innovation, inspiration and perspiration. From the university of her life. So welcome, Rachel. Good to have you. 

Thanks very much for having me Peter, I’m pretty excited to be here today and to be able to share with you.

Love it. I love it. Tell us your story. So you were never formally diagnosed, but tell us your story about how you discovered it, how you discovered it. You see, what was it like as a kid? Tell us the whole thing.  

As you said never formally diagnosed, but I was kind of mislabeled and misdiagnosed at school and fell into the naughty kid brackets and actually wore that incredibly well. Um, I was the one that was easily, easily distracted. Um, the one that I couldn't pay attention put outside class because you weren't in zone and you weren't focusing. So then you put outside of class, you're kind of hanging out with all the other naughty kids. And you almost fall into that category of, of misbehaving. Um, I always thought that, you know, the constant noise and chatter in my head was, was what everybody had. And there was journeys throughout my life where I'd been incredibly successful, but in spite of myself, and I didn't understand what was going on. And so I actually threw myself headfirst into. Lots of kind of self management and thriving on the stress, thriving on life, working horrendous long hours to almost self medicate, clearly throwing yourself into alcohol and the wrong things. But then finally sort of was able to appreciate that it was probably better than the circumstances, better than what was going on. And it was actually locked down and been on a bit of a journey, you know, throughout my life , knowing that I had to recognize this. But actually locked down is a, is a tiny I've actually thrived upon irrespective of, you know, the challenging circumstances. And as a, as a natural extrovert, I was forced to look in. There was no distractions. There were no excuses. There was no reason to focus on anything else. Apart from looking inward and looking at myself and going actually. How do I stop this noise that I intermittently stopped over the years? How do I focus on making myself the best version of me? And I have to admit, to be honest with you. I was pretty scared. I was pretty scared at the beginning of lockdown, not for health reasons, but I was actually scared what was going to what I was going to find by looking in. How I was going to be able to manage it and deal with it. And I kind of appreciated over the journey that the things that I've learned through my life, the learnings that I dipped in and out, all of them in terms of trying to study, I could actually leverage by just focusing a little bit differently. The first port of call I went to was kind of a meditation. 

Let's stop for a second. Let's go back to what you were saying about school. You know, it's really interesting when, when you are labeled as one of the naughty kids and almost as a self fulfilling prophecy, right? In the respect of, well, if you labeled that way and you're not in class, you're going to get into trouble.

Yeah, 100% and you almost, you wear those labels. So it was my, my identity and I, it was who I became. And during those times at school, you know, the rest of the group were. Almost looking to me to be the joker. And actually I became the cool kid. So I was, you know, I had loads of friends, but I wasn't, I wasn't very well popular with the family when my school reports would come home. And actually more recently I've looked at all my old school reports and I read them and I, it was a real eye opener, that things like a disruptive, the less said the better, um, I want those labels really stuck with me. I remember one in particular. I remember the conversation with my dad when my score report came home and it says, has not reached her full potential. And I was, I was devastated. I was very, very upset by it. But the funny thing was my dad was saying to me, this is brilliant. You're only 14. You know, if you'd reached your full potential, now I'll be quite upset then. But he can joke about it now, and I can make humor out of the most situations. But when you look back and see what was written, that had a dramatic impact because I wore them, I wore those tags.

That's the thing is that, is that you, you find that when you're labeled something, you have two roads, you either accept it or you fight against it. 

Yeah, I accepted those ones. And I would always use them as I kind of refer it, refer to them as my comfy pair of slippers. So when I was, you know, almost ending kind of as sort of throughout my career, I've been really successful. And as I have been successful, there was a part of me that was tapping away at the shoulder going. But you're disruptive, you're distracting. You're never going to advance a much, you know, and all of those reports would be almost my comfort zone that I would slip back into until honestly, until recently when I've had the, I guess, the courage to be authentic about who I am. my experiences managing my, my superpower, learning how to learn. I was always told that I wasn't going to be, you know, amount to anything because I couldn't learn, I couldn't pay attention. So I would almost have a fear of picking up a book or trying to learn because I didn't want to fail. I didn't want to be bad at it.

What do you think? Um, if you could tell your 14 year old self something now, knowing what you know today, what would you tell her? 

I would say that you're capable of great things and that the biggest muscle and the best muscle in your body is your brain. Don't be constrained by anybody else's hashtags and be accountable to the man in the mirror. You know, my dad used to always say to me, remember who you are and remember who you are. And the value of that is it's all about, it's all about you. 

What do you think we're missing when we talk to kids about ADHD and neurodiversity today, what do you think? What are we not telling them that we should be?

That it's okay. That it's okay to be able to talk and to speak out. It's okay to share your feelings. Um, you are not alone in this constant noise and brain chatter. Um, and. I think it also goes not only to the communication to those kids, but it's also to the rest of the kids, around them to get a bit of an understanding of who they're dealing with and how to, you know, my, one of my biggest learnings about me was being more accepting to other people and more, you know, it's a two way street, isn't it? So either you're on the ADHD side offense or you're on the senior, the path they'll roll parent's side of the fence. And that's a big understanding. You know, when they won't answer the phone and you've got something really exciting to share. Like I'm, I'm the most important person in the world, but you know, you've got to realize that perhaps that person's, you know, busy or doing something right now. And if they do busy, you, it's not because they're not interested. 

And that I think is one of the basic thing that people don't realize is when you're ADHD every day, there's two types of time there's now and there's not now, and that's it, right? The concept of waiting or taking time out either it doesn't really exist in our world. And we need to sort of come to terms with that and figure out ways to deal with it. 

So then when the now and the not now, sorry, the now and the not now is a big thing for me. And I think that's how I, I would never say no to anything. So throughout kind of my, my, my professional career, I would take on every single project and I would probably complete them not to the best of my ability, but I would just say yes to everything. So even in the middle of a project, someone goes, do you think you could consider taking this on absolutely. Now. 

What do you think about, talk about what you do in the workplace and how you handle deadlines. How do you handle working with people who are not all the way we are?

Um, made sure that my, my work station and my environment is set up well, so conducive to me being productive. So no distractions, I would have a windows shop. Sorry, curtain shut. So I can't actually look out the window. I made sure that my technology is tamed and my notifications are turned off. So there are no directions, sorry, distractions or incoming. Unless I'm in control of that. I find that when I go into a meeting, I have to set the room up and structure it. So I want to sit with my kind of back to the window and focus really hard on it. I'm paying attention to that room. I think. The biggest, the biggest thing has been the meditation and creating the brain space for me or the mind space, not to just react, just jump, just get distracted. And it is, it is a full time job. That's what I didn't appreciate managing, managing me as a full time job.  That's managing you as a full time job. 

I like that! “Managing me is a full time job”. I need have a tee shirt made with that, um, Talk about what, what kind of things you do at work or talking about, you're talking about your day. I mean, talk about, uh, you know, when you wake up, do you exercise? How do you get the dopamine? Things like that. 

Yeah, 100 percent. Fitness has always been a massive part of my life. I'm in the fitness industry because it's the fun business, it's the entertainment business. Um, and you know, I believe we're in a place where we can make a dramatic difference to people's lives, both physically and mentally. So I'm on stage all the time, irrespective of what we do wake up in the mornings and I will always work out. I have to work out first thing, um, because that gives me now the absolute clarity of thinking, um, and almost tired body for the rest of the day. Um, I work out work with my zone. I workout with, um, part kind of heart rate tracking that rewards your efforts and I've found that by using this, it really helps me focus on my, uh, my control, my discipline, uh, my ability to learn. So I can do a workout where you're lifting weights, um, but I can also do I call it brain training as well. So I'm sitting on the bike and I'm out of a podcast or a book that I'm listening in listening to and I get into a certain zone. I stayed at my body is occupied it's not going to get distracted. And my brain is focused on what I'm going to be doing and learning. 

How do you bring yourself back if you fall out of that zone? 

But that's really interesting because I'm now able to, or, you know, sometimes I go down a rabbit hole and then, but I'm aware of the rabbit hole and I'd go, I kind of go take it back to that sort of mindfulness. I'm very focused on what I'm doing. And then there will be a point and you go, I can actually say- you're getting distracted. Yeah. And, and that's something I've never been able to do, but that's with the consistent practice. This isn't just a, you know, you know, it's not just a book or something you implement for one day, you know, one on bicep pull does not maketh guns. You know, this taming us an absolutely relentless daily daily process. 

I think that's what a lot of people don't realize is that it's not something you just put into play and then forget about it. You have to constantly. Be aware of your ADHD or it will get the best of you. 

Yeah. And it's exhausting. I think it's exhausting.. And massively rewarding because my, I have no idea of my capabilities in terms of what I'm able to learn because I've, I've learned so much and being able to adapt recently, but it truly is a superpower because I'm not just reading these books, I'm able to read, understand, feed it back, process it, apply it to my life and that's where it gets really exciting. And, uh, that's probably the, the next stimulant is now I'm addicted to brain training.

Well, that's the thing, as you learn more and more about what works for you, it creates a feedback loop. Right. In that you enjoy it. You want to do more of it. There's negative feedback loops of positive feedback loops. It sounded like you found the positive feedback. 

Yeah, sure. And then the, the other great benefit of it is, you know, I started this all started to really come out to be visible during lockdown and as I said, I, you know, I started with a massive amount of fear about how I was going to personally cope and lock down. And I made myself a. Um, a Facebook live video just to hold myself accountable. And then, and as I started to do that, you know, people in my network and this one really was not the intention fed back to me and when now that story really resonates with me or God, I can't concentrate, do you, does that really work? I've tried to implement this. So it's been a real journey of kind of almost, you know, self-discovery on so many different levels. And accountability and tracking through, you know, videos or apps or anything has really helped, you know, what gets measured gets done. Yeah. As they say, as they say 

No question about it. Um, last question I have for you. What is your other superpower assuming you have let's let's assume we all have two. ADHD is one. What's your other one?

My super power is I have an innate ability to get the best out of people. And I have no idea where that comes from or how it happens, but I managed to get people to buy into an, understand the vision and get on board and to go with it.

I love it. I love it. What a great way to end. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you taking the time on fast to normal, and I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you Peter!