One Shot (00:00)
Look, if you had one shot, one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted in life, would you capture it or just let it slip, yo?
Having your cake (00:16)
And those were lyrics to the song lose yourself by Eminem. And soundtrack to the movie eight mile, which was also Eminem playing the lead role of Jimmy B. Junior.
welcome to the bumpy road to freedom. the podcast about navigating this journey called life, finding freedom while living with ADHD for those who have traveled it and for those just discovering it. Welcome. This is Simon speaking. I'm on a bus with the bumpy road episode, the
So what could you lose yourself in? Daydreaming, procrastination.
Creating, addiction, social media. Well, the difference between daydreaming and social media, for example, is you. One is your brain and the other is outside influence. You see, you have the power to hyper-focus, doing something you love or get lost in something that does not serve you. It's a classic scenario for all of those with us on this ADHD journey. But what if the one thing you love was actually the thing that you needed to do?
Now that's kind of like having a cake and eating it too, right? And we love cake.
And this episode is brought to you by Bumpy Road Coffee. Roasted smooth on a bed of hot air by yours truly. And if you're have one coffee a day, we'll make it a good one. Visit bumpyroadcoffee.com.au. Subscribe, follow us, please share. It keeps this podcast alive,
So today, I wanna talk about that one thing, hyperfocus, or your so-called superpower of having ADHD. And don't you think it's ironic that superheroes have that one superpower that defines them and then that kryptonite that fails them?
And as I say, I'm not a doctor, a psychiatrist, a mental health professional or an astronaut.
I don't have a PhD or degrees hanging on my wall. I was out of school before the bell even rang. I do however have qualifications called living and learning with ADHD certified by myself. And these are my views and opinions. And if these podcasts do resonate with you or someone you know, please share join the journey and our ADHD community. It's free just like you are. And maybe we can help others find their freedom by sharing ADHD experiences.
the good, bad and the ugly and make this Joanie cord life a little bit smoother.
Super powers (02:59)
been extremely interested in this for a long time. Firstly, it was trying to work out how to be successful in life. Let's call that pre-ADHD diagnosis and after ADHD Because things become more significant when they make sense, right? And we often get told we have super power because we have this ability to hyper-focus and that's an ADHD gift. So go and do that.
There is this typical, you have ADHD, look at these guys. So you can do that attitude too, right? Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Albert Einstein, a bunch of actors and celebs. And you ask yourself, well, how are they relatable to you? All of these people have ADHD, so. Besides the fact that they have ADHD, can you be successful too? Well, I have ADHD and I've been trying to be successful all my life and.
Ever since I failed at school, I wanted to go out and make it somehow. You know, I left my hometown when I was 18 and I got my car and my driver's license and I was out of there. I remember picking up my first motivational book. It was Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins. And it did, it motivated me. I was ready to take on the world. I got a job in real estate. I went to seminars for people who were hugely successful and I was really out there to make my fortune.
Six months later, I was broke, homeless and living in a beat up car and I was staying in car parks on the Gold Coast, moving on at first light, picking up jobs as a laborer here and there. And that scenario, it's repeated itself over and over again. Not quite to that extreme, look.
We're told to pick ourselves up and keep going because eventually you stay motivated, you keep positive, fake it till you make it. And there's a lot that can be said for motivation. It's worked for me in many ways, yet it could also be a house of cards. It's great for a hundred meters sprint. And think about how many times we mentioned the struggle to stay motivated and then ask ourselves how many times we've actually been motivated.
And there's been quite a lot, right?
And I've been focused on this for a long time. As I said, while trying to work out this journey called life and looking back, reading a book by Richard Branson then being motivated to open this business like he done yet failed and down that snakes and ladders board I went and later after ADHD diagnosis, I asked myself, well, why didn't that work for me? He's an ADHD entrepreneur.
the poster child of ADHD success. How the hell can he do all those things that he does? And it just didn't work for me.
It kind of dawned on me. And my mind wanders a lot. And I go into these thoughts about what makes people tick. and I was randomly thinking about the golfing legend, Tiger Woods. And that was at a time when he was in a lot of trouble. Yet he had millions and millions of dollars and lots of people doing things for him just by playing a game of golf. And that's something that play.
and pay lots and lots of money to do. Yet that's his job, playing golf.
And if you Google Tiger Woods, ask what he's good at and all you'll get is golf. And he has this amazing ability to hyper-focus while doing it. It's like Mike Tyson, for example. He was a hyperactive kid, in and out of juvenile reform schools, street gangs, arrested over 30 times. I think that was before the age of 13 or 14. He was bullied for his voice and his lisps. But yet one thing that he loved and he really found himself focusing very well on
was boxing. And if you take it to another extreme, Albert Einstein, he was quite a slow and very average child. Struggled to talk earlier on, yet very rebellious with authority. And his delayed speech would throw him in tantrums and he talked to himself. He was expelled from school and he struggled with written memory. Yet he could think in pictures or concepts that drove his imaginations. Now concepts,
are tangible ideas and concepts are also abstract ideas.
Simon Mercier (07:05)
and there's nothing more abstract than E equals mc-square or the theory of relativity before its time.
Simon Mercier (07:12)
TV chef Jamie Oliver. Jamie Oliver, you know, from helping in his mom and dad's pub kitchen as a kid, he loved the idea of throwing a few things together and creating these simple dishes. And what talking Michelin star here? And it was an accident that he became such an entrepreneur. It was a day off from his job. The film crew were shooting in the kitchen for a documentary and they needed someone to take some footage of putting a dish together.
which he did naturally, and the rest of that is history.
Simon Mercier (07:41)
I know it all sounds a bit too easy and simple, right? But I guess looking at a bit more closer to home and personal, I was always fascinated by Steve Irwin, who was the crocodile hunter, because he was a guy that just had a passion for chasing crocodiles and his enthusiasm really shone in everything that he did.
was never on Steve Irwin's agenda. He was just doing something he loved. And he was asked at one stage to advise about crocodiles in a TV commercial. it all just went from there.
this is all just
observing people that I thought were doing amazing things.
People like Brody Moss from Young Bloods. And that's what I reckon who does a cooking show on YouTube. My old neighbor, Peter Lick is a photographer. and a lady I'm gonna call Sadie the cleaning lady.
Now I don't know if these, all of these guys had ADHD. their names just sort of popped in my head when I came up with the idea for this episode and I had to look back and see whether they actually were ADHD.
Brody Moss from the Young Bloods YouTube channel. Now I was envious about him in first because he reminded me of what I wanted to do when I was kid. The things that I dreamed about doing as a kid. He has an absolute passion for his fishing and diving. Lives in a remote part of Western Australia. And for fun, he and his mates started sharing videos of their adventures out there diving and fishing and being out on the water. Now Brody was an electrician.
That was his career destined for ever and a day. There was a point where he was denied some time off because he really wanted to focus on his passion and making these videos. You want a more time. So he quit and the Young Bloods videos now have over 6 million followers on its channels. It creates massive advertising revenue, massive endorsements in boats for these guys. now,
living the dream.
electrician with no qualifications in marketing or business. He's not a businessman. He's a fisherman
doing what he actually loves doing. Another guy that reminded me of my childhood in school for different reasons was a guy that does a video podcast called, Nats what I reckon. And NAT during lockdown became quite famous for what he, for doing these crazy cooking shows.
I loved the shows, but I was intrigued on who that was and how he got to the point of making these amazing shows because you can't just make this stuff up. It can't be scripted. And his personality brought back memories of my early primary school years, myself and the other dummies that didn't seem to get it right when others did. And there was one kid in the class with us who was in the same area that I was. this one kid, he could tell you anything about trucks.
He was so enthusiastic about him, his eyes would light up talking about them. Yet after getting severely punished one day for not paying attention, he got up, he left the class and I never saw him again. And I always wonder whether if that kid was out there loving life driving trucks. And it reminded me a little bit like Nat in the way that I felt like there was a point in his life as a child where he just didn't fit in in school. And he went out there and he had this amazing imagination.
And apparently he did, he did wander the streets a little bit daydreaming thing up these crazy scenarios. They would turn into videos and not realize all these so-called hours and days of mindless daydreaming would actually accumulate something to a point that gives him this creative ability to just be who he is and make amazing contact with the enthusiasm. You can't get from a
I had a neighbor many years ago his name's Peter Lick and he's an amazing photographer. Now I don't know if he's ADHD. I haven't seen him for years and look, Peter, if you do hear this podcast, please get back to me. I apologize for doing this diagnosis on you. I just feel that you have some traits and I'll explain.
Now, Peter used to travel a lot and always wonder what he did before I actually got to speak to him. Turns out he's a photographer and that's what he loves doing. And I went and saw one of his studios one day and he does
amazing panoramic photography and he was the first of his kind. in this industry of this type of photographic art to be doing what he did. Now, Peter started as a child with a little box Brownie camera. He was self taught on everything he did. used to disappear off into the bush for days on end
or go out to the remote beaches up to the Great Barrier Reef up in North Queensland where we lived at the time. And he would take these amazing photos. And what Peter did was he sold these photos as postcards for a dollar each in a local shop.
And then Peter devised a way to start expanding these, these postcards out into large, beautiful pieces of photography art. They were just truly beautiful, amazing captures of the moment. And this was Peter's style.
he would get up way before dawn before anyone else is up. And he'd be in this amazing location. And he'd be in this location. And he would just sit there and wait for that one moment. That one moment when the light is perfect. You know, just before the sun comes out and the birds start to sing, there's that one moment where he will just go click and he will just capture the most perfect light.
This led to Peter to do a photo based on this principle.
He took a photo and called it one. One shot that he sold for $1 million. Dollars That's right, one photo.
And he says on his website, he called it one because it was a fleeting single opportunity. He felt oneness with the moment and with nature. And he hit that shutter just once. Now, of course, Peter is a very passionate and successful photographer. Now I remember talking to one day and he was just opening up a furniture business. And ironically, a little bit later, I asked him how it went. went.
It's not working and he shut it down. You know why? Because Peter is not a furniture salesman. He's a photographer.
And here's the thing with everybody that I've mentioned today in this podcast, that's successful from the famous to the not so famous.
They are all good at one thing.
focus on doing that one thing that you love, that you're passionate about, that you can do because you love it
and you will, if it drives you. You might be saying to yourself, well, I don't have the passion and enthusiasm like these guys do. And fair enough, this is something I asked myself. You can't bottle Steve Irwin's overwhelming passion for crocodiles along with Brody Moss'
enthusiasm with the world. In contrast, Nats what I reckon's unapologetic yet brutally honest approach,
that also teaches you stuff. And Peter Lick's perfection in simplicity in taking one photo and all these guys self-taught and originals in doing what they do. Yet they each had to start somewhere, a fishing rod, a box brownie camera, a microphone and a tape deck, and a discovery for doing something that is personal to them.
when I was doing some research into how does everybody have that one thing? And I came across all these different forums where there was people saying, yeah, but I can't get motivated. I don't know what I'm passionate about.
I don't know. where do I start, et cetera. And one lady stood out to me and she said, I have ADHD and I started a cleaning business and I love cleaning. Now, personally, I hate cleaning and it's obviously known that a lot of us hate cleaning and that we're messy, but what She said was really interesting. She said, I have a cleaning business. work six hours.
And for six hours a day, I focus on his cleaning. And she says, I just lose myself in it. I go off another world. And says, I love it. It's hard work, but I get such a sense of satisfaction when I look back at it and I've done it all. She said, it's my time. I go out there and do it myself and I wouldn't have it any other way or work in any other job.
I couldn't think of anything worse than cleaning other people's houses yet. She loves it. So that is her thing. We're all different. We all have our things that make us and she's gone out there and found it by starting something like a cleaning business.
that is very successful to her. So, what can you lose yourself in?
Simon Mercier (16:18)
For Eminem, It's in his words. They could either go against him or go with him like Tyson with his fists. A superpower that was flamed by his situation when there was nothing else stuck in full-time fight mode. A hyper focus not unlike Einstein's visual concepts, yet his are in his words and no one else can see them because those words are in his head and somehow he's got to get them out of there. Otherwise he'll be dead. It's a powerful thought.
we think of his songs as wanting to escape his environment, yet they are contuitive to who he actually is. If Eminem did not have ADHD in his conditions, would he be alive today without that ability to focus on words in that environment and turn it into inspiration? to be inspired by his words that were once reserved for noble poets?
There's a reason that Eminem has no need to apologize for his words from a child that has had so much taken to a man that
has given so much back.
Luck (17:25)
all these situations are, let's get real. does play a big part. Yet as the saying goes, luck favors the prepared. So be prepared to do what you love to do. Be that in your profession, your relationships, your hobbies, your health, focus on what you do well, and that will supersede everything else. And comparing yourself with
everyone else or thinking less of yourself for not being able to do the things that others can do. Well, with ADHD, that's like trying to teach a fish how to climb a tree yet. Nothing swims better than a fish. Right. So find your one thing, use it with your superpower because it's there and you can change your life in an instant. And if you haven't found it yet, then look for inspiration in what you enjoy doing or what you once did. Write down your thoughts. You don't need an app for this.
You just need to use your mind, let it wander, let it overthink because that's what it does. inspiration can be found anywhere. Thoughts, photos, songs, people, animals, locations, horrible experiences to great childhood memories, even in jar of sauce.
Recap (18:42)
Tiger Woods and the ability to focus on that golf club under absolute pressure and take that one shot that could win or lose a game. With millions of people watching, yet still drive that ball down a fair way to land next to a little flag. Mike Tyson, against all the odds of his childhood, everything that was stacked against him.
He had that passion for boxing, that he could do, made him an unbeatable champion.
because that passion gave him the ability to focus entirely on his opponent.
Albert Einstein's inability to do things that others could do normally gave him the power to have to think outside the square.
Jamie Oliver's simple style of doing that one thing really well and make cooking great dishes easy and awesome for television. Steve Irwin's enthusiasm for a creature that 99 % of the society wanted dead changed the way we looked at conservation.
and Brody Moss for his passion for sharing his outdoor adventures and his love of the ocean and fishing and diving with his mates has inspired millions of people online to get out and do something. That from that's what I reckon is videos. A guy that struggled to find his place growing up in school used his own personality and as quirky as it was,
entertains and teaches so many people about something so basic is brilliant.
Peter Lick and his ability to just observe and focus the environment he's in and just take that one photo, that one thing and that lady that started her own cleaning business. Well, that inspired me because you can find it anywhere in what other people don't necessarily want to do.
But it's your thing.
And just like Eminem, they could have all been in different situations if it wasn't for that one thing, that one shot, that one thing that you can lose yourself in. And it's never too late
because you can find it anywhere, anytime.
Simon Mercier (20:54)
and whatever it is that you do well, from building beautiful gardens to teaching children, writing songs, fixing cars, or cooking amazing dishes. Don't be afraid of your freedom because that's yours. And this is Simon speaking. the episode, the one, the bumpy road to freedom, the podcast about
navigating this journey called life living with ADHD.