The Big Impact of Big Signals
With Carolyn Verhoef
Certified Life and ADHD Coach
ACC, COC
Four Ways To Shift Your Attention From The Big Signals To Impact Your Performance.
Our attention will naturally be drawn towards Big Signals. These are shiny, fiery, noisy and at times alarming attention grabbers that will demand our direction, action and focus. If we’re jumping from one Big Signal to the next, we are likely to be missing the smaller signals that need attention to guide us to peak performance and live our life with meaning and purpose.
What are Big Signals?
Something That:
catches our attention to such a degree it's a struggle to look away
sticks with us even though we've moved away from it physically
can obscure our view of the objective due to its impact or size
In the right environment or situation, these are useful to move us into action.
Big Signals are valuable; but they have limitations for performance and purpose driven goals.
When we’re talking about performance with non-urgent but important projects, big signals can send us in the wrong direction. They side-track us from what truly matters and don’t allow us to see the central cause to issues. For those with ADHD, the big signal is heavily relied upon in an attempt to self-activate and motivate on things that are hard to start. I’ve witnessed this with clients who manipulate their workload to generate more Big Signals so they can force themselves into action. Unfortunately, the result is burnout and deep dissatisfaction with their work and life.
Working with thousands of clients I can faithfully say that action for the sake of seeing a change or some movement, rarely creates lasting results.
What kinds of Big Signals could have a detrimental impact on performance?
When The Signal For Action:
is being generated from outside pressure rather than your own sense of what is needed. e.g. action taken only to please others
comes from a need to fit in e.g a ‘should’ or perfectionistic drive that’s not aligned with what matters most
uncommonly persistent signal for action in one area - focus on one area disregarding needs for the big picture. Also could be that the action feels comfortable to focus on, but leaves nothing for any uncomfortable action.
Four ways to shift your attention from the Big Signals to impact performance.
Here are four accessible tools to pull yourself away from attention demanding Big Signals to make an impact on the goals that matter most to you.
Align With Your Strengths - How we think about our strengths and weakness has a direct impact on our ability to take action. Look beyond the strengths that are standing out. What are the quieter strengths you could tap into, the ones below the surface? Research has demonstrated that people experience faster growth and development when they nurture their strengths instead of correcting their weaknesses. One Harvard Business Review reports that once people focus on their strengths, they feel more satisfied with their lives and believe in new possibilities. It is this style of thinking that will allow you to stop jumping from fire to fire and approach performance with a big picture view.
The Value of Values - Values are at the core of everything we do. They will play a significant role in what signals are getting attention. Through deeper connections to values we can better align our action. I’ve found that even clients well-versed in their core and extended value systems can lose sight of them as resources, while the Big Signal is getting all the attention. If you find yourself in an avalanche of Big Signals, hold them up to your mirror of core values. How do they stack up?
Balance Needs - For business owners, The Big Signal is a need to increase performance which can mean extending work hours into nights and weekends. The short-term gain can backfire when the need for sleep and rest is overlooked, having a long-term impact on health and well-being and ultimately leading to reduced performance and ability to grow. Ignoring basic physiological needs will lead us to the precise opposite of the goal we're aiming for: a thriving business that serves it's owner. I learnt this the hard way after burning out three times in my 40's.
Make Time for Play - A study titled "The Playful Advantage: How Playfulness Enhances Coping with Stress." reveals the impact play can have on adults. The results suggested that playfulness serves a strong adaptive function, providing specific cognitive resources from which they can manifest effective coping behaviours in the face of stressful situations. [1] Creativity and play rarely find themselves demanding for attention. From experience I’ve seen that when they are fulfilled, moving into action is easier and avoidance of challenging tasks diminishes. Time out can indeed increase performance.
Awareness in Action
While your attention is in demand from a Big Signal, developing awareness can be a challenge. Exploring awareness with a coach around your limiting beliefs and perspectives can lead to the most significant shifts for performance.
Take a moment to challenge your perspectives on the Big Signals demanding your attention. You may be surprised what you’ll find. Discovering what is beyond the Big Signals through strengths, values, needs and awareness can help you find new ways to impact your performance.
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[1][Magnuson, C. D. and Barnett, L. A. (2013) ‘The Playful Advantage: How Playfulness Enhances Coping with Stress’, Leisure Sciences, 35(2), pp. 129–144. doi: 10.1080/01490400.2013.761905.]