134 | Discovering You Are Enough

This Week's Guest:

Jo Meleca-Voigt is an accomplished school teacher, wife, runner, social activist, and travel consultant. Jo was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 45. I invited Jo to come on the podcast since she is just now starting her ADHD journey.

In this conversation, you will hear some of Jo's thoughts as she starts her ADHD journey. She shares how she is documenting everything. Jo was named "Teacher of the Year" in a district with over 1,000 teachers and she shares some of her thoughts on teaching and learning strategies. For years, Jo has been an advocate for same-sex marriage. She shares her opinions on the similarities between being gay and having ADHD.

On days when Jo feels like she's having more difficulty with ADHD, she is more self-conscience in one-on-one conversations. These situations bring her a lot of stress and anxiety. In the hot-seat portion of this discussion, we dig deeper and come up with some strategies that Jo could implement to help herself in these situations.

Connect with Jo Meleca-Voigt!

• Follow Jo Meleca-Voigt on Twitter - @JoMelecaVoigt

You'll Learn:

• [3:55] - Jo talks about how she is documenting her ADHD journey.
• [4:37] - She shares some insights she's learned about herself since starting this journal.
• [6:16] - Jo believes the name "attention deficit" is misleading.
• [8:00] - Jo shares one of her first experiences after medication, which leads to some entertaining stories.
• [11:28] - Jo was named Teacher of the Year in a district of over 1,000 teachers. She talks about this recognition and what she did in her years of teaching to earn it.
• [16:33] - Jo explains the correct way to study.
• [19:42] - Teaching students how to learn, not just what to learn.
• [21:42] - If government was run like a start-up.
• [22:39] - Education is becoming more data-driven, but when the data is not specific enough, it can impact some students with ADHD.
• [29:55] - Coming out as being gay and coming out as having ADHD.
• [37:18] - Jo Meleca-Voigt sits in the hot-seat and we talk about issues regarding social conversations in a one-on-one setting and some solutions that Jo can implement.
• [1:03:10] - Self-acceptance has been the toughest part of this journey for Jo.
• [1:04:49] - Jo calls in to follow-up on our original discussion. She talks about going through the "anger" stage.
• [1:09:03] - Jo talks about implementing one of the strategies we discussed when she was in the hot-seat.
• [1:11:36] - This is our third conversation, and Jo reflects back on our 2nd conversation and talks about getting to an area of acceptance.

Use my Audible.com affiliate link to get an audio book for free (and a 30-day free trial)! Not sure where to start? I'd recommend Brené Brown's The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

http://www.audibletrial.com/ADHDreWired

October is ADHD Awareness Month!

You can join me and more than 30 other ADHD experts at the 2016 ADHD Awareness Expo. You can attend this free virtual event October 2nd-8th. Claim your spot at http://www.erictivers.com/expo2016.

Every Tuesday in the month of October, you can join Nisha Subramanian and me for a live, interactive webinar. We will be answering your productivity and ADHD questions! The webinars are held at 12:30-1:30pm (Central Time). These webinars are free and you can sign up at http://erictivers.com/events.

ADHD reWired Coaching & Accountability Group

Do you want to improve your productivity, develop better habits, and experience the true power of accountability from members of our own tribe? Learn more at http://ADHDreWired.com

Want to be a guest?

Hey! What about you? Do you have a story? Are you a Coach? Are you an ADHD Clinician? If you answered yes to any of these questions and you'd like to be a guest, schedule a pre-interview call here.