Community, Adventure & Service: ADHD-Style

Hey guys,

I just got back from an amazing conference called the World Domination Summit. #WDS2015.  I’ve been really excited to tell you about it and wrote this before my mom and I drove home last night.  

I met some amazing and inspiring people at WDS — check out some of things I learned from them in my blog.

~ Jeff

#WDS2015 – Community, Adventure and Service, ADHD-Style!

Arriving at #WDS2015

Arriving at #WDS2015

When I was 13, my mom brought me to a conference about Community, Adventure & Service called the WDS (World Domination Summit) #WDS2015.  She thought that I could maybe find some inspiration from the motivational speakers or cool people that don’t have typical 9-5 jobs that come to this conference.

At that time I was pretty depressed.   It seemed no matter how hard I tried at school I was still barely passing. I was always getting in trouble and I felt like the world just didn’t understand me.

Looking back it was all about me, me and ME.

Fast forward 24 short months and I’m just getting ready to drive home from my third World Domination Summit.

Things have changed a lot in those three years.

As many of you know, last year I applied for and won a WDS Foundation Scholarship for Real Life and my perspective shifted from how I can help me to how I can help other kids like me with ADHD.

This past weekend I made lot of connections with people that want to help kids with ADHD and heard some great advice.

Here are some of the WDS Speakers I want to tell you about:

1 – Jon Acoff

One of the speakers, New York Times bestselling author Jon Acoff, said “Be your Authentic Self” and man that is hard to do when you are in grade 5 and no one wants to play with you at recess.

He also said “Bravery is a choice not a feeling.”

What I know is that it takes time and practice to be brave and to have confidence in yourself. Over time if you practice bravery, things get better. At 15 I feel stronger — so I want all my ADHD buddies out there (girls included) still in elementary school to know you are awesome just the way you are and maybe now not everyone can see it but they will, I promise!

2 – Lissa Rankin

There was a cool doctor Lissa Rankin who talked about how she had been living a crazy life and then because of a whole lot of bad stuff, she stopped working and made her life the way she wanted it to be, I’m going to do like she said and think about what is really important to me and what makes me happy instead of what every  on else thinks I should do.  I won’t put myself into a situation or lifestyle that forces me to become a zombie, even if i’m making lots of money.  Thanks Dr. Lisa.

3 – Lewis Howles

Lewis Howles a two sport all American athlete shared how when we keep things that are hurting us inside and don’t tell anyone we can live our whole life being angry.

If you are like me school can be hard and if you have ADHD or are different we get hurt a lot and it makes us angry or depressed .  On day in grade 5 I took a picket knife to school, no to hurt anyone but to keep the bullies away because I has so angry.

Of course I got suspended and then was depressed and was lucky to get to talk to my counsellor and it helped.  I turned my anger into this blog and you can send me your story if you want to get your anger out, it might help.

4 – Vani Hari

Speaking of anger, so many people are angry at one of the speakers Vani Hari, AKA “Food Babe” who dares to speak up even thought people threaten to kill her because she writes about all the bad things that big corporations put in our food. She is brave and I only hope The Food Babethat my blog can have the kind of impact that she has had.

Maybe because of writing about the bad things teacher sometimes do to kids with ADHD I can change the education system and get them some better training.

We all don’t have to be so angry when we are changing something for the better.

5 – Jeremy Cowart

I was completely blown away by Jeremy Cowart who when he was a kid, he believed he couldn’t do anything.

He did terribly in school and felt powerless and small and now he’s the “most influential photographer on the INTERNET.” Seriously you probably know his photos.

If you like art better than math it’s ok, the world needs artists, and gamers, and truck drivers and people to do the exact thing that you like to do.  His parents didn’t tell him he was stupid, they just kept telling him he could do anything.

Click to share this tweet: 

6 – Derek Sivers

I really connected with Derek Sivers who started CD Baby, which was like a 100-Million dollar company that he sold for $22 million and then gave all the money away to put towards music education… wow.  Now this is someone who cares about kids.

He said “commit to a problem you want to solve” and just go for it.  If people are “freaking out” then you know you are onto something.

That is what I’m doing with ADHD Kids Rock and it’s working.  

I’m committed to changing the education system all over the world so that kids with ADHD don’t get bullied by their teachers, and that teachers get some real tools into their hands and heads so that we can all stop fighting.  I wrote the blog post “7 things teachers can do to make school better” and it was like helpful right away judging by the comments that blog got. Here’s an example:

“Thank you Jeff for having the courage to put yourself out there and to be an advocate for yourself and children like you who struggle daily to be understood. You my friend are going to go places! Proud of you!! ~ Lori Riddell

Derek  asked the group “why are you doing this?”and I say  “I can’t not do this.” Because  the WDS community gave me this opportunity of service to other kids and along the way I get an amazing adventure — like in the picture where I got my face on a 10-story building.

7 – Me!

One last thing, I got to go on stage too and share my project.  They showed the short version of my video so I wanted to share with you the full video so hopefully you will understand why I can’t not do this!    Click this link to view it or watch it below.

Thanks to #WDS2015 Founder Chris Gillibeau, get some sleep man, you deserve it. 🙂

 

Let’s Keep Helping Kids with #ADHD Together

I want to keep helping kids with ADHD by running this site, forum, the ADHDKidsRock Facebook page.

I have more ideas too.  Here are two of them:

  • Flashcards for Teachers — the “ABCs of ADHD” for teachers.  I have collected some of the best advice from teachers who write to me for helping kids with ADHD — and I want to share it with all the teachers I can.
  • A book for kids with ADHD — I’ve written a story about a kid with ADHD in Grade 5 — and I want to get it printed.

I’ve found out over this past year, the website and projects take money and a support team — you wouldn’t believe how many hours it takes to keep up with everything while I’m going to school.

Support-us_Blogimage_375x514In order to keep this site going and do more for kids with ADHD, I’m raising funds with a cool #Kickstarter campaign.  It’s been going for a few days and we have some amazing donations from people who want to support this site.  But none of the money will get collected unless I hit my goal of $14,000.

>> Click here to support my fundraiser on #Kickstarter. <<

Please help me reach this goal — with any donation you can make.  And if you’d share this link with your friends (http://kck.st/1L2Lyiw), and ask them to contribute too, that would be amazing.

We’ve got some fun rewards for people who support the campaign — be sure to check them out.

Thanks for reading — you’re the best.

~ Jeff

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