The Forums › Forums › The Workplace › Strategies for Work › Being a teacher › Re: Being a teacher
Winnie, I keep hearing people with ADHD saying we feel like impostors and we’re about to get found out. I know the first time I started directing The Red Green Show (with zero training in how to direct television, never taken classes in it, no degree in television, nothing) I was feeling like the least qualified person in the room to be the director. Every person on the crew had been in television for at least a decade and had worked on scores of different series and specials. At first I drove a couple of the camera people crazy by constantly saying, “Pan down…” or “Pan up…” instead of “Tilt down” or “Tilt up…”
One of the best things I did, on the first day, was to announce, “I have no idea what I’m doing. Any one of you has way more experience than me. So please tell me what I need to know. If I do something dumb, lemme know. My goal is to make the funniest show we can.”
Almost everyone gave me good advice, the best being, “If you don’t know, don’t pretend you do. Just tell us what you’re trying to create and let the lighting guys and camera people and so on figure out how to make it happen.” And I did! It was crazy making, to sit and watch everyone else working. My ADHD wanted me to be in there, unfurling extension cords and movie camera tracks… But I learned to let go.
No one could complain to another crew member, “This guy doesn’t know what he’s doing.” cause I had already admitted it.
I felt like a fake. And I kept faking it until… I was actually a director.
Even now, when I get overwhelmed or disorganized and I’m procrastinating, I ask, “What would a super-organized person do right now?” and then I go do that. I feel like a fake, but eventually… well, I’m becoming that person. And it doesn’t feel fake. It’s just a new aspect of me.
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