How to Find Your True Passion in Life When You Have ADHD
The need to find your passion or purpose in life is something you might hear often these days – especially if you are in the process of choosing a college program or what type of job to apply to. Yet, if you are neurodivergent, finding your passion can feel especially challenging.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines passion, among others, as either an “object of desire or deep interest” or “ardent affection” that can pertain to a person but also to an activity or subject matter. Your passion seems to be something you are born with and that you develop more and more over time; something that gives you joy and happiness and the feeling that you are doing truly meaningful work.
Sometimes, your passion can point you in a wonderful direction when it comes to your professional future – you know exactly that you want to become a doctor and save lives, or you want to work at a university and do crucial research on artificial intelligence.
For those of us who are 100% sure about our talents and skills, choosing the right professional path can seem quite intuitive. But what about all of us who are struggling with the questions as to what our genuine passion is and how to make our lives truly purposeful? This is especially true when you have ADHD and are not sure which career will be a good fit for your interests and abilities. Will we lose out on an important aspect of life if we are unable to figure things out?
Many popular self-help books that support and guide you in finding your purpose – or calling – in life promote the myth of that one true and essential passion. Until we find the allegedly so-called essence of our being, we are supposed to be lost, unhappy, dissatisfied because we do not live the life we are meant to live. Our life lacks meaning and significance and we spend our days doing tasks that are rather mundane because they do not light us up the way a perfect job or study program would. But is this really true?
In their book Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life Bill Burnett and Dave Evans question the myth of the perfect career path and offer a different – and much less stressful – approach instead. Designing Your Life is based on Burnett and Evans’ immensely popular career course at the School of Design at Stanford University, that both authors developed together to help design students find rewarding jobs. But instead of harping on one perfect career trajectory that we need to find to achieve ultimate fulfillment, both authors subscribe to a model that favors a multitude of equally satisfying options for different stages of our future.
By using design thinking as their approach to gain more clarity about our career paths, they provide us with a framework that calls for curiosity, creativity, flexibility, and deliberate action and that encourages us to think outside the box - something, many ADHD-ers excel at. Instead of narrowing our choices down too much, we should expand them and abandon our fears that one wrong move will ruin our career prospects for decades to come. In fact, on the contrary, by staying flexible and open to change, our lives might be enriched by various career moves that we undertake once we realize that our current job doesn’t make us as happy as it used to and that we need to transition in order for our career to remain enjoyable.
What Burnett and Evans, among many other great exercises, suggest is to create an Odyssey Plan which entails not one but three five-year plans that showcase three very different scenarios related to your career. E.g., if your current major is math as part of a teaching degree, Scenario One might find you as a high school teacher five years from now; in Scenario Two you are the owner of an instructional coaching agency for teachers; and in Scenario Three you work remotely as curriculum developer for an educational company. Three different scenarios that entail different levels of independence, stability, and work modalities – and all three options might mean fulfilling careers that you all try out as time passes. And it doesn’t mean that one is better than the other – they are all different but might be a good fit for you at various times in your life.
The Take-Away
What are you taking away from this blog post? First of all, it is very important to remember that you can only make decisions for the very moment you are in. We don’t know what the future holds but we know what feels right in the moment. If you are unsure about your options, do some research. You can check out different university programs, talk to your friends and family members, reach out to people who have interesting jobs and ask for 20 minutes of their time or do an internship in a field that sounds appealing to you.
If the thought of doing all of the above makes you panicky, seek outside help from a career counselor or a coach. Fact is that you need to collect enough data to make an informed decision about your future – but that’s all you can do. Who knows whether you will be in the same job or field ten years from now? Life is constantly changing and so are you. It is a bit frightening to give up control but also exciting to know that you will get to decide again and again what is truly right for you at different stages in your life.
If you want more clarity, get out your drawing supplies and create three different comics that showcase three different versions of you five years from now. Where do you see yourself? In a big city or in the countryside? Will you be working from home or at a company? Will you have your own business, or will you be gainfully employed? Create three different scenarios that feel exciting to you – and then take another look and determine which scenario might be the right one for you right now.
If you need additional help, reach out anytime and we can go over your scenarios in a coaching session. Just remember that there most likely are multiple best-case scenarios for you that fit your skill-set, talents and your passion - whether you are neurotypical or neurodivergent. One of your superpowers is your creativity and imagination - so start using them to create the life that fits your personal goals and dreams!
