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Foreign. You are listening to the Navigating Adult ADHD Podcast with your ADHD coach and expert, Xena. Hello, my friend. Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to Navigating Adult adhd. Today we are going to be talking about careers. This episode has been highly requested from so many of you. So if that is you, if you have reached out to me on social media and let me know that you love the podcast and you'd love an episode on careers, thank you. We are here. We have made it happen. Before I dive into this, though, I've got to tell you a funny story. So I had a real ADHD moment today that I feel like you will relate to. This is officially my first day back at work for the 2026 year. And I opened up my emails this morning and I saw that somebody had booked in for a consultation with me. Now, I thought that that service had been switched off. I didn't think that you could still do that. Somehow somebody slipped through the cracks. I took a quick look at the date and time of this consultation and I saw 9am Tuesday. And I was like, shit, I have a call tomorrow, which is Tuesday at 9am I already have something in there, got a team call. So now I'm going to have to move that team call, let everybody know that we need to move it to next Tuesday. Okay? So I did that. I moved the call, the original team call that was 9am Tuesday to next week. Then I go back to this person who scheduled the consult. I look at the email that they had, you know, the booking form and everything, and I look at the date, only to see I had skim read it. I had read it so quick that it's not 9am Tuesday tomorrow morning. It is, in fact next week. It is the exact time slot that I moved my original call to. Do you see what I mean? If you're confused, I'm not surprised. I am also confused, my friend. Basically, I didn't need to do anything. Everything was fine. My call tomorrow with the team could have gone ahead and then I could have had this one with this new person, 9am next Tuesday, and everything would have been fine. I created a problem where there wasn't a problem, and now I have confused myself and everybody else in the process. So, yeah, I'm driving back from the gym this morning, like, oh my God, this just, just feels like such an ADHD thing to do today. So I wanted to share it with you all because I know, I know you get it, my friend. So, careers, when I left intermediate school to go on to college. They asked all of us, all of the gosh, what age are you there? I want to say you're about age 12. They asked all of us, what do you want to be when you grow up? Right? And I, at that age, at age 12, I said, Look, I either want to be a lawyer or a photographer. Two completely different things. A lawyer or a photographer. By age 15, when I was asked that question, I wanted to be either a racing car driver, specifically a V8 supercar driver, or a diesel mechanic. Not just a regular mechanic. I wanted to work on trucks like heavy diesel machinery. Now, none of those careers transpired. However, they do demonstrate the randomness and variety that us ADHDers often lean towards. So my friend, do you struggle to stay in one job or one career for a long time? Do you find yourself getting bored and restless and wanting a change? Do you struggle with the most basic tasks at work or find that sending one email takes you twice as long as your co workers? If so, you are not alone. Okay, you are right at home here because these things are all incredibly common for adults with adhd. So can I share something with you? Before I became an entrepreneur, before I started working for myself, the longest I had stayed in one job with one employer was four years. And that was likely due to the fact that there was so much variety. So that was when I was in the travel industry. Now I was in the travel industry for, I want to say like maybe 10 years. No, probably not quite that long. I don't think my math is mathing well, but I was worked for a retail agency for four years. I started as a consultant and then I was managing and running the store towards the end of that. And there is so much variety when you work in the travel industry. If you think about how many countries there are in the world, like I don't know, roughly 200 and something countries, right? And there's all these different cities and all these different places that people can go to and all of these different airlines and thousands of hotels and tours and experiences. There is just so much variety and learning and interesting things in that. So that note is, is likely why I was able to stay in that role for four years. Okay. So my friend, that aside, this episode today I am going to share with you quite a lot. I want to just give you a rundown on what we're going to cover today. So we're going to talk about why those of us with ADHD regularly change careers. Okay. Why we career or job hop. We're also going to talk about the challenges, the common challenges that we face in the workplace. We're going to talk also about some of the career sweet spots, so some of the specific things to look for that help us to shine when it comes to our work and career. And I'm also going to leave you with some practical questions that you can ask yourself if you're wanting to change careers or explore a new line of work. And also I'm going to include how you can spice up the relationship if you have fallen out of love with your current job, your current career, your current line of work, how you can sort of fall in love with that again. Okay. Which is something I myself have experienced, so I'm going to share that with you again. We've got quite a lot to cover, so let's dive in. All right, Starting from the top, why is it that people with ADHD often change careers? So at the top of my list here is the novelty seeking, AKA the dopamine. We know, the studies show, the research shows that as people with adhd, we have a lower baseline level of dopamine. Now, dopamine is the chemical in our brains that motivates us to do things, that drives us to take action. And it feels really, really good. And because we've got less of it, we are constantly seeking it, we're constantly looking for it. We want more of it because we want to feel good and we want to that motivation to take action, of course. So we are looking for novelty because things that are novel, interesting, different, new, they produce dopamine in our brains. For example, I just told you about how I had lasted four years at that retail travel agency, the reason I left, and I think I could have no doubt stayed many more years, but the reason I left was novelty. I had a friend living in London and the idea of moving to London was so novel to me. She was so happy, and I wasn't happy at the time. And that novelty, the idea that there was this shiny, amazing thing in London that outweighed my desire to stay, that was like so exciting and produced so much dopamine in my brain that I of course made the leap, right? And of course there's no doubt some impulsivity in there, too. So, again, one of the reasons that we often check change careers is we're seeking novelty and we're just dopamine seeking something else. Sounds exciting or fun or different. Again, it's producing the dopamine that our brain needs and wants. Another thing here is when we master something, we get bored real quick. So when we get into a new career, I've seen this with myself and so many of my friends as well. When we get in, we often get hyper focused. We're like really obsessed with like learning all of the things and becoming a master at it. As soon as we master it, we get really, really bored. And then we're like, okay, great, what's next? We've sucked all of the dopamine dry. We've sucked all of the joy dry. There's no more novelty, there's no more interest. It's like, what's next? I remember my first full time job out of high school. I worked at a parts store, like a car parts sort of a store called Super Cheap Auto. And one of the things I loved doing there was the merchandising. So it was like setting up the end displays at the end of an aisle. And in the store that we had, we had this huge big kind of centerpiece and you could create massive big sort of center displays in the middle of the store. And I loved that. It was super creative, super fun. And I'd never done anything like that before, but I loved it. As soon as I mastered it to the point where they were asking me to teach other people how to do it, I started to get bored, I started to lose interest. I started to be like, oh, okay, what's next? And ironically that was about just under two years. I think it's about a year and a half in to having been there. I was like, okay, great, now what? I started looking at like, what's my next step? Where am I going next? Where am I going to work next? What am I getting to do next? Another one here is under stimulation can feel really, really painful for us if we're in something that is very mundane, very monotonous, same shit, different day. That under stimulation, that lack of dopamine that we get can actually feel physically painful in our brain. So of course we want to avoid that, we want to change that and we go looking for something else. Another big thing that shows up when it comes to why people with ADHD change careers is the rsd. The rejection sensitivity dysphoria. It is our fear of criticism and our emotional response that we have when we feel like we're being rejected or attacked. So perhaps you're having a one to one with your manager and they're giving you some feedback about your performance over the past month and all you hear is you're doing a shit job. You should probably go and list, look for something else even though they haven't said that often. We read between the lines, let's say, and when they say, hey, your numbers are down this month. What's going on? All we hear is, oh, you're doing a shit job. You should go elsewhere. Okay? So again, like, when we filter our conversations with our colleagues, with our managers through that RSD lens, through that fear of being criticized and rejected, and that's all we feel, it can be really hard to navigate, difficult conversations to take on feedback, etc. So what that can look like or translate to is we avoid opportunities in our workplace. We don't give feedback to other people. We don't ask for feedback, we don't put our hand up for a promotion, or we don't, you know, enroll in the study that we've been looking at doing. Because what if we fail? What if we're not good at it? Okay? So often, again, when things get hard or uncomfortable, we're like, peace out. I'm out of here. And so much of that comes back to this rsd, this fear of being rejected and criticized and having to experience these horrible, awful, strong emotions that we just don't like. And again, that really leads into the next one on my list here, which is emotional sensitivity. People with adhd, we feel things more. We feel things more deeply. We are more sensitive, okay? Not just in the emotional sense. The studies show we're more sensitive in terms of our skin, our gut, health. We're more likely to have things like IBS or, you know, psoriasis, eczema, all of these sorts of things. People with ADHD are more sensitive in all the ways, including the emotions, my friend. So what that means is toxic workplaces. And if you've been in one, oh, my friend, I feel for you. Especially if you're in one right now, because that shit is hard. When you are in a toxic workplace, it can be very all consuming for us. It hits us hard. It's very hard for us to switch off from that. Okay? So having ADHD is linked to heightened emotional reactivity, which means when we get feedback, it lands harder for us. Tension in a workplace, it's more draining. Toxic workplaces are genuinely harmful to us mentally, emotionally and physically, okay? And this often explains why people with ADHD might leave a job. It's not because they can't cope. It's because their nervous system is fried. Their nervous system does not feel safe in that environment. Ask me how I know. That's a story for another day, my friend. Another reason that people with ADHD will often change careers is we are multi passionate. We are so passionate about lots of different things and we're constantly chasing that next high. And again, sometimes when we sort of suck the dopamine out of something and we lose the joy of it. A classic example of this. Last year I got really into coloring. Became obsessed with coloring and a specific brand of coloring books. I ordered all of them. I colored so many pages. I loved it. It was a fantastic activity. And one day I just didn't want to color again. My new thing is puzzles, my friend. But again, multi passionate and we're constantly chasing that next good feeling thing. We love lots of things, we're interested in lots of things. And that can easily lead us to career hop and do different things. And also our brains crave challenge. Challenge we enjoy not sameness, not that monotonous, same shit, different day. So I kind of think of this like the IKEA effect. So we've recently got an Ikea that has opened in New Zealand. It's all very exciting. I haven't been yet. My sister in law went the other day and got me some beautiful bright towels like dopamine decor, bright orange and pink towels. I am obsessed with them. So here's what I mean by the IKEA effect. ADHD is love. Building the IKEA furniture, right, that's pursuing the new job, the new career. But once it's built and it's functioning, the joy is gone, the dopamine is gone. Okay? This is not because we're flaky. It's because our brain has moved on. Challenge is complete. I have nailed that challenge. Now what's next? Okay, makes sense. All right, let's talk a little bit now about some of the challenges, the hardship that we can face in our careers and workplaces. One of the biggest ones I see is overworking to prove our worth. So hustling for our worthiness in a workplace, it's that trying to always go the extra mile for your co workers or your boss or your customers, because you want that praise and that feedback. You want them to think that you're doing a good job and you want them to see that. That. So I see a lot of this saying yes to, you know, staying late after work or taking on an extra project even though you really don't have time or training that new colleague that's just starting in your workplace, even though your workload is already like bursting at the seams because you want to prove yourself in your workplace. Okay, that's a big one that I see. Next up is burnout from no Boundaries. So I can so relate to this. When I was managing the agency, we were like turning over millions of dollars a year. It was, it was doing a really well the store. And when we were, when we went through some staff because it was a tough job. Don't get me wrong, you had, they could sometimes be late nights, there could be long hours, like demanding customers. You know, shit can hit the fan when an airline, you know, when, let's just say an airline is running late or there's a plane crash. I mean, shit happens. Trust me. Anything like that thing, you know, things happen and you're having to work a lot and it can be really hard, it can be really stressful and there's a lot of pressure from, from to, to perform. Okay, I know you know what I mean, my friend. So I remember being in the agency, managing the store and we were low on staff. We were waiting for some new people to start. They hadn't yet been trained, they were up and training like it was, it was like a really stressful time. We just lost a couple of employees. So we were, instead of having I think 16 members, we had like four. And I just said in order to cover it, I'm just going to work six days a week because I don't want everyone else trying to fill the gaps. And I know how stressful it is. So I was like, I'm just going to work six days a week. I had no boundaries. I was working six days a week, having one day off. I was working like 10, 12 hours a day, staying up late, trying to get ticket wallets together and finish things off. And omg. I still remember the moment I broke down in the back room of our offices. Thankfully none of the customers could see this. And I just started crying and I couldn't stop because I was exhausted. Again, burnout from no boundaries. Another challenge we can face in a workplace is the sensory overwhelm. My friend. If you have ever worked in an open plan office, you will no doubt be able to relate to this. All of the noise, all of the commotion, all of the movement, the comings and goings. Oh also one of the things I really struggled with in that sort of an office environment was when the phone would ring, not knowing whose turn it was to either pick it up or. I worked in a call centre in London for a short period of time where the phone would ring and it would just click on in your ear. It you didn't get to ring and take the call. It you automatically, your headset had to be switched on. All of the time. And you would get about a 2 second heads up that a call was about to come through into your ear. And that, oh, my gosh, I was always on edge. That on edge feeling, not ideal, but the sensory overwhelm, it could be like those fluorescent overhead lights, the open plan office. Like I said, all of the sounds, comings and going, the people talking, all of that, the movement out the corner of our eye. We know as people with adhd, we take more information through our five senses. We see more, hear more, touch more, taste more. What that means is our brain is more prone to overwhelm because we have to filter all of that information. Does that loud noise down the hall mean there's a threat? Is there danger? Did that person running past the cubicle just now mean something? That person over there talking and then looking back at me, Do I need to be worried about that? So our brain is constantly filtering that, and it can be exhausting. Okay, so sensory overwhelm is huge challenge that we can often face. Next up on my list is death by paperwork. If, you know, you know, like, paperwork can be a real struggle for people with adhd. Having to write things, fill in reports, file things in a timely manner in a specific way. There are so many executive functions that are required for that, and there is so much mental energy that goes into that, and it can be very exhausting. What I often see in the paperwork realm is something that might take your coworker 90 minutes. I'm thinking of an example, actually of a somebody I worked with who worked in the counseling space, and a report that they had to write after seeing a certain patient might take her colleague 90 minutes for her. It could take her eight to 10 hours to write that exact same report because it requires so much from her ADHD brain. Okay, so again, death by paperwork research consistently shows that ADHD impacts executive functions. So things like planning, planning out that report, task initiation, starting it, prioritizing what to put and where, working memory, remembering the conversations, the examples, everything that needs to go in there. So this is not an intelligence or a capability issue, my friend. Okay, so when we struggle with the admin or the paperwork, it's not a personality flaw. It is literally a brain wiring difference. So next up, another hard thing that we can experience, a challenge we might have in the workplace is the shame spiral. When it takes us back to that example night, you know, eight hours to write a report that took my coworker in 90 minutes. I beat myself up. I feel so much shame. I think I'm you know, what's wrong with me? Why can't I do it like that? I should be able to do it like that. I beat the out of myself. And we have difficulty with certain tasks that our co workers, people around us can find easy. Those no brainer things for them, those things that they do super quickly without so much drama. We beat the out of ourself for that. So a lot of shame can come up. Okay? And also trying to be neurotypical, trying to, you know, expecting that you should be able to do that report in 90 minutes, expecting that it should only take you 10 minutes to reply to that email. Expecting that, you know, you should just be able to plan that out and action it and do it just like your co worker or your boss says, like trying to be neurotypical and do things in neurotypical way. And hello, we live in a neurotypical society. And by that I mean, you know, a society built for people without adhd, systems that are built for people without adhd. Doing that creates so much shame because our brains just don't work that way. Now the challenge we face in the workplace is, and we've already kind of talked about this, is the getting bored really quick, right? Being really quick to get bored and then going out and seeking dopamine. So I know another client I've worked with who was struggling with the paperwork side of things and having to write reports. Every time somebody would walk past her office, she would hop up and go out and say, hey, what are you up to? So it was seeing somebody walk past the office was like this. Oh, a distraction. Let me go and chase the dopamine. Oh, let me go make a cup of tea and have a chat with you. Oh, what have you been doing? Because this report is so boring. I want that distraction. Okay, so when we get bored easily, what happens? We go off in search of those distractions. Or let me just grab my phone and scroll on Instagram for five minutes. Thirty minutes later, Whoops. Another challenge you might experience is feeling misunderstood by your colleagues and your managers, especially if they don't have an understanding of adhd or if they are of that generation or that group of people who don't understand it, don't want to understand it, or simply think it's naughty little boys at school who can't sit still. Mm. Those people that can be really hard when people you work with, with people you report to, don't understand your differences and don't want to support you in a way in which is going to help you work with your brain and thrive in the workplace. That shit, my friend, hard. And the last one I wanted to mention is, and I see this quite a lot, is we can stay in a job out of comfort and fear. Like, I don't love this job, I don't like this job, but I'm too scared to pursue what I want to pursue. I'm too scared to try something new. Like, what if I fail again? It's that rejection. What if I, if I get rejected? What if I mess up? What if I, you know, all of that. So sometimes we'll just stay in something we know because the familiar is comforting, even if we don't like it. And we're so afraid of what's on the other side of those possibilities. Okay, so one thing I really want to stress here is that job fit matters more than job title. Okay? So studies on neurodivergent employment consistently show that environmental fit predicts success more than your skill level. So being in a, a team and a culture that is really supportive of your brain being wired differently is really supportive of accommodating and working with your brain and helping to set you up for success and trying different things and, you know, giving you different accommodations and people who, you know, are kind and loving and none of that toxic gossipy shit. Right. Being in that environment is shown by the studies to predict success way more than simply having, you know, the skills or the resume to do something. So in other words, another way to say this is if you put a dolphin in the right ocean and it thrives. Right? Put a dolphin in the right ocean, it's going to thrive. You put that dolphin on a bike, everybody's confused. You're probably like, what? I love it. I love it. Let's talk now a little bit about the sweet spot. So I'm going to share with you a few different areas, a few different things that really help us to thrive in the workplace, in our careers. Okay? Number one, novelty. You hear me talk about this all the time. ADHD brains thrive on novelty because it, what it produces the dopamine, the good feeling chemicals. Yes. So novelty could be things like new problems, new challenges. It could be rotating projects. It could be different things you have to learn or adapt to in the moment. For example, it could be like police officers. I did, Yes. I almost became a police officer. The amount of careers I've almost had, very close to that one. But I remember I did a preparation for law enforcement course. It was a three month course. It was fantastic. And we learned so much about what it's like to actually be in the police force. And I went and did a ride along and spent, I think about, I think I did a 15 hour shift because I went from one one lot of offices to the next lot and I didn't get home to like 4am in the morning. I was like the most exciting day ever. Anyway, I went and did this ride along with these police officers and we were talking about, you know, what it's like, I did this in South Auckland. If you live in New Zealand, you will know that that is one of the highest crime rates throughout New Zealand is in this specific area in South Auckland. So I traveled three hours to get there to do the ride along in this area. And I said to them, you know, how long does it take you to go through your probationary period? So when you've done your training at police college, you then go into the sort of probationary period as a. I think it's a constable to start with before you're sort of fully qualified, let's say. And I said, how long does it take? And they say here in South Auckland, what typically would take somebody else two years takes us on average about six months. Now this could have changed, right? This was years ago. But I found this so fascinating because there was so much happening. I was like, oh, tell me about what you did yesterday, tell me about the calls that you had last week or, you know, the most bizarre thing that you've ever had or experienced. And there was just so much variety, so much every day is different. I actually think that was one of the slogans that they used back then when they were advertising to get new recruits, new police recruits through is every day is different. And literally these people that I got to connect with on this ride along, they were a walking example of every day in their line of work being different. How novel is that? So another thing when it comes to finding your sweet spot is interest. You genuinely have to be interested in it, like curious. You don't want it to be, oh, I should, you know, do that, I should, blah, blah, blah, you know, like, ugh, that kind of energy, like is an energy vampire. That shit sucks. So one of the things I thought of here is like a photographer. One of the careers I almost pursued, pursued my friend. But when I think about a photographer, I, I've, I've got a few friends who do this and they love it. They love the challenge of, well, like I need to play with the light to find the right lighting and the right setting and the right camera angle and Then I really love to get creative photos. Like, they have this genuine interest in their craft in finding different ways to capture a photo, to capture an image, to capture a memory or a motor moment. It's not, oh, I should take another picture or I should do it like that. Like, there's this genuine interest in it. Okay, so the next thing is challenge. So you want an element of challenge that's gonna stretch you in your career without overwhelming you. Okay. Because if it's. If it. If there's no challenge, it's gonna get monotonous and boring probably quite quickly. So. So one of the things I think about as an entrepreneur, right, is. Or actually, no, this wasn't made. This was somebody else. I was thinking about somebody I was talking to the other day, fellow entrepreneur. They were saying to me, how do you think I could increase my sales without increasing my marketing and advertising budget? And I was like, ooh, what a fun challenge as an entrepreneur, right? It's having that kind of a, oh, how can I stretch myself and do things differently and challenge myself to fix this problem or create this thing without, like, the overwhelming dread of, you're gonna get fired or die if you don't do this. Okay, so challenge. Very important. So we've gone through novelty interest, challenge. The next one, urgency. If you guys see a theme here, the nicu novelty interest, challenge, urgency. Okay, these are four things that produce dopamine in the ADHD brain, right? They get those chemicals pumping, which gets our brain on board to help us get motivated to do this. The. Okay, so urgency. Having deadline. External accountability. So one of the ways I've actually done this as an entrepreneur is selling an offer before you've created it. So selling something, whether it be, you know, the adulting with ADHD membership, selling that before you finished creating it, and then having a date when the doors are going to open, because, holy shit, you've got to have them open because you've already sold it to the people. Or it could be that you collaborate with somebody. As you might have heard on the podcast, if you're a regular listener, I've recently collaborated with my friend Logan and we. Creating some neurodivergent products. We've created the Good Enough Coach, which is an AI. An AI ADHD coach. And we've got some other incredible, exciting things in the works I can't wait to share with you. But collaborating with someone, again, creates that deadline, that external accountability. Like, I have to get certain done so that he can do his bit. And I don't want to let him down and he doesn't want to let me down. So, like it works really, really well. So having an element of urgency. See, next up in the sweet spot is variety. Okay? Like I said, we can't be doing the same day in and day out. We need some variety, right? We, like I was thinking about this, a triage nurse, okay? I know somebody I went to school with, she is a triage nurse and I. And she's recently been diagnosed with adhd. And I was like, oh, funny that, funny that, my friend. But she said that she loves it because you never know what's going to happen. You never know what's going to walk in. Is it somebody who's been stabbed? Is it like it could be anything that day. You have no idea as a triage nurse what is going to come across your path that day. And she said, that is just so exciting, so novel, so, so wild that right there, having some variety, so good for our brains. The next one on my list here is autonomy, okay? I talk to a lot of ADHDers who say that, you know, they want the external accountability because that's really important. We've talked about that. But also having some autonomy, some choice over how and when you work. And I know a lot of employers are now getting a lot better at this, at being more accommodating. Like if you're not a morning person, hey, how about I start at 10am and I work through till 6. So having some autonomy over how you work, when you work, where you work. For me, sometimes I will go to my favorite cafe because that helps me to, to be able to, you know, produce my brain chemicals and feel accountable and get shit done. And thankfully, sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes I have the ability, the autonomy to be able to go and take do that. I thought a great example of this actually is a personal trainer. So I remember years ago I was at this gym and if the weather was fine in summertime, she would say, hey, we're going to do an outside session tomorrow and this is where you're going to be. And I'm going to bring this equipment. Like, we didn't have to bring anything. We just literally had to show up with a water bottle. But she would have that kind of autonomy to get us outside to change things up. And that I found, again, really spoke to my ADHD brain. But having a career where you some autonomy, so good for us. Okay? Another thing that's a real sweet spot for ADHD careers is impact, seeing that your work actually matters. I've Got a few teachers that I have as students and clients who I have the honor of working with. And one of the things that lights them up is when they tell me about a student who has written them a thank you card, or a parent of a student who has sent them an email, or a student who said, hey, look, miss. Oh my God, my grade has gone from this to this. Wow, how cool is that? Like seeing the impact of your work and seeing that it matters, that there that like this is literally why I do what I do. Like having an impact and seeing people's lives change and hearing those stories. Okay, and the last one, my friend, is flexibility Room to work with your energy, not against it. So I was thinking about this. I know an artist, she does incredible artwork and I've been talking to her lately. I'm just very curious about how she does what she does and how she's able to produce so many incredible paintings and works of art. And she said I really lean in to when I feel called to do this. And she said it kind of ebbs and flows. And you know, thankfully she has the autonomy, she works for herself to be able to do that. When the energy is there, she will paint until late into the night, all crazy hours. And when it's not there, she doesn't make that a problem. And I love that. So I'm going to read back through these. Okay, But I just before I do, I just want you to hear this. You don't need to tick all of these boxes, but the more boxes that you tick, the easier it's going to feel. The more enjoyable it is going to be. The more dopamine you're going to produce in your brain to help you get the work done. Okay, so I'll just recap them. There was novelty, interest, challenge, urgency, variety, autonomy, impact and flexibility. Okay, so let's go through some careers where people with ADHD often shine. Okay, so there's a lot of sort of talk on the Internet of these careers. So you may have heard of them if you have done your research. But I'm going to share them with you here as well. So number one, and I've got eight of them. Number one, emergency services. So people with adhd, we often thrive, we excel as emergency services, whether that be, as I said, a police officer, it could be the triage nurse, it could be the firefighter. Okay. High stakes problem solving, adrenaline, fast moving. What happens in these situations when all of a sudden you get this, you're at the fire station and you, the alarm goes off. And you're jumping in the fire truck and oh, my gosh, this house is on fire. What happens happens is your brain starts, the ADHD brain starts pumping those chemicals. We are fan tastic in a crisis, my friend, because we get all the chemicals we need. We get the adrenaline, we get the dopamine, we get the norepinephrine. We get all of these things going in the brain and it feels so good. And we are so switched on. Right? This is why we thrive in a crisis. So any of those sort of emergency services roles? So good. Again, they often provide a lot of variety too. Yes. Number two, teaching and support roles. It, like, it always blows my mind how many teachers I come across with ADHD who I get to connect with, I get to support, I get to help. Like, incredible. And I love this, right? And here's why I think it is. There is a lot of connection. There is a lot of connection in a teaching or support role. There also often is a lot of creativity. I know one of my teachers in the U.S. she loves to do escape rooms for her clients. Clients, right. How fun is that? Another one, like, loves doing artwork with them with, like, the young ones. So fun. Adaptability. And again, like, you can add an element of variety. And there's just a lot of. I think satisfaction can come from this. I know there's also a lot of stress in teaching, don't get me wrong, so I don't want to sugarcoat that, but we can often thrive as a teacher or in a support role because, again, it ticks a lot of these boxes for the ADHD brain. The third one on the list is entrepreneurship. We make amazing entrepreneurs. And there are some wild stats. Like 80 of entrepreneurs have ADHD. I don't know how they measure that. I think that that's like a. A guesstimate on the Internet, which I've heard many, many times. But it doesn't surprise me. I hear about, you know, so many successful entrepreneurs having adhd. I love, you know, Richard Branson's a great example of this. He's got adhd, he's got dyslexia, ad. And again, as an entrepreneur, you've got the autonomy, you got the novelty, you've got the endless variety, like, idea to ideas, like, like so much going on. And you can ping off in lots of different directions. So entrepreneurship is excellent for us, my friend, especially when paired with some accountability. Okay, I know that one. I know that one the hard way. I learned that one the hard way. Number four on my list of careers that we Excel at personal training, fitness, wellness. Okay, when we are moving, if you listen to the podcast I had, I'm not sure what number it was, but it's a few back now. And I had Matt come on to talk about his ADHD story. He was a late diagnosed adhder, but he was a professional athlete for a number of years and that masked his ADHD. When he was playing cricket, when he was being active like that, his brain was producing all of the dopamine, the norepinephrine, all the serotonin, all of the good feeling chemicals that we've got a bit less of. It was like, you know, he didn't need to take any ADHD medication because his brain was producing it every single day. When he was training and competing and doing all of these things, it wasn't until he sort of left that or retired from his sport that shit sort of hit the fan and he realized that he didn't have those chemicals being produced all of the time. Okay, so again, when we are working in an industry where there's a lot of fitness, personal training, wellness, professional athletes, all of these sorts of things, there's that movement, so we're getting the brain chemicals. There's a lot of connection, there's a lot of sort of variety that can happen in there as well. The fifth one on my list here is the creatives, the arts, the photography, design, media, writing, artists, florists, content creation, all of these sorts of things. It's so fun, so much fun. There's novelty, there's flow, there's expression. And again, such a key theme here, here is these things help our brain produce the chemicals that we need in order to not only function, but really thrive. The sixth career on my list here is consulting, coaching, mentoring, strategy, this sort of thing. Okay, in this, there's a lot of pattern recognition. ADHD brains are fantastic when it comes to pattern recognition. We see things other people don't see and we see it quick and we can connect those dots and it's fun, right? There's a lot of innovation, a lot of creativity, a lot of problem solving. So again, things that we often excel in, number seven on the list, hospitality, events, tourism. I'm not surprised, like when I was doing a bit of research for this to see that the tourism industry ranked quite highly for areas where people with ADHD often succeed. Because being in the tourism industry, I can speak from experience, you know, whether it's like even a tour, a tour operator, a tour guide, all of these sorts things of things. There is like the Social element and the social connection. But there's also such a variety and often in that you're hearing a lot of other people's stories, you're hearing other people's travel stories or where they come from, about their country, where they're going to, all of these sorts of things, okay? And we love that. The last one on my list, number eight is the hands on roles, trades, okay? So whether that be a builder, okay, A tradie of any kind, where there is movement, like physical movement, where there is a variety of things that we're getting to do and problem solving required, again, those brain chemicals are kicking in and we do very well. Where there's like a lot of like sort of physical movement of our bodies, again helping with those brain chemicals. So I want you to think of it like this, okay? I've given you eight different ideas right here, eight areas where ADHD is often, you know, excel terms of career. But I want you to think of it like ADHD is. We are the Swiss army knife, okay? We've got lots of tools packed into one brain. And it's not about necessarily choosing one blade to use forever, just one part of that army knife. It's about using different tools at different times. Okay? So my friend, let me give you some questions to help you. If you're in a place of, you know, wanting to change careers, wanting to change directions, I want to give you some sort of questions to, to journal on. I would highly encourage you to actually write these out and write them down. Why? It slows the ADHD brain down, okay? If you keep it all up in your brain, it's like trying to find something in a dark room with the light off. When you get everything out of your head and onto paper, it's like turning the light switch on in that room to help you find what's in there. Okay? Such a beneficial thing for the ADHD brain, help us to slow down, to regulate all these things. So again, if you can get it out onto paper, I recommend you do that. So questions to ask yourself. If you are looking at changing careers, exploring what's next, maybe looking at some study, et cetera. Number one, what energizes me? This is not. What am I good at? Okay? That, that's not what I'm asking. What energizes me? What would I like? What would I do for free? Because it gives me so much energy, I love doing it. Okay? Number two, what tasks drain me? Number three, where have I felt the most alive? Number four, what do people always ask me for help with. Now, another way I like to think of this is what am I really good at doing? What comes really easily and naturally to me that doesn't come easily and naturally to other people. People. Now, sometimes it's worth asking your five closest people around you that question. What comes really easily and naturally to me that doesn't come easy or natural to other people? Okay. Or what, what do you see other people? Or what do you always come to ask me for help for? Okay, so what was that? I think that was number four. Number five, what roles naturally suit my brain wiring of wanting, novelty, interest, challenge, urgency, etc. And I've given you some ideas on that. And the last question I've got here is what would I try if I wasn't afraid of failing, fucking up, being judged? If I was guaranteed to succeed, what would I try? Sometimes I like to flip that question and say, if I was guaranteed to fail, what would I try? Right? If I was guaranteed to succeed, seed, what would I try? So I want you to think about this, like taste testing, okay? It's not that you necessarily need a lifelong commitment for your career. We often can do really well from having little taste tests. What I mean by that is volunteer. So if you're thinking, maybe I would like to get into becoming a vet nurse and working as a vet or in that kind of animal realm, ask if you can volunteer for a week. Ask if you can volunteer on the weekends or the nights or whatever, or ask if you can shadow someone. That's a great thing to do. Can I shadow someone? Right. If you're thinking about going back to school to get a law degree, for example, ask if you can shadow somebody in the law office for a few days, right? Maybe even freelance one day week or run a workshop. Say yes to a short term opportunity. Ask for a sabbatical in your workplace, right? Let curiosity lead, not pressure. I want to invite you to do the taste testing before you decide what's next. Now, if you have fallen out of love with your current career, your current role, I feel you, my friend. I have been an entrepreneur and a coach now for over 10 years and there have been times throughout this journey where I have fallen out of love with it. And I've been like, I want to go and, you know, move to Morocco and do camel safaris, right? When I've been really craving that change. And every time I have made some small tweaks, some small changes to really fall back in love with my job. And usually it is started with this one question. How Can I make this fun again? Another way to look at this, and this is how I have imagined it in the past, is if I'm in a relationship, say a romantic relationship with somebody, and I've been with them for six years and it's feeling like real same, same and kind of boring. Same shit, different day, how might I try and spice things up? What might I suggest in order to kind of liven our relationship up? Okay, so I'm gonna give you some ideas. Here's what I mean in the career sense. Okay, Back to Korea. So these are like little micro changes that can help to create the dopamine without the giving up on it, the quitting, the, you know, just feeling like you've lost the joy of it. So first of all, changing the what can you take on a new project? Can you mentor someone? Can you learn a new skill inside your role? Okay, I actually think of a teacher client of mine who learned, she did study over a year to help learn how to work with kids with learning differences. And she was given one day off a week from her school that she worked at so that she could do her studies. And eventually she got this, you know, this new qualification whilst she was in the same role. And she got so much joy out of doing that. So the next one is change the how can you batch the boring tasks? Can you batch them together, do them all at once? So whether it be, I'm trying to think of something for me, like posting on social media is not something that I thoroughly enjoy doing, like replying to messages, replying to emails, Batch them all together and do it with music or a timer, right? Or could you body double with a colleague? Could you say, hey, like at 1pm today, let's meet in the. The. What is it, the conference room for an hour and let's go through and like get some done together, right? Gamify it the admin, right? You get points, you get races, you get rewards, like make things fun. If you're not sure how to gamify my friend chat GPT will give you a ton of ideas. So the next thing to do if you've kind of fallen out of love with your current career or role is changing the who collaborate more. Reduce the time spent with draining people if possible. I know in the past I made a couple of career pivots. This is a while back and I started to work with a different kind of clientele, not realizing that I didn't actually want to work with those people because they were so draining and so difficult and just didn't believe that there was any hope whatsoever. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is like sucking the life out of me. So again, can you change the who change the clients that you're working with? Change or reduce the amount of time spent with those sorts of people? Seek out energizing conversations. Okay. One of the things that's really helped me in this realm is also like going to Toastmasters every week, meeting new people, new people who are excited about what I do, having like really interesting conversations with people in different careers, etc, learning from them. Like that kind of a who connection has helped me hugely. Something else to consider is like changing the win. Can you change the way you are working to give your brain more of a break? Do the deep work when your brain is most switched on. For me, that's really like mid to early morning. Right? Put the admin in those low energy windows. I typically do my admin at like 2:30, 3:00 clock in the afternoon. Can you negotiate flexible hours? Can you talk to your employer about accommodations? We've got some amazing episodes on here about workplace accommodations. We had Jamie Rose, Jamie Rose Peacock, the expert, come on and talk to us about ADHD workplace accommodations. I'll link to that episode in the short notes. So again, like, can you talk to your employer about having some of these things? Actually, while I'm on this, I don't know which one of these it falls into. But another thing that just came to me is can you get your workplace into some like, neurodivergent awareness training? Can you have somebody, you know, come in and give a talk in your workplace or run a workshop or can you form. I've got another somebody I've worked with, they formed like a neurodivergent committee in their workplace and like had monthly meetings and stuff. And then, then that like really sparked a joy and a connection and just a real sort of love of the workplace and kind of revitalized her, which I think was so cool. So can you do something like that? Okay, again, I think that kind of comes down to like changing the why. Reconnecting with your impact. Right? Who does this help? Who am I helping with this? What problem am I solving? What part of this really aligns with my values? And if, my friend, if you don't know your values, you gotta do that. I've got an incredible workshop actually in, in the Adulting with ADHD program where I have people go through an exercise where they get to, you know, find their values and see how their life has transpired. As a result of those values and how that impacts their daily interactions and what they want to do with their life. It's like knowing your values, my friend. So important. Okay? So important. So those are just some sort of ideas to help you when it comes to adding that love and that spice back into your career and your work. Work, right? And I want you to think about, like, introducing some sort of safe novelty. So instead of, like, burning it all down, which, trust me, sometimes I felt like, no, that's it. I'm just going to quit and go and stock shelves in the supermarket. Right? Instead of doing that, like, what side projects or short courses or contract work or speaking, writing, mentorship or passion projects can you do alongside your job? Right? You're not cheating on your career. You're giving it oxygen. Gent. Okay, my friend. Oh, my gosh. This episode has been huge because we had a lot to cover. So I just want to leave you with this. If you have changed careers, jobs, or directions more times than you can count, you're not broken. You are right at home. Congratulations. Welcome to the team, my friend. Right? You have been responding to a brain that craves meaning. Challenge, interest, growth, or. Right? ADHDs are not here to climb the same ladder for 40 years. We are here to explore, to build, to pivot, to contribute, to learn and evolve. The goal is not to find the one perfect job and stay there forever. Okay? Trust me, that's bullshit. It's not going to happen. You, my friend, are allowed to change. You're allowed to outgrow roles. You're allowed to make your work work for you and your brand brain. Okay? So whether you have, you know, fallen out of love with your current role, your current job, or you're gently exploring, hey, what's next? My friend, you are not behind. You are exactly where an ADHD brain is meant to be. Learning, adjusting, figuring things out. Huge, huge love to you, my friend. Take care here. I'll speak to you soon. Hey, friend, if you want some more help navigating and thriving with ADHD and some help applying everything that you're learning here on the podcast, then head over to our website, navigating adult adhd.com.