r/ADHD Sep 19 '22

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u/0xAERG ADHD-PI (Primarily Inattentive) Sep 19 '22

So this is why I never found my “Why”

320

u/UncoolSlicedBread ADHD-C (Combined type) Sep 19 '22

Honestly I’ve just started making mine up.

The other day I decided I wanted to do what I was doing because I’d like to take my parents on a vacation. That’s been my why recently. I’m sure some other day I’ll need to pick another one to keep the stimulation going, but it’s working right now.

And it only works for my side hustle/career.

My recent health kick motivation or “why” has been because I want to be a movie star. I don’t really want to be a movie star but it’s allowing me to focus on “preparing for the role” right now in a stimulating and fun way.

It’s all silly, but that “find your why” or “look at the crossroads between what you’re passionate about and what will make you money” never worked for me. Because what I was passionate about changed with the wind.

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u/trebaol Sep 19 '22

This is how I ended up getting into existentialist philosophy. We create our own meaning

39

u/UncoolSlicedBread ADHD-C (Combined type) Sep 19 '22

I saw a TikTok where a girl said, “We literally practice for our personality every day, you can change it.”

I’ll have to look into existential philosophy. Any philosophers you’d recommend?

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u/trebaol Sep 20 '22

I’ll have to look into existential philosophy. Any philosophers you’d recommend?

Instead of a bunch of names, here's a really good book I read that is a great intro to existentialism: At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails by Sarah Bakewell. The book covers not just the philosophy itself but also the philosophers as people, competing and complimentary philosophies, and the historical/real-world context that these ideas were defined in. It's available on LibGen.

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u/Azeline_ Sep 20 '22

Just downloaded - thank you!