Latest / Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD / My Autistic Life and how I created the best version of me and you can to
Transcript
- 0:00You have arrived. Welcome to the Aspy world.
- 0:04Here's where we talk about anything and everything ASD in
- 0:07an upbeat and informative way. And now here's your man on the
- 0:11spectrum, your autism ambassador, Daniel Morgan Jones.
- 0:19So my artistic life and how I designed it to create success.
- 0:23I'm going to cover everything step by step for you right now.
- 0:26Let's get into it. OK, guys.
- 0:27So for years and years, right, I was diagnosed with autism at 26
- 0:30years old. So that gave me like 26 years of
- 0:33struggling, fumbling about in the dark and going from, you
- 0:37know, pillar to post to this doctor, that doctor, this
- 0:39specialist, that specialist. So nobody knew what was going
- 0:41on. And because of that, it, it told
- 0:43me loads of kind of really interesting things about my life
- 0:46and, and struggles. You know, I was always one of
- 0:48these people who was like, how am I going to get the best out
- 0:51of it? How are we going to how, how can
- 0:52I change the situation? Autistic people are problem
- 0:55solvers, right? I see a problem, I don't see a
- 0:57problem. I see a potential towards a
- 0:58solution. And the other thing I like about
- 1:00problems is that when, when you have a problem, you know that
- 1:04you're moving in the right direction because if you stand
- 1:06still, you get no problems. You're standing still, right?
- 1:09And when you're moving forward, when you're, when you're
- 1:12progressing towards your goal, the cool thing is you're going
- 1:15to come across problems. So when I get a problem, I know
- 1:17I'm moving in the right direction.
- 1:18So we should never be scared of problems.
- 1:20I would love for you to leave a review for this video slash
- 1:22podcast if you have anything to add because it would really help
- 1:25me out on this channel and also help me learn and grow from your
- 1:29comments. Knowing this growing up and
- 1:31being kind of like, oh man, I wish like this was different, or
- 1:35I wish that was different, or, you know, how can I improve my
- 1:38condition? And there was something going
- 1:39on. Even though I was undiagnosed, I
- 1:41still knew there was something amiss or something going on that
- 1:44I couldn't really figure out. And so because of that, I
- 1:47devised loads of different plans.
- 1:49Like I've journaled out kind of 10 steps here to how I aced my
- 1:54life and made it the most productivity based, motivational
- 1:58and kind of just get out there and get it done type of life.
- 2:01Even being on the autism spectrum and having ADHDI also
- 2:04have dyslexia, OCD, you know, depression, multiple mental
- 2:08health issues. And that's OK because we're all
- 2:11different. We're all individual and those
- 2:12things are going to happen and there's nothing wrong with that.
- 2:15Now guys, if you're enjoying this type of video, I make
- 2:17videos like this every week, so make sure to hit the subscribe
- 2:19button down below okay, so the framework for this is very
- 2:22simple. It's a 10 step process and I'm
- 2:25going to go through each one of those bits right now, starting
- 2:29with number one. Number one is I journal
- 2:31everything and I journal every emotion and thought that I have.
- 2:35So I have this little book that I carry around with me and in
- 2:39that book it's a lot notepad like this.
- 2:41And in that notepad I have two things.
- 2:42One is I have this little card here that I sell tape to the
- 2:45inside or I stick it to the inside and the card changes.
- 2:49This one is abundance. This one says abundance.
- 2:51And then on my new journal potential unlimited potential
- 2:54written on it. And in in this journal, I
- 2:56highlight all my thoughts and my worries and my my goals and my
- 3:00emotions of how I feeling at the moment in time.
- 3:02Am I sick? Do I do I am I worried?
- 3:04Is there something that is is amiss?
- 3:06When I put my thoughts down onto paper, when I physically write
- 3:10out my thoughts onto a small journal pad, something quite
- 3:13magical happens. The worry, the, the, the energy,
- 3:16the, the kind of that resistance in my head is no longer sitting
- 3:19there. It's sitting on a piece of paper
- 3:21within my little journal that I can take care of.
- 3:22Then I can look at it when I really need to go, OK, I need to
- 3:25get this thing done. And the reason that's important
- 3:27is because a freeze of space in your mind, in your head, and
- 3:30allows you to be at peace with a lot of the things that are
- 3:34causing you stress in your daily life.
- 3:35So journalling and having your emotions, thoughts, worries,
- 3:39fears, everything written down in the journal.
- 3:40Obviously, if you keep it safe or you can code word, you know,
- 3:42things in there, which is fine. This is so important, and this
- 3:45has remarkably changed my mind. Very interesting.
- 3:47And I'm dyslexic, so my handwriting is absolutely
- 3:50terrible. So that was #1 OK, so the next
- 3:53thing I did is I took everything that I needed to do because I
- 3:56came across this point in my life where I get this moment of
- 3:58inertia where I've got loads of things to do and I want to do
- 4:02them. And then it comes to the point
- 4:03to do it, and I just can't do it.
- 4:05I have too many things. I'm overwhelmed, and I just
- 4:07can't do it. I can't bring myself to that
- 4:08point, that position to go and do those things.
- 4:10So I decided that, but because I felt like I had loads of things
- 4:13on, I would make a list. I'd get this a different notepad
- 4:16or a piece of paper that I would write down all of the things
- 4:19that I needed to do, right? A big list of things.
- 4:21My To Do List was like a lot smaller than you think when you
- 4:23actually write it down. But then I said, OK, I'm going
- 4:25to pick four of those items and I'm going to pick four of those
- 4:28items and I'm going to put four of those to do lists.
- 4:29I'm going to make a tiny 4 item To Do List per day.
- 4:33And so I can manage 4 things in a day, right?
- 4:35Maybe you can only manage two things.
- 4:36Maybe you can only manage one thing, shorten that list, take
- 4:39stuff off your list, and this is called compounding the things
- 4:43that you need to do because by taking off one thing per day off
- 4:46your list, you're going to compound the things that you
- 4:48need to do and you're going to move a lot smoother.
- 4:51Now this has freed up a bunch of stuff within my life, actually
- 4:54helped me organise all my work, help me get my tasks completed,
- 4:58get my projects done. Then that was really important.
- 5:00So get a big list of all your things that you need to do and
- 5:03then make a tiny small four or one piece To Do List per day.
- 5:07Super dope. OK, setting timers for
- 5:10everything. Oh my gosh #3 is my all time
- 5:13favorite. So I have an iPhone and I use it
- 5:17for everything. Like I have an iPhone on an
- 5:18iPad. And actually if I didn't have an
- 5:20iPhone or an iPad, I don't even know what would happen.
- 5:22I think my life would just not work.
- 5:25Like I don't know. I don't know what I did before I
- 5:27had these things. If ever I have an appointment, I
- 5:30put it in my iPhone and I get it to remind me if I have a, you
- 5:34know, a work schedule, like I've got something to do and it has
- 5:37to be done by a certain day or a certain hour, I set a timer.
- 5:40I say I've got this amount of time to do this project.
- 5:43That's it. When you set times on things,
- 5:45when you have a timer for everything, what happens is it
- 5:49allows you to forget about the fact that you've got to do
- 5:51something else next because you'll be alerted when that time
- 5:54is up. But it allows you to focus on
- 5:56the thing that you're doing right now.
- 5:58And by doing this, it frees up that kind of, oh, I can't get
- 6:01started on this task because I've got another one pending in
- 6:03an hour or an hour and a half. And those things really played
- 6:06my mind. So I was just loving the fact
- 6:09that I could actually change this.
- 6:11So that being said, make sure when you set time, you give
- 6:14yourself enough time. Try this, play around with it.
- 6:16But time is really good, the visual representations and they
- 6:19help you with things like I'm going to do the writing work for
- 6:22the next two hours, right? A timer and it tells you when
- 6:25the writing work is up. So if you are struggling and
- 6:27you're looking for a therapist, we actually have on hand
- 6:30autistic and neurodivergent therapist here at the Aspy
- 6:33World. Now, if you're looking for
- 6:34coaching and therapy combined together with a therapist,
- 6:38Carla, who works here at the Aspy World, who is in ADHD and
- 6:41is registered therapist, will do online sessions with you.
- 6:43All you have to do is follow the link down below.
- 6:45I'll go to the aspyworld.com/kala with AK and
- 6:50book an appointment with Kala. All right, guys, OK #4 is focus
- 6:54with the cinema mode. Now, the cinema mode is really
- 6:56interesting. Like so I needed to get to a
- 6:58bunch of stuff on my computer, right?
- 7:00And I was like, how am I going to sit down and do all this
- 7:02stuff, you know, and you need to write a bunch of things.
- 7:05And I am such a person who just kind of like picks up my phone
- 7:08and checks it and picks up my phone chat.
- 7:09I'll so it's text me and then costs ADHD Dan, like everything
- 7:13just goes out of the window, right?
- 7:14Like I'm just, oh, my goodness. So what do I do is I get my
- 7:18phone, I put it on silent and then I put it in a drawer and I
- 7:22pretend that I'm in the cinema. When do you go to the cinema or
- 7:24the movie theatre? They, they tell you turn off
- 7:27your turn your cell phones off or put them onto airplane mode
- 7:29or whatever, right? So you don't disturb the other
- 7:31people watching the movie. And it's a good thing we all do
- 7:33it because the thing at the end of the day is you want to sit
- 7:35there and concentrate on the movie.
- 7:35You don't want to be sitting there like texting your buddy
- 7:37about something ridiculous, right?
- 7:39So if you treat your working life as if you were going to the
- 7:42movies to see a theatre and you're the person that you, you
- 7:44don't want to disrupt, then make sure you put focus mode on or
- 7:48turn your, your mute on your phone, put it in a drawer and
- 7:51tap it away. This revolutionised the way I
- 7:53work and it took my mind away from kind of just scrolling
- 7:56endlessly to be able to actually be more productive.
- 7:58OK #5 Is work related or job related?
- 8:01A lot of autistic individuals have issues with finding work,
- 8:05generating income, career, there's a bunch of different
- 8:09things, right? So what did I do to, to, to
- 8:12change this around? Like I found it difficult, you
- 8:14know, when I was 20, six, I was in and out of different types of
- 8:19jobs. I could never stay in one job
- 8:20long enough because I'd get depression and then or just to
- 8:23kind of, you know, issues and it was just bad, right?
- 8:28And and so my doctors like, well, you can't really work more
- 8:30than two days a week in a typical office environment.
- 8:32I thought, well, that's ridiculous.
- 8:33Like who can, who can survive on two days a week?
- 8:36So I needed to figure something out fast, right, because, you
- 8:38know, we all need to earn money. So I realised I needed to
- 8:41monetize all of my personal assets.
- 8:43And that means I wrote a list of everything that I was good at,
- 8:46right? I'm good at like, social media.
- 8:48I'm good at, like, editing videos.
- 8:49I'm good at helping people, you know, build really exciting
- 8:53campaigns for their businesses. I'm good at playing music.
- 8:57I'm going to creating stories for books or I'm going to, you
- 9:00know, researching stuff, right? And so I listed up all the
- 9:04things I was good at and then I, I monetized them and monetizing
- 9:07means I got people to pay me to do those.
- 9:09So I just went onto fiva.com and Craigslist and different type of
- 9:12forums and said, Hey, look, I'm doing this stuff, I'm
- 9:14freelancing, you know, would you pay me to do this?
- 9:16And people, yes, you start off small and you just about break
- 9:19even at first, but it does cascade into more right?
- 9:22And that is really interesting. That is actually so interesting
- 9:26that every part of my life that I feel like I can offer, you
- 9:30know, help with or service with, you can monetise it to make sure
- 9:34that you're getting a fair distribution of exchange value
- 9:38when there's something, you know, really important that you
- 9:40want to do and people want to pay you for it.
- 9:42So the next thing is #6 using apps like Instagram and WhatsApp
- 9:46to make friends. Now, making friends on Instagram
- 9:50was a game changer for me. I felt so alone growing up.
- 9:52I was an autistic person and I felt like nobody understood me.
- 9:55And yes, I know it's all teenagers go through the stage,
- 9:57but what was the most interesting thing was that I
- 10:00felt really disconnected from people and I needed to find
- 10:02other individuals or autistic individuals who were just like
- 10:05me. So I, I used Instagram to
- 10:07connect with other autistic people and autistic folk and,
- 10:10and using apps like WhatsApp. And this was really interesting.
- 10:18Hey guys, thank you so much for checking out this podcast.
- 10:20Make sure you are subscribed because there are people
- 10:23listening right now who are not subscribed to this podcast.
- 10:25I can see you make sure you subscribe.
- 10:27OK guys, see you in the next one.
- 10:29Peace.