Blog #170: Knowing Your Why’s

On January 20th, I attended Autism Knows No Borders’ first 2022 roundtable on setting goals for the year and one of the attendees, Tom Iland, brought up a very important point that I have started to take to heart as an aspiring entrepreneur in the field of autism/neurodiversity self-advocacy and public speaking: Knowing Your Why and What is Your Why?

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Knowing your why is critical when it comes to your life’s work and mission. I say this because if you know your why, your road to success will be less bumpy. Sometimes we try to do things that are not part of our why’s and we end up not being successful because of it.

Me presenting “Autism in Disney Characters: Volume 1” at MyCon 2021 in Orlando, FL

Take for example…comic conventions. I have been to plenty of Brony and Comic Cons over the years and have had the opportunity to speak at a few of them in recent years. For a while, I wanted to focus entirely on them. But now, I’m glad I made the decision to branch out beyond comic cons because my why isn’t strictly in them.

Sure, plenty of neurodiverse individuals attend them as a way of being social and hanging out with people that have the same shared interest, but who would want to sit and watch someone who is like them, on the autism/neurodiversity spectrum talk about how their favorite characters display traits of autism/neurodiversity?

In 2021, I had the honor and privilege in presenting “Autism in Disney Characters: Volume 1” at two Florida based comic cons: MyCon in Orlando and Metrocon in Tampa.

Sure, I had a staunch turnout for both events and had the opportunity to meet one of my friends and colleagues in the field, Mark Fleming of Equally Fit at MyCon, but I also had to deal with a sing along going on at the same time as well at MyCon.

That to me was a sign that maybe my why’s are not at Comic Cons because that is what people who attend comic cons go to do.

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Council for Exception Children and Society for Human Resources Management are examples of where my “why’s” are found and nurtured.

Recently, I found that my whys are in areas that I am good at:

1. Autism/Neurodiversity

2. Special Education/School Safety

3. Supportive Employment

And these are the ones that I plan to focus most of my time and effort on because that’s where the whys are. I want to present to people who are hyper focused on these areas and leave them with inspiration that they can use to improve themselves or their organizations.

If you have a particular interest and your why matches with that particular interest, by all means you should pursue that goal. You will find that working in areas where your why will thrive will lead to your overall success later in life.

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Catch you all later!!

#Diversity #Disability #Neurodiversity #Equality #Autism #Inclusion