Blog #432: Having a Support Person/Life Coach as a Neurodivergent
- Jeffrey Snyder
- Apr 24, 2024
- 3 min read
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As I am sure some of you are aware that a lot has been happening at Going the Distance both professionally and personally for me. While I did some good news that I will share with all of you in a later post, I wanted to brief you on something that I have recently started doing.
For the past month, I have been working with a support person/personal advocate to help me with some of the basic survival skills that I otherwise struggle with such as grocery shopping, household chores, etc. Even as I write this blog, I continue to try and get the feel of having to meet with someone on a twice a week basis since this is my first time doing so.
For one thing, working with a personal advocate/life coach is like trying to get feel of something new that you’ve never had before, something that will benefit you in the long run, but not right away. Trust me though, I’ve had coaches/advisors in the past, so why is this being any different? In fact, part of the reason why I took up having a life coach/personal advocate is because I want to try and help my folks out with some of the stuff they help me out with so they don’t have to feel as stacked up.
You might also say that there is more to having a life coach/personal advocate than just what I mentioned and there is. For one thing, I took up having a life coach/personal advocate to cover other areas such as building connections and possible pursue dating, something that I tried before and crashed and burned on.
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Now, the real meat of this blog is coming from the fact that I am a very private individual (especially in recent years with what has been going on with social media, etc.) who has built strong personal boundaries for others to take note of. You might also wonder why would I even have a life coach/personal advocate in the first place if I am a private person to begin with?
Why would I allow someone to come into my life if I maintain those strong boundaries? Sure, I get my boundaries crossed at my day job, but there are reasons because if I never took up the option of having a life coach/personal advocate, I probably would not learn and grow more than I have done so.
Look at it this way, I am a 35 year old neurodivergent who has achieved so much in my life already: I have my own apartment, my own business, a well respected reputation in my field of work and yet…there are still some things that I struggle with, I mean I get that nobody will ever be perfect…it just doesn’t work that way. Some will struggle with something like maintaining a healthy lifestyle or remembering certain tasks and goals that you need to get done, but the problem is that no matter how hard we try, we are always going to need some support at something.
I’m grateful for the personal advocate/life coach that I have right now and while it will still take time, I think there will be something that comes out of this.
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Catch you all later!!
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