When Motivation Is Not Enough
Pretty much every self-help guru or coach I’ve come across seems to believe that if you’re motivated enough then you’ll accomplish whatever it is that you want to do. However, that has never matched my experience. I spend the first few decades of my life being frequently frustrated because I wanted to do something that I wasn’t doing.
In fact, this message that if you aren’t doing the things you want to do then you don’t actually want to do those things, this message is extremely harmful to individuals with executive function challenges. It is judgemental, and demoralizing; it makes you believe that there is something wrong with you, that you aren’t good enough, that you’re broken and a failure. None of which is true, by the way.
This is a common experience for people with executive dysfunction — when your brain isn’t wired the same way as most people. Executive functions are a set of cognitive functions that regulate the tasks and behaviors that our brains focus on at any given time. Neurotypical people don’t have executive function challenges. But for many people with ADHD and/or autism, executive function issues are a daily struggle.
When motivation is not enough, and you don’t have extenuating circumstances such as depression or illness, chances are high that you’re experiencing some kind of executive function challenge.
