PDPA – A neurodiverse approach to view challenges and be more effective at addressing them

This is not just an article about me sharing my experiences. There's a much wider goal here, which is to either understand yourself if you have a newer diversity, and you want to hear from someone else, like in my case, to see the different point of view. And also, if you have interest in diversity and inclusion, and you want to know how other people with a different way of thinking are going on with their lives, how they interact with you, and ultimately, how we can all live together, understanding better.

The article today is going to be talking about how to take new challenges, and I will bring some examples from my own experience and how I approach that. I hope that you find it insightful, and you find a way to see for your next challenge, whatever it is, have that perspective that might be different from yours right now, hence the reason for taking it or taking it with an ASD perspective. Let's start.

I would like to start talking about challenge in itself. I believe the word challenge a lot of times comes with some negative aspect or point of view. In reality, a challenge is just a situation, a task, a new venture that we want to do, that is not in our routine. It's not something we are used to do, or it might not be a situation that we are familiar with. By that way of approaching us, we might look at it and think, that's gonna be difficult. I don't know how I'm gonna do it.

What happens if I fail? A lot of thoughts that are very common to occur, and it has happened to me. I believe that we fear ourselves if we're gonna be able to achieve that challenge, if we're gonna be able to come across the other side of the bridge, if we're gonna be able to come at the end of the tunnel, whatever situation that is happening as, if it's a challenge, we might have a difficulty.

What I'm presenting today is, when it comes to new challenges, how we approach from a neurodiversity perspective, particularly in the case of ASD, how we approach that. Then I will bring to light a new way of thinking about challenges. They give a bit more flavour and colour to them.

So from a very simple analysis, we can start to think if that's gonna be achievable or not. And to bring to light with an example, I will explain to you how I have been taking this challenge of writing articles, and why is that a challenge for someone with ASD. I will end up talking about what benefits and rewards I have obtained out of doing this challenge.

Something that initially I never thought would happen. And let's start with a new challenge. As an ASD person, and it might be the same case with another type of neurodiversity, the way we see challenges is different from what you might be experiencing. To start with, people with ASD like to be in control of their life, they like a routine, they like to have their own space. They like to really understand at any point in time what they do and what to expect of the outcomes. We don't like and expect unexpected changes, we don't like when things go completely different from what we thought.

That creates a lot of stress and uncertainty. And you might be thinking, isn't it that what happens in life where turns happen, which are unexpected, where there's a lot of elements that are outside our control that come not the way we were thinking to do. How many times we have and will have to change our life plan because something turns out that becomes a situation to overcome.”

We call that challenge, and it's not something that people with ASD are really welcoming. And might be your case that with ASD or not, not willing to take that challenge. I would like to also just put in perspective that people with ASD tend to develop very specific interests, and when they do that, they can devote a massive amount of time into that task, hobby, or type of work to the extent that time is relative and it's just the enjoyment of doing things.

That means that someone with ASD could take on a new task, do it very well, really deliver, and it could be a task that someone else has looked at it and thought not in a million years I will be able to do it. And that is a really insightful piece of information because what we see as a challenge might not be a challenge for other people and the other way around. That's why neurodiversity and particular ASD is ability.

We have different points of view. We might have some difficulties ahead of us and having that fresh pair of eyes that can look from a different way is sometimes the best way to find a solution. Now, whatever challenge you are facing in your life right now, that could be from a small changing routine, it could be about quitting a habit, it could be about taking a new hobby or taking a new job, and that sort of puts a stress and uncertainty of will you be able to do it?

And if you don't do it, will you feel like you failed? Therefore, I would like to present to you an approach that I take when I see any challenge. This is what I call the possible, doable, probable, achievable approach.

So start with possible. So this is about thinking, if you have a challenge in front of you, or there's a task you want to bring to life, is that possible? Is there anyone out there in the world that can do it and make it possible? And this is a very healthy way to look at perspective. Let's say you want to move to a complete different country in the other part of the world, where maybe you don't have a job secure, maybe you don't even speak the language there. And looking at it, you think, well, that's going to be impossible. I don't see myself doing it. That's impossible. It might be very difficult.

It might require resources. It might require a lot of time. And is it possible? Doing a bit of thinking about it, you might say, actually, I know someone who has done it, someone who went and just managed to move there.

So if it's possible, then that challenge is less daunting. And let's face it, if it's not possible, then that's not a challenge.” That's an impossible task. That's a task that you shouldn't be willing to take on, and you shouldn't be willing to just look at it as something I want to do. Now, putting in perspective, we know that society and science has evolved by having people that have taken what was called an impossible task and making it happen. If that's your case, and you can make things happen that have not happened until now, you know, hat off to you, and it's great. My message today is for tasks that by the majority of people can be done or cannot be done. If I put myself on the task of suddenly running one marathon every day for the coming 365 days, would it be possible? I don't know if anyone has run it before. You might find one person that has run it before, and therefore, what are the chances of doing it? It would be, like, quite difficult. Would that be almost impossible? I think you could agree. It would be very high chances of failing.

That brings me to the next step. So let's say we have agreed that it's possible, that that could be done. Is it doable? Doable in the sense of, can you do it? Going back to the example of running extensively for long periods of time, it might be possible, and someone can argue that with the right training, the right mindset, that could be possible. Is that doable? Maybe that's not doable by you. Maybe there's a physical situation where you cannot do it. So knowing if it's doable by you is really crucial because there's nothing worse than putting ourselves to do a task or a challenge, thinking, oh yeah, I will get it done, and putting that kind of like really strength of just willingness to do it.

I will do it. I will put everything. Can you do it?” And to check sometimes with friends if necessary. Can you do it? Chances are, if it's possible, sometimes might be doable as well.

So if it's a challenge that you can, it's possible to be done, and it's a challenge that you can do, regardless of time and resource, we'll come to that. Then the next one is, is it probable? Might be a task that you might be thinking, yeah, I can do that. I think I can find the resource to launch a new company or to create an activity or do a fundraising. But is it probable? An example would be like raising funds for a charity. If the task is to raise 10 million pounds in one month, is that possible? Yes, it is, if you find the right people, definitely. Is it doable? Could you do it? Actually, most people could do it if they had the right context and the right time. Doable, definitely. Probable, then, no. They wouldn't be probable. Why? Because through your context, you could just get some funds, get some support, and the degree will depend people on people. Just if it's not probable to happen, then it's going to fall short. There's going to be a disappointment, and then therefore, the challenge fails.

And that brings to the final one, which is achievable. If it's probable means more likely to happen than not, but is it really achievable? Is it going to happen? And this PDPA, possible, doable, probable, achievable, is a journey of researching that challenge to come back to the end.

Let's take now a more day-to-day case. So, for instance, someone who wants to quit smoking. Is it possible to quit smoking? Yes, definitely. We know that's possible. There's no shadow of doubt. Is it doable? Then, again, yes, it can be done. Unless there's an exception, and someone has a very specific case, might be doable. So you can say, yes, I can do it, just I don't know how. I can do it, I don't know how to add or how to ask for help. Then, find the resources. Do the research. Find a coach or go to a health professional, reach for friends, reach out to community, just for you to think, yes, I can do it, I have the resources to do it. Then probable. Is it probable? There's quite a lot of mindset here, because you might have all the resources, but to make it probable, you need to just really get your head around it, I need to get your support. And once you make it probable, it's really increasing the chances of probability, so it becomes achievable.

Another example is me writing these articles. It has been highly rewarding, as I have seen myself evolving as the articles have been coming around. Obviously through reviews, through comments, either through the different social media platforms that are attached to these articles, or just whatever means you have to find me, that's going to be helpful. And with that, we came to the end of this article today. We have been talking about how to approach challenges, how to look at challenges with a different perspective. People look at challenges from a lot of different angles. Neurodiversity is a way to really find people that is going to reach our perspective. As a person with ASD, some challenges for me are almost impossible at beginning.

That's why I approach with a PDPA approach. In other cases, I do tasks that people are mesmerized how I've been able to do. And this sounds very grand, and please don't take it as a sign of being arrogant. Just simply, I do things that for other people is a massive challenge. And I'm really impressed by people that are able to do things that at face value I wouldn't be able to do. So, in your everyday life, you might be doing things that are seen as a massive challenge by other people.

And for you, it's like bread and butter of how you go along. So if that's the case, think next time you have a challenge, how to find someone in your network, or how do you grow your network to find someone who's going to see that challenge as a task to be done with a lot of resources that can be found and are achievable. If anyone feels connection on this, I'm really, really happy.

The moment is not a monologue. The moment is at least one person there thinking, you know what, I read this article, and I came out of it with a different perspective. I can see new diversity, enriching the way we see things, and now I'm going to take challenges in a different way. That's what really, really gives me going. So guys, enjoy your life, and until next time.