For the past few years my life has been very active with both media and public speaking events, and in the past year I have been busy with my work on taking this all to the next stage.
Ever since I was a young teenager I’ve wanted to be a public speaker, writer of blogs and books, as well as having a desire to create an organisation which will help other people in the same situation as myself.
In my mid to late teens I was reasonably happy. However I did feel very down about having no idea of where my strengths and passions were in general, and having been told by a few doctors and teachers that I would never be able to work or have a job.
So I came up with an idea of creating an organisation called Embrace Your Passion (EYP) which I hoped could help any person of any age with autism (or other disabilities) find where their strengths/passions are, and then (at their own non pressured pace) discover how they can use that discovered passion in their life.
Every person with autism and/or other disabilities is their own person, with their own interests and their own abilities. Yet every one of us has equal potential of being fulfilled, successful and happy about ourselves and our life. Happiness and success mean different things and come in different ways to every individual too.
So our purpose for Embrace Your Passion is to introduce our participants to a range of activities which will help them discover what their true interest/s and passion is. Everyone of us is born with a certain passion and it never weakens as we move on through life; regardless of how many other things seemingly bury it. As I’ve learned through my own personal experience it’s also never too late for the procedure used by EYP to work affectively.
Once our passion is rediscovered by ourselves it’s very important for us not to feel pressured about needing to quickly find a way to make a career out of it. The main reason for why school was so difficult for me is because it was very pressured in that kind of way, which overwhelmed me to the point of never being able to focus on my work, let alone even coming to terms with how to develop a career for myself. Also school is very much focused on finding careers and doing higher education. Yet success and emotional fulfilment don’t always come from those two things.
Throughout this year I’ve been working on research for my organisation Embrace Your Passion and a local beta group is set to run from March-June next year. From that we can find what works best and not so well, so that when we start our official group later next year we’ll have an even better idea about how to go through our activities.
There will be no cut-off age for our program, and people on all levels of the autism spectrum are both accepted and catered for. Also, once a passion and goal of emotional fulfilment is achieved members are free to stay with us, and even work on achieving new goals which come to their mind if they wish to do so.
DEALING WITH AUTISM ONE PIECE AT A TIME 