40. ADHD Hyperfocus or Real Passion? 3 x Tests to Tell the Difference (Before You Buy the Pilates Reformer)

You did Pilates every week for a year. Then you bought the reformer so you'd never have to drive there again. You haven't done Pilates since.

Now there's a new idea that won't leave you alone, and it feels exactly like the last one did on day one. So how do you know if this one's real?

That's the ADHD hyperfocus question a listener sent in. She's been a teacher for 27 years. For the last few years something's been building in her: she wants to start a neurodivergent-affirming school. She's even gathered a small group who want in. But she's asking whether it's her real direction, or just another collection of ADHD ideas.

I didn't feel qualified to answer that. I've moved house more times than I'd like to admit, and I once had a magnificent pros and cons list for a move to acreage. Every reason on it was true. Two years later, we're moving back to the beach.

So I went looking for a better way to tell a hyperfocus from a real passion than checking how strongly you feel it. The feeling is where most of us go first. It's also the one thing that can't give you the answer.

There's the graveyard of hyperfocuses: the garden beds, the online course with no modules done, the podcast that got two episodes. Most of us read that pile as a verdict on our character. It might be the most useful data you've got. Then there's the advice ADHDers get about new ideas, like 'finish what you start before you start something new'. That one was never going to work for a brain that makes this many ideas.

And there are three tests to try before you quit the job, or buy the gear.

Related episodes:

When You Keep Starting the Same Thing – And It Never Gets FinishedTis the Season to Overspend: ADHD Mum vs. Impulse Shopping

Free guides: I gave away 16 guides I used to charge for. Grab the one that fits at adhdmums.com.au/resources

📬 Listener Questions & Community

🎙️ Ask a Listener Question (voice)