For this ADHD adult the answer is YES, by a smidge:
Yes: 51%
No: 49%
You?
Here are my deeply personal perspectives.
Living in a slightly hyper-state of being keeps me off the couch.
Last year I did three triathlons (having never done any before). This year I am in the midst of a four race series (5K, 10K, 15K and Half Marathon).
On Saturday I finished third in my age group (where I am 58 in the 50 – 59 year olds) and averaged a 7:38/mile, a PR.
For me, having a new challenge on the books is paramount.
I cook at least 5 of 7 nights because I love the challenge of preparing delicious, healthy, whole meals and gifting my wife, family and friends.
(I live to eat vs. eat to live!)
I have a WORK to-do-list too long for my notepad.
I have a PLAY to-do-list equally as robust.
I love words like robust, active, ambition, drive, accomplishment, vibrant, inspired, achievement, victory and the two-word combination personal record (aka PR).
In my opinion, it is hip to be hype 51% of the time because I think it and typically do it. Doing lots of its makes life FUN.
My BEEN THERE/DONE THAT bucket overflows.
My WANNA-DO bucket overflows, too. That’s the upside of living a slightly hyper-active life.
A favorite mantra of mine is, what’s next?
Idea: I need to buy (or make) a shirt donning a giant ampersand because new experiences rock and since it makes me sad to see dull, un-hyper-people maybe, just maybe I can help activate them.
(I say that judgement-free because they may very well be the happiest people on earth!)
Now, let’s look at the 49% because it’s NOT hip-er to be hyp-er all the time.
Being a bit too ambitious comes back to bite.
My parents would say I had big eyes when I would stack way too much food on my plate. Despite being a real skinny kid, I had never met a buffet I didn’t like. I had and still have a bit of eating FOMO.
I also bite off slightly more than I can chew when I attempt above-my-pay-grade home-improvement projects, when I over-offer to help others, when I over-commit to prepare a complex meal that requires twice the time available, and when I come up with yet another winning business idea before I get the other dozen off the ground.
My biggest distraction is me. That’s the cost of living hyper.
Sometimes, I am alien to the place called reality.
Sometimes, I spend too much time in an unproductive space called good intentions.
My GOOD INTENTIONS bucket is in a constant state of overflow, which makes me sad. I feel like I have somehow let myself down.
Oh, how I wish I would read just half the ADHD articles I have bookmarked, listened to just a quarter of the podcasts I have downloaded, finished reading just one of the books I acquired with great urgency!!
I am hyper-interested in reading, writing, exploring, tasting, creating and trying. And, I have big eyes which is why my plates overfloweth.
Sometimes hyper means hearing myself talking whilst realizing I had said too much ten minutes ago (aka blurting).
Occasionally hyper means attempting to do too many things in not enough time and screwing them all up.
Hyper can mean having sudden bursts of Hulk-like energy and things don’t turn out so good for the items I have just crunched or pitched across the room. Stand back!
On the flip side, hyper can mean having sudden bursts of Superman-like energy and I can dance, ham-it-up and do amazing and hilarious things. Stand back!
So, why do I believe it is still marginally hip-er to be hyp-er?
I am OK with my ADHD, meaning:
My life’s purpose is better understanding and managing just how my ADHD brain-wiring drives me to have big eyes for life.
Personally, I’d rather have deep buckets, long lists, impossible races and impressive dinner parties.
Personally, hype means living like there are twenty-five hours in a day (and sometimes trying to shoe-horn in a twenty-sixth).
This is the authentic Stuart.
I stand by my 51/49. Where are you?
