For a long time I felt like I was falling short. I knew I was capable — I could see it, and people kept telling me I had lots of potential — but I couldn’t seem to perform up to it. My bosses couldn’t rely on me to follow through, and eventually I stopped relying on myself also.
I used to think of it as being a round peg trying to fit into a square hole. I kept sanding down my edges, trying to make myself fit. It didn’t work. It was never going to work, but I didn’t know that yet.
Getting diagnosed with ADHD changed everything — not just how I understood myself, but how I approached my career. It gave me permission to say no to jobs I knew would be a constant battle for my brain, and to seek out challenges it would actually enjoy. It also gave me permission to use tools to fill in where I struggled, instead of seeing those struggles as moral failures I could fix by “just trying harder.”
That changed when I moved into community management. For the first time I was doing work I was genuinely passionate about, and the difference was night and day. There was no fighting with my brain to care, no forcing myself to focus on things that didn’t matter to me. I was able to engage like never before because the work connected to something real inside me.
That’s when I realized that I’m not the round peg. I’m the square hole — and the job has to fit with me. I don’t need to sand anything down. I need to find the job that I am built to fit with.
I’m curious if anyone else has had a moment like that. Where did you find your square hole? What did the shift feel like — and if you’re still looking, what does the right fit look like to you?

• This topic was modified 1 month, 2 weeks ago by DRay.
• This topic was modified 1 month, 2 weeks ago by DRay.