Doctors don’t help me. Therapy doesn’t work. Business coaching is not very helpful. Most personal development books are worse than therapy. Advice from neurotypical people like my mom is not helpful at all.

Many autistic adults are out here with no advice…on anything. We usually follow the general advice because why wouldn’t it work? Some of it even makes sense, but it still doesn’t work! This is something never described or discussed by any health professionals.

How would the average person survive without advice? Without guidance. Advice that doesn’t work can be harmful. I’ve gotten myself in trouble several times by following common advice.

How do I combat this? First step: Never listen to others!! I should be good at this, but sometimes, I think everything the majority says can’t be that wrong, and I get myself in trouble. It happened last month. I fell for their advice. AGAIN.

Their advice is good or okay for most people. But if a person is off the beaten path – lol – or NOT normal, the advice doesn’t’ work.

I lean on where I get decent advice. Unfortunately, there isn’t decent advice anywhere. Tarot cards have given me better advice than people, so I ask them questions, but I don’t always use the advice. The tarot cards told me that my house would have water trouble before I moved. But guess what? I still moved in. So…I don’t always follow it.

Astrology is helpful sometimes. I like it because it helps me understand myself and others. I should probably use it for MORE advice, but it doesn’t help with everything.

Human design is more for daily living. Everyone has a unique chart like astrology. BUT my chart sucks. It says I need to network and have friends.

WHAT? What kind of advice is that? Do you think my autistic brain wants to hear that? But just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s not right.

So, I temporarily gave up on human design. But now I’m learning it for others and I’m not sure if I want to use it for myself but nothing else works. I don’t have a lot of options so do I give in? I’ve already tried it, but I get stuck on the must have friends part. I wish I had another design.

By the way, I know the “must network” thing is true because the way I got my freelance business off the ground was by knowing one person online – ONE person. I’m not supposed to run ads or do normal marketing. A lot of people would be fine with this, but most introverts would hate it.

The last thing I want to hear when I have no energy is that I have to talk to people. That is so exhausting. True, everything is exhausting, but communicating in real time is extremely tiring.

About a year ago, I started a list of advice I could follow for myself. I mostly used human design, astrology, and my past experiences. Without rereading my list, I copied and pasted it into Copilot (Microsoft’s AI) and asked for five tips for my life that I should always follow.

Here is what AI got from my list:

Advice for my life…according to me.

Here are five tailored “rules of life” based on the themes of your list:

1. Honor Your Energy: Be mindful of what drains and energizes you. Commit only to people and tasks that align with your values, and always work in your own space and at your own pace.
2. Seek Understanding, Not Control: Embrace the unknown and the journey of learning without rushing to conclusions or relying on logic for safety. Trust your intuition and curiosity to guide you.
3. Decide with Intention: Take your time making decisions, avoiding spontaneity or pressure. Close your eyes, reflect, and pause if needed—there’s no rush to find the “right” answer.
4. Be Authentically You: Let vulnerability and authenticity shape your actions and connections. Remember, your actions speak louder than words; you don’t need external validation for your ideas.
5. Balance Flexibility with Discipline: While routine may feel restricting, create backup plans and gentle structures to support your flow. Discipline doesn’t have to mean rigidity; it can be your partner in success.

Interesting. I agree with #3 the most. I know that’s true. #5 is not my favorite. Flexibility is awesome, but I’m doing so much of what I hate (work) that I don’t love more discipline. #4 is easy to say but not realistic for me to do. #1 is good advice, but not realistic when I have to work a number of hours a week. I can’t only work when I have energy. I wish! #2 is nice and mystical. By now I know I don’t have much control.

This is better advice than any person has given me…because it came mostly from my life experiences. I would love for a personal development book to work. Why can’t anything in life be easy?

I will reflect on those five rules. I may reword a few of them. Interesting. By the way, the list was done over a few months, so it’s pretty long. I’m not sure what was left out. I will look over the list, but I wanted it to seem a little detached from me, so I didn’t reread it before putting it in CoPilot.

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I’m tired. It’s only 7PM. I will work for 15 minutes and hope it turns into 30 minutes even though I can barely keep my eyes open.