January is always a mixture of months. New goals, big resets. Pressure to come flying out of the blocks.
But for me, living with cerebral palsy and speech impairment, using Augmented and Alternative Communication, juggling writing, speaking, content, and recovery from eating too much turkey and chocolate over the festive break. January is not about rushing back into things, acting like I am Road Runner out of Looney Tunes and shouting ‘Beep Beep ’ as I whizz by. It’s about finding momentum at a pace that suits everyone.
Most mornings, I aim to write between 800 and 1,500 words. That’s when my energy is at its highest. I write better in that quiet space before the day fills up with email correspondence, liaising with my Sarah, my personal assistant about booking events, school visits and inspirational talks, and sometimes helping to pick my nieces up from school.
Some days I do less, some days my body springs into a controlled Duracell battery mode. If inspiration comes, great, but I don’t chase it nowadays. I’ve learnt not to tie my worth to word count, because it can lead to impostor syndrome creeping on you unexpectedly, becoming fatigued, and falling into the trap of overthinking too much, which I talk about in my autobiography, Cerebral Palsy and Me.
I talk a lot about the writing process, but not enough about what happens outside of it.
Every night at 9 pm, my iPhone switches to Do Not Disturb until 8 am. No messages, no pressure. That time’s mine.
I read on my Kindle, children's books for inspiration, disability memoirs to keep learning, and watch a few series that keep my head busy in a different way.
Netflix, Prime, and a bit of EastEnders, that balance grounds me. So do weekends catching up with close mates. Food, laughter, and normality.
None of it’s wasted. It’s what keeps me showing up.
Behind the scenes, I’m also planning a packed year of inspirational talks. I’ll be visiting schools and organisations to speak honestly about life with cerebral palsy, inclusion, communication, resilience, identity, and self-worth.
It’s all full steam ahead with educating through sharing my real-life experience living with cerebral palsy, all in a way that’s unfiltered, practical, and mine to share.
Disabled creatives don’t need to work harder to prove something. We need accessible spaces, time, understanding, and allyship to do things our way, and the confidence to call that enough through advocacy and representation.
I’m starting the year with structure, sticking to what works, writing when I can, and keeping focused on what matters. That’s educating the world about disability, acceptance, resilience, identity, and communicating differently.
If you’re looking to book me for an event, get in touch. The calendar is already starting to fill up.
