Happy new year!
Wishing you all the best in 2024.
Thank you all for supporting my work, it means a lot to me. I genuinely love writing and I appreciate the opportunity to earn a few dollars while sharing information and ideas with my readers.
I want to share a few small goals I’ve made for the coming months, as well as an important objective I met just as 2023 was coming to a close. I promise this is not one of those pseudo-motivational, self-help, toxic-positivity pieces.
2024 Goals
I tend not to make new year’s resolutions.
Like most humans, I am not likely to follow through on grand promises, no matter how much I’d like to. If I set incremental realistic goals for myself, I am more likely to gain motivation from reaching each step, and more likely to maintain the change long-term.
There is also evidence that public declaration of our intentions (for accountability) can increase our likelihood of success.
So, with that in mind, here are my personal goals for the next few months:
Get back to exercising and getting outside every day (I did this for most of my life without much issue, but then covid took away my sports teams, and with it my motivation to work out).
Remain alcohol-free for the month of January. Yep, I’m jumping on the dry-uary bandwagon (again).
Research post-graduate programs. I’ve been upgrading my degrees with the intention of applying to grad school at some point in the near-ish future, but haven’t quite finalized the path I want to follow.
Find a publisher for my book. A few years ago I was approached by a publisher to write a parenting book — in particular, a book for parents of neurodivergent children. It didn’t quite work out, I think because they wanted me to go in a direction that didn’t utilize my strengths. I want to complete a sample chapter to submit for consideration and find a publisher to support me in writing the parenting book that I want to write.
What are your personal goals for the next few months?
Oh! And speaking of books…
A rare self-promotional piece
I just had my new eBook published in the Kindle store!
Last month I published a few articles with excerpts from my new eBook. Over the holidays I managed to have my book published on Amazon in the Kindle store.
Here are the previews:
What It Means to be Autistic (Part One)
What it Means to be Autistic (Part Two)
What it Means to be Autistic (Part Three)
Why this means so much to me
When my son was in his early years of school (grades one and two in particular), things were rough. He was not treated well, and by extension, neither were we.
At first, we trusted the school and their purported expertise to guide us in how to support our child. This caused even more turmoil for us, and especially for our son, who was only 6 and 7 years old at the time.
The advice offered by schools and other professionals (while mostly well-intentioned) is all too often based in neuronormativity, ableism, behaviourism, and straight-up ignorance.
Their approaches often assume children are “acting out” and misbehaving intentionally, rather than seeing how much stress our kids are experiencing in these situations.
The suggestions based on these faulty assumptions end up causing more stress. They either make the behaviours much worse, or cause our kids to internalize their feelings and experiences, which can result in significant mental health issues and distress.
I want to help kids, parents, families — and anyone else who cares about neurodivergent children and youth — to truly understand what it means to be Autistic from an affirming lived-experience perspective.
I want Autistic youth and their families to have access to information that will help them advocate for themselves and those they care about.
Our kids deserve to be respected and accepted for who they are, rather than having ableist systems trying to force them to fit into a box for their own comfort and convenience.
© Jillian Enright, Neurodiversity MB
My new eBook is now available on Kindle!
Other ways to support my work
You can leave a “tip” on Ko-Fi at https://Ko-Fi.com/NeurodiversityMB
Become a paid subscriber to my Substack publication
Check out my online store at https://NeurodiversityMB.ca/shop
Read and share my articles from twoemb.medium.com
References
Klein, H. J., Lount, R. B., Jr., Park, H. M., & Linford, B. J. (2020). When goals are known: The effects of audience relative status on goal commitment and performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 105(4), 372–389. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000441
It's great that you're trying to put your advice for dealing with autistic kids out as a book. It will be invaluable for many.