New Year, New Goals: Knowing Your Worth

We have come to the end of 2023 and are moving into 2024. As with millions around the globe, a new year brings new goals, resolutions, ideas, and targets. We learn from the last year and make plans for the new one.

As we move into 2024, I think it is important for us all to focus on our worth.

Remembering our value

If you find a £100 note on the floor, you are mostly likely happy. It does not matter if it is torn, if it is crushed, or if it is dirty. None of those things take away from the value of the £100 note. The circumstances in which it is used and whether people take care of it or not do not change the value of the note.

This is how we need to think about ourselves. Just because we might have been crushed, or we feel dirty, unloved, or uncared for doesn't mean we are less valuable.

As people who suffer with a hidden disability, it is important that remember our value even on the days when we cannot cope. When we can't take the dog out for a walk. When we are too exhausted and our eyes cannot stay open long enough to fix breakfast for our kids and are forced to rely on family. When we cannot muster enough spoons to change the cat's litter or make it in to work every day. Or when our narcolepsy symptoms are so bad that we cannot even get or hold a job. None of these things make us less valuable.

Setting goals and asking ourselves questions

Recently, on a forum I am on, I saw an activity that I think I am going to take on as something to do myself, and I think it is something we should all do for the coming year.

The post said that each week, we should set ourselves a goal. At the end of every week, we should ask ourselves if the goal we set was achieved.

There are also a few more questions to ask, like: 1) Was it easy or hard to achieve? 2) Did narcolepsy hinder the goal? 3) What did I learn to make it easier going forward?

This should help differentiate between things that narcolepsy directly affects and things that are not really connected. This can be difficult, especially since a lack of sleep can affect so many areas of your life.

Keeping a record of your goals and accomplishments

Listing the things achieved means at the end of the month there will be 4 things we can write down that we accomplished that month. You will have 4 highlights to say, "Yes, these are the things I did this month, and I am so proud of myself." Then, at the end of the year, you will have 52 of them, and that is and will feel like an amazing accomplishment.

Sometimes when you do not write things down, the end of the year comes and you cannot remember what things you accomplished.

I am proud of my accomplishments this year

This year I am really grateful. I have several things I am proud of, including finishing barbering school and getting my barbering diploma. I have also started my hairdressing course.

I am also proud of opening my narcolepsy awareness shop, where I sell merchandise to raise awareness for narcolepsy. I am proud that the shop is out there and connected to my social platforms.

I am also grateful and proud to have the first episode of a podcast (Narcolepsy Navigators) out, and by the end of January I hope episode 2 will be out. We are on Spotify and Amazon, and by the end of January I hope to expand to other platforms like Apple. Since I posted the podcast, 2 ladies with narcolepsym Liz and Iris, have joined the podcast team. Iris is also a Community Health Leader Narcolepsy.Sleep-Disorders.net.

I feel blessed to have friends and relationships that can help me flesh out an idea and bring it to life — friends who not only support my vision, but also share it.

Excited to tell other people's stories

I am so excited for 2024 and the opportunity to tell more people's stories, to bring more awareness, and to hopefully help get more people diagnosed. I was diagnosed quickly because someone in my life read an article and noticed my symptoms. I do not know how much longer I would have had to wait if that story was not in that newspaper, and if my teacher had not seen it and had not given it to me to give to the doctor.

That article brought awareness, that awareness my diagnosis, and my diagnosis clarity and a little peace. That is why I want to tell the stories of other people. Everybody's story is different, and something in my story might not touch you, but something that happened in someone else's story just might.

What are your goals for 2024?

As we move into 2024, let's keep the fighting spirit and keep moving forward. Let us appreciate that our differences and our narcolepsy don't devalue us.

We are worthy, we are capable, we are valuable, and we are stronger than we know. It does not matter how society tries to box us in. We can push the box aside and achieve anything we set our mind to.

What are your goals for 2024? Please share them in the comments below.