My three words for 2026
Happy new year to you and welcome to 2026! I have just turned 45, which feels like a weird milestone. I turned 40 during covid so it was a bit of a non-event, but 45 really does feel… well, grown-up.
I’m resisting the urge to say old.
I don’t think I do feel that old actually, I just feel… a sense that time is passing and that I need to be more mindful of how I spend my time while I am still relatively fit and healthy.
I mentioned in my previous post that I felt that my daughter turning 10 marked the beginning of a new period in my life too. I guess it makes sense - a decade is a natural reflection point in anyone’s life.
I did the Faber Academy course when my daughter was a one-year-old. It marked me ‘getting back into work’ and gave me a new focus. And then I got my book deal, and I’ve been on the book-deal rollercoaster ever since. Publishing one book a year, give or take.
And it’s been a hell of a ride. But last year I started to wonder what it was all for. Why I was still trying to get book deals. Why I was still sacrificing so much of my life and time in pursuit of this ‘dream’. What my definition of success as a writer was - why I was still trying to get published when I’ve already, well, been published many times over? Eight books is not bad, given that the majority of authors never publish more than two.
Some honest thoughts on success as an author →
I have never questioned why I write, because I love writing and I have genuinely done it since I could form letters with a pen. But I did start to question why I was pursuing publication, when, in all honesty, it’s an incredibly difficult life. The emotional ups and downs take their toll, the financial instability is really wearing, the rejections are brutal and the reviews can feel cruelly personal at times and every year it gets more and more competitive, especially with the impact of AI looming around the corner.
I wondered why I was still trying to run in a race I had already ‘won’ eight times over. What exactly was I trying to achieve?
When my agent wanted to send the last book I finished out on submission, I didn’t feel excited. I felt absolute dread. It felt like a process I was going to have to survive, something I would have to build up my mental stamina for.
I kept asking myself: why was I doing it?
I am still trying to figure out the answer to that question, which makes this quite an unsatisfying thing to write about in a blog post. I want to have some pithy answer, some neat resolution to share with you. But I don’t have one. I’m still mulling it all over. I’m doing what a friend once told me to do: ‘if you don’t know the answer, live with the question’.
And I’m hoping my three words will help me in 2026.
From a web design point of view, everything I did last year worked so well that I don’t have any particular ambitions to change anything about the way I run the business this year.
I will continue blogging weekly and stick to the same schedule of aiming to build two websites per month. Last year, I built 22, but I did have a lot of the summer off.
Interestingly, the words I have chosen for 2026 are more about my own mindset, rather than any huge work-related ambitions:
Community
Wellbeing
Gratitude
Let’s start with Community
AI is looming large, as I said, and my instinct is that people are going to value human interactions more and more in the future.
I have been guilty of living too much of my life online. I spend many, many hours alone behind my computer. I don’t think it’s healthy.
This year, I really want to focus on getting out of my house and meeting more people in real life! I’m super excited to be doing a couple of events this year to promote my books, and I really want to make more of a point to do this kind of thing as much as I am able.
I am also so excited (and a bit terrified!) to be launching something new, with community at its heart, this year: The Debut Author Club.
I often work with debut authors, who want websites as they’ve just secured a book deal. I absolutely love working with debuts, who are so excited and energetic! But they are often also full of questions and can feel a little out of their depth at times.
Because I blog a lot, I get asked a lot of questions by other writers.
And I’ve given the same advice to debuts for years: find your author tribe, find the people that will help you feel less alone on this weird and wonderful journey.
I stand by that advice! But the truth is, it’s actually not that easy to find those people if you’re completely new to the publishing industry.
That was where the idea first formed: of setting up a group for debut authors, where they could meet and support one another.
Anyway, as I have a pretty sizeable audience on my newsletter (nearly 2k people - many of them debuts) it occurred to me that I could be the one to help bring debuts together? Because it's really hard to start something like this when you're new to the industry yourself.
It's something I've been thinking about doing for a few years now and so I'm really excited to have finally taken the leap!
The idea was inspired by the fact that when I got my debut book deal, I only knew two other authors who had a book coming out the same year. We clung to each other throughout that debut year and I realised just how vital it was to have friends going through the same crazy experience. But I always wished there were more of us!
I was also inspired by a group of debuts from 2020 who banded together when Covid happened and all their events etc got cancelled. I watched as they all supported each other and became really firm friends, and I felt a bit envious that I hadn't had the same thing back in 2018.
Anyway, the Debut Authors Club is now up and running! We have 30 members so far, and we’re still accepting applications.
If you’d like to learn more about it, you can find out how to join here →
I’m nervous about the workload of running a club like this, but I also really want to become more involved in the writing community - and be able to give back a bit too.
My second word for 2026: wellbeing
This is a slight tweak from my previous word for 2025 and 2024: Health. Health is still at the forefront of my mind, especially now I’m firmly perimenopausal, but I also want to take some time to look after my mental health.
Put simply, I want to have more fun. I want to relax more. I want to get my cortisol levels down, because I spent a lot of 2025 feeling super stressed.
Much of this was to do with family health stuff, but I know I could have handled these issues better if I had been less stressed in general.
I’m hoping that focusing on community will inevitably impact and improve my overall wellbeing too, but it’s something I want to really pay more attention to.
I’m going to continue with the gym, of course. As well as running on Sunday mornings whenever possible. I’d also love to start going to yoga again as I find it really relaxing, but I just need to find a good class near me!
More than anything though, I want to take more time to do the things I enjoy and stop feeling as though I need to be working all the time.
I framed this print a while ago and it still feels prescient now.
I listened to a podcast about toxic productivity and it was so interesting - the person was basically saying if not working is difficult for you, then it’s a sign you’re probably close to burnout, and that not working should be your goal / challenge!
It was really interesting to hear the whole ‘work more, earn more’ philosophy being flipped on its head.
I find it very, very, difficult not to work.
But I’m going to try! Because there’s little point in being rich and miserable, or completely stressed out all the time. What a waste of a life.
I also remember reading that one of the biggest deathbed regrets is ‘working too much’, and I’m mindful of that too, especially while my daughter is still young. I don’t want to have to ignore her so that I can reply to emails.
Having said that, I do love my work. It’s just about improving the balance I think, and making sure that I really do switch off when I’m not meant to be working.
Gratitude
I have saved the most important word to last!
I have so much to be grateful for. SO much. And yet, like others, I’m guilty of taking it all for granted at times.
This year, I want to acknowledge what I have and be thankful for it. I want to take some time to appreciate everything I have, rather than focusing on what I don’t have.
It’s a simple thing but I really hope it will help me. I am intending on listing three things I’m grateful for every day - and actually writing them down, so that at the end of the year I have a record of all the things I’m grateful for.
It’s a bit of a thought experiment but I am really keen to see how it impacts my mental health too.
I’d also like to be a bit more ‘present’ in my own life. I am guilty of spending my entire time looking to and worrying about the future, even though one of my favourite mantras (and I am a BIG fan of mantras) has always been: the only thing that exists is the present.
I want to slow down and appreciate everything around me.
I think as you get older, you naturally gravitate towards finding pleasure in the simpler things. I used to love a fancy handbag, and while I still do, I don’t covet them any longer.
Recently, I was musing to my other half that the sparkly Christmas handwash in the kitchen was bringing me a tiny moment of joy every time I used it (it has glitter in and smells of candied oranges). I appreciate stuff like that more than expensive handbags nowadays.
I really want to hone in on those kind of moments this year. And yes, maybe even try some mindfulness again…
Let’s see. I don’t want to over-promise and under-deliver 😂
That’s it from me - I’m excited for what this new year is going to bring, and I wish you all the best for 2026!
