Elevating your life is what ‘The January Project‘ is all about.
It was late in December of 2023, in the early hours (4 am to be exact!) when I wrote this:
All the excitement for life, freedom to eat as I please without feeling sick, motivation for up leveling my work and entrepreneurial endeavors and feeling excited to reach new heights and achieve both personal and professional goals has happened because….
I healed my gut.
I stopped making excuses for why things weren’t changing (hint: I WASN’T changing).
And I know, without a doubt, it’s because I did the things most won’t do.
I stopped shouting to the world that I was “following the diet and supplement outline but could not heal.”
This was me STUCK.
For a decade+.
And just like that BAM.
Healed.
Because I did the things most won’t do — returned to the foundations instead of arguing with myself and others about “‘how they were not ‘the thing.’”
– just me
And then, my mind spiraled to an ideation around new elevation.
Fresh Starts
Let me back up for second to give some context.
It was October of 2020 when I wrote Fresh Starts.
You can read that article, if desired, but the premise was this:
We don’t need a fresh start.
The sum of the article is this:
Fresh starts are not really fresh. In fact, they aren’t even really starts at all.
A “fresh start” simply begins where something else left off, making them a continuation and part of the journey as a whole.
January 1st is not a fresh start.
January 1st is the day after December 31st, which just happens to be the day when a new calendar year begins.
Monday is not a fresh start.
Monday is the day after Sunday, which just happens to be the day when the work week begins (for most).
Proclaiming to go gluten free or Paleo or anything else is not a fresh start.
Your new “diet” just happens to begin on the day when an old “diet” ended.
And so on.
Do you see where I’m going with this?
If you do, then you are likely tired of the cycle. And you are ready to stop making fresh starts with your gut healing journey.
And while, to a certain degree, I think I still believe a lot of that, in many ways the thinking feels flawed to me now. (p.s. This, too, is part of growth. Realizing that we can change our minds and not allowing old thoughts the inability to change when we change.)
Enter…..The January Project.
The January Project
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The first thing I’ll tell you about The January Project is that it’s not even about January.
It’s simply this idea,
We can start again, again.
It’s the idea that January 1st always has been and always will be that fresh start most desire.
Including me.
I LOVE January 1st.
And I LOVE Monday.
I LOVE the first day of every single month.
And the idea to feel inspired by a new challenge.
Perhaps this wasn’t always the case – when I was sick and miserable, but in my new era it certainly is the case.
Wanting More and Better
Life is about choices.
I have made some horrible choices over the last few years.
And I have also made some incredible ones.
When I reflect inwards, instead of judging those choices, I simply let them be what they are.
Because we can’t change the past, but we can have a fresh start.
And by “we,” I mean you AND me.
By the grace of God this is one of life’s greatest blessings. Can I get a hallelujah-amen?!
Just Move Forward
So with that, I’m going to encourage you to start The January Project with me.
Do it for a month, a year, or 10 years.
It doesn’t matter.
What matters is the action.
Here’s how you do it:
1. Set the intention
WHAT is the desired outcome? WHO are you desiring to be? HOW are you hoping your life looks? WHAT is the goal?
Note that while you can have several goals, The January Project is more about choosing one goal at a time and executing. If you want inspiration on this idea, read Gary Keller’s book, The One Thing.
By focusing their energy on one thing at a time people are living more rewarding lives by building their careers, strengthening their finances, losing weight and getting in shape, deepening their faith, and nurturing stronger marriages and personal relationships.
Some ideas for intention might include:
- a health goal like healing your gut (actually, yes! because when you heal your gut, you heal your life)
- one fitness goal like walking 1 mile every single day for a month
- writing 500 words a day because you are desiring to write a book someday
- cutting alcohol or other self-soothing (+ harmful) substances
- reading 10 pages a day of something to expand your world view
- journaling 10 minutes each day for self discovery
- quitting the doomscrolling – endlessly and mindlessly scrolling through social media feeds
2. Set the deadline
The beauty of The January Project is that you get to start new and begin fresh on the 1st day of every single month.
If you want your deadline to be 60, 90 or 120-days, that’s fine.
But one week is too short, and my ideal is a month since the idea of the January 1st “resolution” goes back to January 1863 when Mark Twain wrote:
“Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink, and swore his last oath. Today, we are a pious and exemplary community. Thirty days from now, we shall have cast our reformation to the winds and gone to cutting our ancient shortcomings considerably shorter than ever. We shall also reflect pleasantly upon how we did the same old thing last year about this time.”
Mark Twain
I don’t know about you, but I love these words and find them endearing.
3. Act
Also, in December of 2023, I wrote on Threads,
Action creates consistency.
– just me
Consistency creates results.
Results create growth.
This is something I know for sure.
Read the words again.
It starts with action.
While I love dreaming up something new, and coming up with the plan, I also know that we do not get to the growth part without taking action.
All the plans, ideas, and blueprints of our lives fail without action.
And if you want the truth, this is actually one of my greatest character downfalls.
I’ve made a lot of great plans. And I have a ton of great ideas. But my actions never followed suit and thus the growth I was desiring from said plans failed.
By the way, the actions you need to do for your goal are not easy. But repetitions matter; they create consistency. It’s in this consistency where you begin seeing the results, at which point the actions become easier.
Three Steps; Simple, not Easy
The above three steps are the only things you need to do for The January Project.
And you get to complete a version of The January Project over-and-over again so that your dreams, hopes, aspirations and goals stay fresh.
These steps are so simple.
But they are not easy.
However, I can promise you that if you see it all to completion, your life will change.
And that’s what I’m all about at this point in my life.
Changing, evolving, growing – ELEVATING.
Rachel Hollis always says (in various ways) that if we are not growing and evolving then we are moving backwards. There is no stagnant; we choose growth or we choose nothing at all (which, in and of itself is also a choice).
But as for me, I want to GROW.
I want to get uncomfortable in doing the things I didn’t think I could do in order to experience the things I might not have otherwise.
So……
Are you with me?
Let’s ‘The January Project‘ now.
What will you choose?
Xox,
SKH
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