January. (I've Got This!)
The longest month of the year is upon us—how will you get through it?
Friends, the annual visit of January is right around the corner. And while I feel lucky to experience another odometer flip on our Gregorian dashboard, I have to say that I have no fond feelings toward the first month of the year. I’m guessing I’m not alone on this. On paper, January looks like an open gate to a lush garden we’ve never walked through before; a welcoming path leading to a period of time where our hearts, minds and bodies shout: “Yes! Yes, I will!” But does January actually feel like that? Personally, my enthusiasm meter generally stops somewhere just above the notch that reads “I guess I could…”
Why does this captain of a month, which ought to be bursting with promise and shiny, clean-slate vibes make so many people miserable? Many theories abound. I won’t try to count or discount any of them here. Because—let’s all face it together—January is going to happen to us, and we might as well start devising our survival plan.
At the heart of Stirred, Not Shaken is a resolve to share what motivates me to not give up in a world that consistently offers top billing to what makes us more fearful, angry, and disconnected. Even with all the startling and heartbreaking events that surround us, I still believe in the good will of humanity—as a whole. And I most profoundly trust in the power of listening to and learning from other people’s experience.
To bring the Stirred spirit into the New Year, I will be hosting the first Stirred, Not Shaken Zoirée (soirée over Zoom) for all paid subscribers on Wednesday, January 3rd at 4:00 PM Pacific Time! This inaugural Zoirée, “January. (I’ve Got This!)” will be a fun, informal chat where we can share our hopes, ideas and what we’re each planning to pack in our emotional survival kits1 for this longest of long months. I will also tell you what I’ve learned—about the island and myself—during the first quarter of my micro-seasons experiment.
I hope you will join me for what will be the first of the Stirred quarterly Zoirées! Introverts and camera-shy Zoomers are encourage to show up, as I will still know you’re there, and that will mean a lot to me. And if you happen to be a person who whole-heartedly looks forward to January, you are all the more welcome—I need to learn something from you.
Happy Solstice, Everyone.
Survival tactics can be anything from regular bingeing of *YourFavoriteStreamingApp* to daily naps to finally completing a triathlon. This is not an assignment and there will be no check-up later to find out whether you did anything you said you wanted to do. I’m honestly just curious what people do in January.