Why You Should Go Small In January
Happy New Year returning digital family and also to all the new people that have joined this digital community. It’s a bumper one for you today but it’s been a few weeks so I suppose it’s fitting.
First a quick update, I’ve been in America for the last two weeks and I have three more weeks to go. The plan is to travel to a few states, connect with family and plan for the new year. It’s been going well so far; this might be the most successful ‘holiday’ i’ve ever had.
Normally I find myself working for half the day, sneaking off to send some emails or even waking up at 5 am to go for an early morning walk and meeting. This hasn’t happened so far. It may have something to do with my niece and nephew who have more energy than me (no easy feat) and have been keeping me continuously occupied. If you are interested in following my journey a little bit then you can follow me on Instagram.
So what do I mean by go small?
Well, let me reset the room quickly. You are probably reading this newsletter because you want to take your personal development this year, or perhaps you want to build something notable, maybe you are already doing this. Whichever camp you fall into, there is one thing pretty universal about people like you. You typically have big goals and big plans for the year. I mean it’s January, chances are you are feeling pumped and ready to take on a new year, achieving your goals, proving doubters wrong and so on and so on. That’s brilliant, really it is.
My goal with this ‘go small’ digital issue is not to be combative or even to be contrarian but to offer you a slightly different perspective to conventional wisdom and help you go faster for longer. Let’s dive in.
Growing up, I always felt a strong affinity for the month of January. It’s a chance at a fresh start and in this thing called life, we don’t get many of those. It’s the month of the new and so, many people launch podcasts this month, announce book deals, queue up at the gym at 5 am, all ready to have a life-changing year. This is of course amazing and I genuinely wish everyone well. However, you and I know what inevitably happens to many more people before we even reach the middle of the year. People run out of steam, they lose motivation and the share scale of their dreams starts to dawn on them. A lot of us set high and large goals, miss them and then go again next year. This subconsciously becomes our routine when we write down goals and plan for the future. I fear that for some of us our goals may remain lifeless ink in our notebooks and vision boards if we dont do things differently this year.
So how exactly do I go small?
Well, rather than making January a month of big and new, start small. Make this a month about structure, discipline and small decisions and actions that when you aggregate them will add up to a large change. In other words, make this a month of building the necessary routines and rhythm that will carry you over the year.
The best analogy to describe this is one I shared with my mentees not too long ago. Imagine baking a cake, when it’s in the oven, there is little you can do to change the outcome other than changing the temperature. Most of the input you will have into the cake will be at the beginning when you are adding ingredients, manipulating the batter and so on. As you do this, you are baking things into the cake that will yield the masterpiece you will later bring out of the oven.
In a similar way, take time this month to ask yourself, if the cake will represent my life this year, what kind of ingredients do I want to bake in now? What kind of traits do I want to develop this year and how do I start small?
What kind of things do you want to achieve this year? Start small
This way of thinking maybe annoying when everyone around you is announcing big things and new things but trust me, this kind of thinking will pay dividends later. I’ve already written about the importance of small things and the compounding effect of focusing on the small.
This will make all the difference to your 2022.
1. New Masterclass
I will be restating my Self Authoring Masterclasses in a few weeks. Every month, I will take 20 people through a 3-hour masterclass on a self-development topic.
Over 300 people have been through the masterclasses now and many have fed back that it’s life-changing. I want to create similar experiences again this year. If you want to be first to find out about the masterclasses, then fill in this form:
2. New Podcasts
I have two podcasts that I will be committing to this year. I want you to enjoy and share both of them.
A Christian podcast where I answer hard theological and culture questions in a few minutes every week with Our God Given Mission
A political/social issues podcast with Common Sense where I’m joined by world-class guests to discuss the weeks news and popular culture.
Please subscribe and help me share them!
3. Growing This Community
Lastly, my plan is to grow this digital community to 3000 people this year. Now, im not interested in just having anyone join this community, im looking for people really interested in personal development or interested in building beautiful things.
For that reason, I want to ask you to not just read and enjoy this but to be a friend and share the invite link with a couple of your friends and get them to subscribe. I will give you an update on where we are next week.
Thank you for your continued support, im already looking forward to next weeks digital issue.