January is a month of new beginnings and fresh starts. The love-hate relationship with New Year Resolutions has been re-hashed by every influencer and media outlet. However, you don’t need a lengthy list of unattainable resolutions to find a fresh start for the year. You don’t have to throw out the old in order to begin again; you may just need to reconnect and recommit to intentions you already hold. You can renew a habit you’ve gotten lax about or one that you still practice religiously.

This month our theme around the studio has been RENEW + RECONNECT. We have been exploring ways to renew our approach, both to the business and to life. We don’t need to throw out everything we did last year in order to start fresh - we just need to look with a fresh perspective. We’ve also been finding ways to reconnect with the parts of ourselves and our lives that went AWOL during the chaos of the fall and holiday seasons. September to December is a whirlwind of activity for us and it tends to be an eyes-forward approach of just getting through the days and weeks, one at a time, to tackle what’s directly in front of us. However, big-picture thinking and strategizing are always in the back of our minds and January presents an opportunity to reconnect with the bigger picture goals of the business and renew our intention to them. 

• What is it we are here to do? 
• What do we want to bring to our community? 
• How do our products add value to individuals’ lives?
• How can we be inspiring as well as intentional?
• Where have we gotten off track, distracted, unfocused or off path from our mission?

These are the things we have been contemplating during this post-holiday hibernation month. We use an old favorite method from the corporate world, which was pretty effective: Stop, Start, Continue. To achieve our goals, what do we need to stop doing? What do we need to start doing? What do we need to continue doing? Simple and effective.

As a small business owner, there is often not much separation between business life and personal life. When you pour your soul into a product or brand you’ve created, there is a lot of overlap. Sometimes this is a good thing, and sometimes it’s not such a good thing. This month we have been pausing to think about how we are going to approach 2023 to renew habits that serve us personally and professionally and reconnect with our life and business mission. We’ve also been thinking about where we might intentionally create separation between business-life and life-life. Setting healthy boundaries is as important as setting goals. Have you been doing the same? 

The end of December is a time of reflection and that continues into January as we implement new goals, resolutions or ambitions. Perhaps we adjust and course correct as we go, in order to further our chances of success. I’ve chosen to renew some old habits that I’ve gotten lazy about or have been pushed aside due to “busy” seasons. Reconnecting with small habits we used to have, and wish to get back to is as valid as committing to entirely brand new things. Some of the things I am renewing and reconnecting with this year: a yoga practice; weekly running goals (and races to look forward to!); drinking my water EVERY DAY; daily gratitude practice; journaling. I won’t try to implement these all at once, but will definitely layer them in with the habits I already have like my morning gym workout and eating a healthy breakfast, meditating, shower rituals and finding small moments of joy every day.

The easiest way to get back into a habit is to schedule it and track it, whether it’s going to the gym, drinking more water, eating differently or just connecting more with family and friends. You don’t need a fancy planner or system to do this - simply keeping track in a $1 lined notepad will work just fine. That said, for those who are visual and enjoy a clean, simple purposefully-designed format to track with, we have you covered with our FREE printable Monthly Habit Tracker. Download, print on regular old copy paper and get going! Don’t wait until Sunday, Monday, next month, or next quarter - download, print and start today!