January doesn’t fall apart randomly.

It collapses on schedule.

Around days 10–14, motivation dips, decisions pile up, and people start forcing effort instead of correcting structure.

That’s not a character flaw.
It’s a design flaw.

January is when ambition spikes faster than clarity.
More goals.
More pressure.
More noise.

Your brain doesn’t burn out from effort.
It burns out from ambiguity.

That’s why pushing harder never works.
You can’t out-effort unclear direction.

What actually holds January together is not motivation.
It’s a repeatable clarity mechanism.

That’s why i use one simple system every January.

I call it the January Clarity Protocol.

Seven minutes.
Once per morning.
No journaling.
No hype.

It exists to do one thing:
remove friction before it drains your energy.

The protocol has three parts.
Miss one, and January leaks.

Here’s the structure.

1 target.
1 friction removal.
1 identity vote.

Most people stop here. Here’s what to do instead: