TESTIMONIALS
Katarina & Tanya
Colleagues
“Change can be scary, but having a partner to go on the change-journey with makes all the difference. CoJourn gave us the structure we needed to make exciting changes in both of our lives!”
Amanda
Partnered with her brother
"My brother is my best friend. As adults, we now live far apart and are parents of little kids. We were struggling to find the time to connect. CoJourn has given us a structure to be close again. And an excuse to talk about things that really matter."
Susan
Partnered with a friend
"What CoJourn has brought me is a real sense of accomplishment in my personal life, and a great reminder for me to think about what an accomplishment / intention actually is. Before I started, I never would have given myself credit for reading a book. Or cleaning out a bookshelf (I got 100+ books cleaned out Sunday!)… but now I am allowing myself to be successful. What a great gift! In hindsight I am realizing I used to move my target on a project to not “complete” it… so then I would beat myself up, but now I celebrate the small successes, and thankfully I have a partner that reminds me when some of my weekly intentions might be a bit too big for me to accomplish!"
Dennis
Partnered with a friend
"Every New Year’s Eve, for example, you’ll make your new years resolutions, and you’ll say you want to eat healthy, start going to the gym, quit smoking, etc. etc. etc. and when do you really think about those, besides that next new years? Maybe for that month of January or February they’re sort of floating around in there, but let’s be honest. Most people kick their new years resolutions out the window by, you know, March, or whenever. But with this, it was really a constant reminder. It was like having the new years resolution every week. Having someone check in on it with you every week. And being held responsible for it every week. So I think that’s probably how it changed my life."
Oscar
Partnered with a colleague
"Focus on happiness was the intention I set out to focus on for the year as I engaged in CoJourn. Though I deeply trust and respect partner, I began our year with a lot of doubt regarding the impact it would have on my life and due to worries that such an intimate engagement would expose my flaws and possibly do more harm than good to our previously defined relationship. I realized that this form of connection did expose my flaws but it led to a deepening of our relationship AND has helped me grow as an individual and lead a happier more productive life. The project’s format is simple and straightforward. The outcomes are complex and extremely beneficial! Simply put, I find myself smiling more and tackling the issues in my life that often negatively impact my happiness because I know I have a confidant that will ‘hold and support’ me without judgement."
Kay
Partnered with her cousin
"We don’t allow ourselves to have an introspective, thoughtful time with who we are and what we want. So, sometimes we just let life navigate us, and we respond. But we’re not actively pursuing. And this program made you, kind of forced you, to actively pursue your goals."
Kyle
Partnered with a friend
"In my second year doing this program, I decided to focus on my indeciveness...making active decisions in my life and owning and being proud of them. It was hard, but I have made huge changes this year...I quit my job of 5 years, moved out of my apartment of 6 years and only city I've lived, and made a solo move out west. This program, and my partner in it, have been huge in giving me positive support through it all."
RUBY
Partnered with a colleague
"CoJourn allowed my friend and I to create a compassionate external accountability process that allowed us to become intentional about our own growth and development. Creating momentum behind your goals can be challenging and it's easy to feel stuck and get frustrated. My CoJourn partner helped celebrate my wins and encouraged me to stay the course. We saw each other through some pretty tough times and came through the other side. CoJourn provided the framework for us to stay consistent while moving incrementally toward our big goals."
Sally
Partnered with college roommate
"When I signed up CoJourn, I had no idea who my partner would be. And then, my college room-mate came to mind. In the fifty or so years since our college days, we'd only connected a few times - including biking down the Virginia Creeper Trail in freezing rain. Since we did that and came out smiling, I thought - she's the one. We did the program together for one year and loved it so much we signed up for a second. It's allowed us to connect in a deep and meaningful way and support and encourage each other through rough times. We accomplished all sorts of things we might not have on our own."
Kristi
Partnered with a friend
"My intention was "to let my butterfly FLY"- I needed to strengthen the glue holding me together and then SOAR! And soar I did...literally! Having that intention and the imagery of the butterfly always in the back of my mind, I chose to soar even when I felt like hiding in a little shell. I skydived! I did the flying trapeze. I chose the more alive option! I feel, for the first time in a VERY long time, that I was actually living this past year. And it felt good!"
At the end of year's full cycle, we both felt a clear sense of accomplishment. My son now makes very conscious choices about his time. And I'm more financially stable and mentally kinder to myself. The added bonus is that we strengthened our bond through knowing and caring, listening and hearing, supporting and encouraging. And that's a wonderful gift to a mother with a grown son two states away."
Lynn
Paired with her son
In this age where so much is done online, so much email and Twitter and Facebook, you don’t get a lot of one-on-one time with someone. And here we know every week we have one-on-one time with each other. We share all kinds of things, which we wouldn’t have had. And so it’s like renewing an old friendship and getting really close to one another."
Bridget
Paired with a friend
At the end of the year, when we reviewed everything we had done, we found that we EACH had made a major life shift through this process of tiny steps. I've read a lot about the Kaizen technique, and the CoJourn methodology helps to facilitate the Kaizen approach to change through tiny steps. My partner and I liked the project so much that we decided to sign up for another year!!"
Megan
Partnered with a friend
I'm NOT the same person I was five months or so ago...I was miserable and not in a good place. Now, I'm leaving the family business, selling my house, moving ... and opening up my own center for wellbeing...yoga, pilates, Barre, meditation and holistic wellness coaching. IF [we] hadn't started weekly supporting and nurturing each other's hopes and dreams (with realistic and tangible goals) I would still be back where I was in late January."
Mary
Partnered with a friend
A beautiful email we received...
I've been thinking about you lots since I completed my CoJourn year in 2014, and I've been dying to let you know how much it has affected my life!
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My two goals that year were about having clear relationships personally, intimately, and professionally; and about having a healthier lifestyle that includes better food choices and consistent exercise.
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And, even though these are goals that I can work on throughout my life, I have made so much progress during my CoJourn year that a) not only did I meet someone and committed to a healthy, happy relationship for the first time in my life, but we actually got married this past July! and b) I learned so much about food choices and their connection to my health and my values, that I eventually became a vegetarian (aspiring vegan) and I now cook regularly for the first time in my life! In addition to these two big changes, I ended some 'friendships' that were not real ones, I left the job the value of which I stopped believing in, and I now regularly go to my taekwondo classes whenever I don't run or try some new type of exercise with friends.
I am sending you a couple of my favorite photos that I believe are a direct result of CoJourn, just to make you smile. : )
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Even though I bet you have tons of stories to share, if you ever want to use my story in any way, please feel free to do so; I'd be thrilled knowing that other people can benefit from the project as much as I did.
A big thank you for creating the structure for this and introducing it into my life, and a big warm hug.
