The Compass Club
The Compass Club
Enjoy the journey.
Somewhere between the bills and the flyers, something arrives that's just for you: paper you can hold instead of another screen asking for your attention. One small thing to look forward to, every month.
Join for $29 a month Give it as a giftShipping included in the US. Cancel anytime.
Before you scroll further
No streaks. No day one. Nothing to fall behind on.
This is not a planner and not a thirty-day challenge. There is no calendar inside, no boxes to check, no month you can do wrong. Open the envelope when you want to. Use what appeals. Leave the rest. It is built to feel pleasantly used at the end of the month, not finished.
Life is going by. This is how you notice it.
Where this fits
You can be moving toward something and still be here for it.
Most of what pulls at your attention points toward what's next: the goal, the promotion, the someday version of your life. That's worth building toward. It's also easy to spend years doing it and barely remember living through it.
The Compass Kit is for figuring out where you're going. The Compass Club is for noticing you're already somewhere, every month along the way. One helps you build the life you want. The other helps you actually experience it.
Your goals matter. So does enjoying the life you're building.
October: Courage. Design preview; printed pieces may vary slightly.
In your mailbox
A small envelope, every month
Not a bill, not a reminder, not one more tab to close. A booklet built around a theme, made to be read in bed or on the porch with no battery and no notifications. A little companion who becomes part of a collection you'll actually want to look at again. A postcard worth propping on the mirror. And one more that isn't for you at all: it leaves your hands and carries something good to someone else.
Collect. Play. Capture.
Made for enjoying your life, not managing it
Most of what fills our days asks something of us. This is the part that gives something back.
Collect
The quiet satisfaction of a collection that grows on its own, until one day you notice you have a shelf that holds an entire year you actually remember living.
Play
Permission to be a little silly for two minutes. A dare, a doodle, a joke. No goal, no score, nothing to optimize.
Capture
A place for the parts of life too small for a photo and too easy to forget: a song stuck in your head, something funny someone said, an ordinary Tuesday that turned out better than it had any right to.
Why it works
The feelings this is built on aren't new. They're well studied.
Psychologists have a name for the pleasure of looking forward to something: anticipation. Research on how people experience purchases found that anticipating an experience is its own distinct source of happiness, separate from the experience itself (Kumar, Killingsworth & Gilovich, Psychological Science, 2014).
Deliberately noticing and lingering in a good moment instead of rushing past it is called savoring, a skill researchers have studied for decades (Bryant & Veroff, Savoring: A New Model of Positive Experience). Writing things down, even briefly, carries its own long research history, built on psychologist James Pennebaker's work on expressive writing.
We are not claiming the Compass Club itself has been studied. Only that the feelings it is built around, looking forward to something, noticing what is good, putting it into words, have real research behind them.
Inside the Dispatch
Something to read, something to try, somewhere to go
You don't have to wait for a plane ticket to feel like you've gone somewhere. Every Dispatch is a small trip built around one theme and one place.
A short essay on the month's theme, written to be read with a cup of something warm.
A tour of the month's place, with a handful of true and surprising facts we have checked.
A page of small dares, a drawing game, wordplay and a word search.
A coloring page and a full-page illustration.
A recipe, and an invitation to take the scenic route.
Currently pages, songs of the month and a loose list of small things worth keeping.
Room for ephemera: tickets, wrappers, doodles and notes.
A look at what next month has in store.
The Digital Depot
Open from the day you join
A growing library that is yours the moment you become a member.
To print
Coloring pages from simple to intricate, word searches and crosswords, recipe cards, bookmarks, an ephemera sheet and journaling stickers.
To keep close
Prompt cards sorted by mood, affirmation cards, quote cards and wallpapers for your phone and desktop.
To wander
The month's place in pictures, a story to read aloud, a playlist and the web edition of the essay.
Nothing is dated. Nothing expires. There is no day one and no streak to keep, so there is nothing to fall behind on. Open it when you want to, use what appeals and leave the rest.
A year, not a season
Twelve months. Twelve little companions.
Each one gets its own theme, its own little world, and its own thing to say.
A peek. We're saving the rest for members; half the fun is opening the envelope and meeting the next one.
October's is Ghostie, a small brave ghost who explores spooky old towns for a lesson in courage. November's is a warm, grateful little bear. There are ten more waiting their turn, each one destined to show up again same time next year, a little different, still exactly themselves.
Motivate it Forward
One card is for someone else
Every envelope includes a card meant to leave your hands. Write a note to someone who could use a little encouragement and drop it in the mail. It carries a code for 20% off at Motivation Depot, including their first month of the Compass Club, so the good thing you found gets to travel.
Small acts of generosity toward other people are one of the more reliable ways researchers have found to lift someone's own mood, in some studies more reliable than spending on themselves (Dunn, Aknin & Norton, Science, 2008). This card is built around that.
Membership
Join the Compass Club
$29
a month · shipping included (US)
- The Depot Dispatch, mailed every month
- The month's companion sticker
- A Keep postcard and a Motivate it Forward card
- The full Digital Depot, open from the day you join
- Cancel anytime from your account
One small thing to look forward to, every month.
Founding member pricing for early joiners, details soon.
Rather settle in for the year? Choose annual: $290, twelve months for the price of ten.
Give it
A year of mail worth opening
For the friend who keeps every card you send, the sister who needs a reason to slow down, or the person who has everything except something to look forward to. One payment, twelve envelopes, no renewal.
Give a yearSomething with their name on it, every month of the year.
Add their address at checkout and write a gift note. We will send them a welcome so they know it came from you.
Questions
Good to know
When will my first envelope arrive?
We pack and mail every envelope by hand once a month. Your first one goes out with the next monthly mailing after you join, and we will email you when it is on its way. The Digital Depot is yours right away.
What if I join partway through a month?
Nothing in the Club is dated or numbered, so you never start behind. Begin wherever you like.
Can I cancel?
Yes, anytime, from your account. Cancel before your next billing date and you will not be charged again.
Do you ship outside the US?
Not yet. For now the Compass Club ships to US addresses only.
Is this the same as the Compass Kit?
No. The Compass Kit helps you figure out where you are going and move toward it. The Compass Club is for enjoying and remembering the journey along the way. They are made to go together, and each stands on its own.
Is this a planner or a challenge?
Neither, and that's on purpose. There are no streaks, no trackers and nothing to complete.
You don't have to hustle to have a good year. You just have to notice it.
Join the Compass Club