Tuesday Tea: Craft Your Life

Good morning! It is getting much colder and more difficult to crawl out from the warm blankets each morning here in New England. If you live where it is warm and sunny every morning, I may be a little envious right now, but I wouldn’t trade in New England for anywhere else in the world. At least not permanently!

Today I am using my new Chip cup from Disney. Every morning my tea ritual is something that I look forward to and enjoy. When I make the decision to create a morning routine that adds value and happiness to my life I am making an effort to craft the life I want to live, one morning at a time. Much easier said than done! My morning tea seems like a good place to start.

We cannot always choose how we spend our time every day. Commitments can get in the way of creating the perfect schedule, but then again life is not perfect. Life is not about striving for perfection, but we certainly should strive to be our best, healthiest, happiest, and kindest versions of ourselves everyday.

During my last Tea Talk I wrote about “dream me” (how I wish my life was) vs. “real me” (how my life really is). The goal is to get those two realities to intersect as much as possible.

I believe that a lot of us, myself included, fall into the trap of finding a safety net, which is of course necessary. Bills have to be paid, right? In many cases this net takes on the form of a job we do not like and we become too comfortable or fearful to move on. If it is a job you do not like, perhaps you need to think of it as a stepping stone instead of your ever after.

Life is about choices and as stuck as we may feel at times, we do have options to choose from to make a change when life is telling us this is not what we want. These changes can be sudden or come in small steps, like starting with your morning routine.

If you could hand-craft your day, what would it look like? Go ahead, write it down! Do you see it?

Here is my dream day:

You can write down anything your heart desires, but make it realistic as it must be attainable. (And if you reach for the stars, go ahead and really reach!)

Can you visualize it? Perhaps your dream day looks very different than mine. Maybe it starts earlier at 5 a.m. or later like 8 or 9. Perhaps you’re very close to reaching it or it looks nothing like the life you are living now. That’s ok because now you know what you want and can figure out what changes you need to make it happen.

What can you do right now to create the kind of life you want to live?

You might not be able to change your entire day anytime soon, especially if there are circumstances where you cannot leave your 9-5 (or perhaps you even love your 9-5 and it is already your dream day. In that case, go you!) You still have the power to change your mornings or evenings, or even both if your day still is not exactly the way you want it to be.

You can take steps now (or start planning them) to get to this day by changing your shift, hours, or even your job. You can go to bed earlier to become an early riser, add a work out class into your afternoon, go for walks when you come home from work, sign up to learn something new, etc.

Instead of adding things to your schedule, maybe your goal is to simplify and cut out extra commitments. What can you cross off your to-do list or say no to right now?

Whatever your dream life is, you can achieve it if you make the decision to look at your life now and commit to taking steps to change it. I hope that today you craft your day to fit in more of your dreams and aspirations. I am working on my own dream day one step at a time.