Routine - the key to a better year?

Happy new year everyone! 

We hope everyone is safe, healthy and happy. This year is starting differently to any other that any of us have lived through and so it's hard to start with a clear and optimistic mindset. The last 9 months or so has shook us in a way that nobody was prepared for, be that from a health, economic or social perspective. It's been tough.

The new year brings with it a reset we all feel a little compelled to think about. It can be a good opportunity to sit back, re-evaluate and reset goals, targets or commitments to what makes you happy. 

January, in reality, isn't any different to any other month of the year. However, we all get drawn to this feeling of change and ’new’ in January so maybe now, more than ever, it's a good time to try and make some promises to ourselves.

You will see us talk a lot about routine here at TEA+. Routine can be a bit of a dull and depressing word as it normally brings an image of constraint. However it can be a tool for positive change.

TEA+ exists because Jade and I have always believed in routine. We had busy lives and we struggled to balance working, going to the gym and trying to consistently eat healthy. Inevitably we would eventually break and fall back into bad habits. Doing something once or twice is easy, but doing it consistently to build habit is hard. That's why we built TEA+ to be a routine based tea. Not just another herbal tea, something that you build into a new routine around improving your energy levels, your skincare routine or your night time routine to get better sleep.

We’ve just entered the third lockdown in the UK and this comes after nearly a year of disruption to our daily routines. After what has been a hugely difficult year, nothing changed overnight when the clock struck midnight on December 31st, but we can engineer a change, even if just in a small way.

We all have different goals, aims and things that make us happy. We all have different needs to keep us happy be that exercise, good nutrition, social contact or anything else. Think about that now while you are reading this. What have you always wanted for yourself? It doesn’t have to be anything big, but what are some small goals that you’ve always wanted to accomplish? Since it's January, isn’t now the time to aim for one or two of those?

The reason you might not have accomplished these in the past is because change is hard. Whether you want to lose weight, exercise more, eat better - it's tough. We believe routine is the gateway to making new habits permanent. 

We all have routine in our lives, from the time we get up and have that first coffee to your bedtime ritual. Think about your day, you already have a lot of routine. What if you could just tweak that and add one or two things in every day, so they become as natural as your current morning or evening habits?

This can be in the most tiny of tweaks to begin with. You are not going to become the Joe Wicks of health in the near future. But what if you just started walking every day round the block, then a little further the next week. Then jogging it, then a bit further, then before you know it you are running 5 or 10K. Now you might not care about running 5k but that isn’t the point. Small steps can help you achieve any goal.

Now that might not be your desire or goal, but any target you work towards will likely bring some unexpected goals with it. If you aim to eat better meals, you might work towards that and in the process you save money, you drink less sugary drinks and you feel more energetic therefore taking up other hobbies. Who knows? That’s the point though, who knows? If you fail in your goal you might pick up another focus on the way and find an unexpected avenue of happiness.

We’ve talked about routine and goals a lot in TEA+ over the last few months and that is why we launched our TEA+ journal. We’ve found journaling can be a great way to help build a routine and track your progress. If you think you could benefit from a new routine in your life, check it out. Please use the code 2021Routine for 15% off a journal.

So let's stop looking at the word routine as something negative. This January then maybe we can look at routine as something that can be life changing?

The most important thing is that we stay healthy and happy, so we hope everyone reading can overcome the current challenges and has a wonderful new year.

James