Content in partnership with KCBS

Focusing on the Inside for Each Year, Not the Outside

03.07.22
Focusing on the Inside for Each Year, Not the Outside (Photo courtesy of Tiya Birru)

Every new year offers a chance to improve yourself and your life. Being a teenager riddled with insecurities, I’ve always seen it as a time I could fix everything about myself for the year.

What I’ve noticed with New Year’s resolutions is that everyone makes them and tries to set a new routine, but sometimes it doesn’t work out. I have made resolutions like lose 30 pounds, have clear skin or grow taller — and when I didn’t see any improvements, I ended up incredibly disappointed in myself.

Around eighth grade I think I learned that New Year’s resolutions can’t just happen immediately, and I shouldn’t let my insecurities lead my mindset.

Instead of trying hard to “fix” things I didn’t like about myself, I worked more on self care: I tried to be nicer to myself; I would remind myself to drink more water; I tried to speak up and compliment people on the street.

I taught myself that working on myself from the inside would be more important than what I looked like on the outside. 

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