31 Steps for Feeling Happier, Step 5: Tweak your appearance

After yesterday’s list, are you feeling a little better about all that you’ve accomplished instead of freaking out about the stuff you haven’t done? Me, too. Are you working on your 100 things in 1001 days list as an added bonus? Me, too. I’ll be sharing some of this list over on Facebook next week so make sure to check it out and share some of what’s on yours.

Alright. Since it’s Saturday, we’re going to have a little fun with today’s task. The reason I saved it for a weekend and not the middle of the week is simple: if what you do turns out to be a huge disaster, you have a day to recover. Also, on Saturdays, we tend to have a little more time to experiment or change things up.

So what are we going to do today? Well, today we are going to tweak our appearances (just a little. Nothing drastic). Because if you’re like me, you get into a hair, makeup, and clothing rut and after awhile, you just become unhappy with the way you look. You get tired of wearing the same things all the time and it start to take a toll on your self-esteem. You feel ugly and outdated and like you should be in that commercial for mom jeans. What makes it worse is going out in public in the only decent outfit you have for the 700th time and seeing people who actually look good. Put together. Wearing clothes without stains. With non-chipped manicures. And makeup. And without 4 inches of roots showing.

Then you get sad, go back home, put on your trusty yoga pants that never let you down, and start binge pinning ideas for makeup and hair and outfits that you swear one day you will try because you know you’re worth it and feeling like crap about how you look just isn’t fun anymore.

I might do this more than I should admit. But today, I’m going to actually try one of those ideas. And so are you. You are going to look at some of what you’ve pinned and see if you can do it. If you’re not on Pinterest, buy a magazine or look around online for some ideas (note: whatever you do, DO NOT focus on the model’s bodies. You are to focus on hair and makeup and nails and clothing ideas only. For today, do not worry if you are not thin enough or tall enough or muscular enough or whatever else enough because it does not matter. Quite honestly, one of the reasons we’re focusing on some very superficial ideas today is so that we spend at least one day forgetting to hate our bodies. Most of us do it enough so let’s go ahead and take a break). Then, once you have your idea, look around your house to see if you already have the necessary tools to work on it. If not, hit up your local drugstore or a clothing store. Buy some inexpensive jeans or makeup or nail polish or whatever else you’re going to need for today’s experiment. Then carve out an hour or so just for you to work on it. And then do it.

When you’re done, step back and admire your handiwork. Show your husband or roommate or friend or whoever. Have a fashion show with your new clothes. Go to the grocery store wearing that smoky eye. Rock that sparkly neon manicure. Take a selfie with that amazing new hairstyle (note: unless you are really, really good at it, please do not cut your hair or dye your hair yourself. You will most likely regret it and wind up feeling worse. If you want a drastic haircut, please consider the help of a professional).

Even if no one compliments you, if you feel good, if you feel happy with what you’ve done, then that’s what matters. Because this is about internal validation, not external. We need to start working on approving of ourselves before we can worry about others. And if giving ourselves a little weekend makeover is what we need to start feeling good and happy, then who cares if others perceive it as superficial?

Sometimes you need to be happy with the external just as much as the internal.

And that’s okay.