Your wardrobe can be a great place to jumpstart your resolutions

New year, new me. I’m not going to procrastinate this semester. I’m going to go to the gym regularly this year.

These resolutions, among many others, are some of the most common words uttered by students everywhere at the start of a new calendar year and college semester. While these often sound like achievable, helpful goals, we all know that keeping resolutions is easier said than done. For me and many of my friends, most resolutions are typically broken by February due to the constant balance of homework, readings (if you choose to do them), extracurriculars, jobs and internships.   

While school and life tend to get in the way of accomplishing those New Year’s resolutions, there are numerous strategies people try to take advantage of to help beat those obstacles. Some like using a paper planner or Google Calendar; others find a friend to help keep them accountable.  

While I’ve tried a lot of these strategies, I’ve found the best way to maintain my goals is quite unorthodox: my wardrobe.

It might seem like clothing and resolutions are entirely unrelated, but I’ve found a strong relationship between the two in past experiences. Updating my wardrobe and maintaining my personal style keeps me accountable to other aspects of my life — including my resolutions. When I organize my wardrobe and make effective fashion choices every day, I am able to manage my time more effectively, feel confident and comfortable and motivate myself to complete my goals.

Every three months, I go through my entire closet and donate any clothes that I don’t wear on a regular basis. In doing this, I make space for any trending pieces for the new year, like embellished dresses, neutral earth tones or accessories with feathers (if that’s your thing). After I’ve gone through my entire wardrobe, I make sure to find a trendy piece to add to my closet as motivation to finish the daunting organizational task, whether its the latest Reformation piece (they release new arrivals every Tuesday and Thursday) or finding the store with the best deals (Zara is currently having a sale).

Dressing up for class — I mean, not wearing leggings or sweatpants most of the time — is another way to help jumpstart your resolutions. On busy days, what you’re wearing can seem like the least important decision of the day, but your clothing can make the difference between having the confidence to speak up in class and sitting distracted in the back row of the lecture hall. On the days when I take a few moments to myself and consciously choose an outfit, I go into them with more confidence and excitement because I feel good about what I’m wearing and how people see me.

For me, just reserving a few minutes each morning to choose an outfit allows me to be more organized with other tasks that I have to complete that day. It allows me to present myself to the USC community and the world in a way that I feel more confident with. For example, if I am planning on going to office hours after class one day but don’t feel confident in my outfit, I may be less likely to go. But if I feel confident and organized in my fashion choices, then that meeting will usually go well and allow me to reach my academic goals.

Having a few basic pieces that you feel comfortable and confident in is key to this approach. Whether I woke up late for class one day or had to schedule a last-minute internship interview, being able to throw something on that makes me feel good without a lot of thought behind it is important.

My go-tos? A great pair of black jeans, a blazer, a black dress and a leather or jean jacket.

With a few basic planning steps, being thoughtful about your clothing choices can have a large impact on your mood, and can set the tone for a year of success. Take a little time this year to think critically about what you’re wearing every day, and you might just find yourself adhering to the resolutions you had always shirked before.

Lilly Howell is a junior writing about fashion. Her column, “Birkenstocks are the New Black,” runs every other Friday.