Our lives are relatively mundane when nothing major or exciting is on the horizon, and the simple gesture of consistently taking good care of ourselves on a day-to-day basis is often overlooked. Yet, it’s just as important, if not more, than the next shiny milestone.
In 2023, I was busy taking care of myself, and I successfully took good care of myself on various fronts. I take walks every day; work out, and spend time on hobbies and learning new things. I took care of myself like I was taking care of someone I love, and here is a year-end report on what I learned. Spoiler alert, it’s self-love and patience.
Table of Contents:
On Writing
I’ve been toying with the idea of being some kind of creative for a good decade, but I never fully committed to anything. During the past ten years, I watched the rise, and sometimes fall, of various platforms, such as Twitter (X), Facebook (Meta), blogging, Instagram, YouTube, Vine, Podcasting, and now TikTok, to name a few. I was never an active participant in any of them, not in a serious and businessy way anyway. I always dabbled in one platform for a couple of months and quickly gave up before anything picked up momentum. Yet, the voice keeps nagging.
Having finally yoinked myself out of a depressive state that lasted several years prior, my mental stability has been on the rise, and so, in 2023, I put pen to paper and began Year Zero on my creative journey with the Year I-Don’t-Know-How-Many goal of becoming a published author.
Year Zero is when you shouldn’t expect to see metrics going up; it’s when you shouldn’t expect to be seeing results; it’s when your only goal should be to start, stay consistent, and keep the momentum going.
Ali Abdaal
I like to think of Year Zero as being like a desert that you have to cross on your way towards a glorious oasis.
Sadly, it’s the period where most people give up.
To become a writer, one must read and write a lot. That’s what Stephen King suggested in his memoir – On Writing. I’d be delusional to not believe him. In 2023, I set the goal to read one book a month; it wasn’t much, but a good start, considering the few books I read in the last few years. If you read my post on “How to Set and Achieve New Goals,” you’ll see I’m no hypocrite when it comes to starting small to build vast. We’re in it for the Year I-Don’t-Know-How-Many, so I cannot burn out on Year Zero.
By the end of 2023, I finished 30 books. A large part was thanks to the audiobooks supplied by my local library through the Libby App. (Free. Not affiliated. A great resource if you love books. Seriously, check it out.) Somewhere along the line, maybe reading became a habit, so additional mental capacity freed up, or all the books I consumed accumulated into a voice of inspiration, or perhaps I was simply in the right stage of my life. In August, after a 12-day East Coast Road Trip, I completed the registration of this site and began writing, allowing an idea I had six months prior during one of the many insomniac nights to come to life.
After two months of banging my head against the wall, learning the ins and outs of WordPress, building the site from scratch, meticulously adjusting and re-adjusting every icon, and grinding out 13K+ words later, the site went live. I can thank all my productivity to bursts of mental breakdowns and insomnia.
On October 20th, 2023, I quietly set the site live; there were no fireworks, applause, or champagne, just a lot of silence with an air of empty triumph as I congratulated myself, which I’m sure a lot of creators can relate. On the second day, I invited two friends to vet the entire blog for usability. Now that we’re four months post-launch, the second day of testing remains the most popular day! :’)
Despite the slow start, as I write this to conclude 2023, the empty triumph is replaced with a quiet victory. I feel fondness wash over me as I reminisce on the journey of this site and how my writing goal has progressed in the past several months. The pride that looms in my heart is no longer an empty comfort I give myself; I can now embrace it with a full hug. Good job, Kate of 2023. You did well. I’ll take it from here.
On Walks
I’m generalizing here, but you know what’s the one thing we overlook when it comes to our well-being, and we’re not grateful enough for? Sunlight. For the most part, I started taking daily morning walks to cure insomnia, but connecting the dots backwards, there was a long history of depressive periods in my life, and the lack of sunlight was a major contributing factor.
Things I noticed on walks pt.1
In 2022, I developed crippling insomnia. On a good night, I was lucky to get 4 hours of sleep, and at its worst, I slept merely two hours a day for four weeks straight. Depressive episodes combined with sleepless nights led me to Huberman’s podcast on sleep, and eventually, after some more research, and by research I mean listening to more podcasts, I decided daily morning walks with a frequent exercise routine would be the cross to exorcise the two evils. I don’t want to bore you with the health benefits, so feel free to check out the podcast if you’re interested.
Things I noticed on walks pt.2
2023 was Year Zero for building the habit of taking morning walks; whether it was 10°C, -20 °C, rain or shine, a morning walk is the first thing I do after waking up. At first, I filled the walks with podcasts, music, and audiobooks – a major contributor to completing 30 books last year! Eventually, the walks evolved into listening to songbirds, rustling of the leaves, crunching of the snow under my boots, and my thoughts. My sleep quality improved veeeeeery slowly. I didn’t see significant improvement until the end of 2023, but I still had enough blind faith to trust the process despite the lack of immediate results. After all, going outside more cannot possibly be worse for me. Right?
Things I noticed on walks pt.3
My sleep never returned to pre-insomnia level, but I no longer take 4 hours to fall asleep just so I can doze in and out for 2 hours before beginning the day; that in itself is a blessing. I also developed the superpower of finding something beautiful and interesting on the same path I take every day. More often than not, I find myself filling up with immense gratitude and contentment, regardless if it is a sunny, gloomy, rainy, or snowy day. 2023 was a year I learned that any day can have beautiful moments; all it takes is a bit of mindfulness to discover them.
The air was crisp.
– Excerpt from my journal
A thin layer of snow crunched under my boots with each step,
echoing in the quietness of winter.
The wind was cool, not cold.
Accompanied by the mild-tempered breeze,
I walked with my thoughts for miles and on.
Things I noticed on walks pt.4
On Fitness
There are two types of people coming out of quarantine; I enthusiastically put myself in the coming-out-of-pandemic-with-a-six-pack group, only to find myself on the couch, 20 pounds heavier, with a new obsession with cake. I had many Year Zeros when it came to consistent fitness, and after tons of trials and errors, 2023 was the year I moved on to Year One from building a fitness habit to sustaining it.
Building the habit of working out and enjoying it is hard; it took years for me to accept the idea that I needed to work out regularly. Then, it took a couple more years to find activities where I’d want to be a long-term participant.
In 2023, my fitness routine consisted of daily walks, fencing, skateboarding, and the completion of 4 training programs with Caroline Girvan, who is hands down my favourite no-fuss fitness guru.
I’ll write up a habit-building post on fitness in the future if you’re interested. Let me know in the comments!
On Having New Experiences
In 2021 at the ripe old age of 27, I started skateboarding. In 2022, I took a solo trip for the first time and also travelled internationally with my partner since the pandemic lockdown. Those previous two years set the scene for 2023, where I awoke to the notion of personal agency and the amount of control I have over myself and my life.
We live in a paralyzing society, where we wander through the day-to-day as if in a trance; it’s the only way to survive – to disassociate and numb excessive feelings. For the past several years, it felt like I was slowly waking up from a long hibernation, and in 2023, I was finally wide awake. I learned ballet and fencing, signed up for competitions, read, wrote, started a blog, skateboarded, travelled, and even picked up snowboarding. I’m not suggesting you try a hundred things, but simply one, and slowly build upon it. When you look back on the journey, you’ll be surprised at how you feel and what you’ve accomplished.
When I think back, the memories of these new experiences are painted with the same vibrancy of childhood, leaving me a sense of liveliness and hopefulness for an extended period that I have not felt since becoming a gloomy teenager that eventually led to a burnt-to-crisp adult. I wish I could share my memories with you to show you I’m not lying, and that you can feel just as lively, but you must start with Year Zero.
Obligatory outfit of the day selfies before heading out
My past posts also speak for this section, so I won’t add much else other than there’s so much more to come, and I cannot wait to document it all here, in my corner of the internet.
A Journey to the Canadian East Coast
A K-drama Inspired Fencing Story
On What’s Next
2023 was a great year where I was simply busy taking care of myself, and if I haven’t alluded enough, it took years of stumbling around to find the right direction and build a path towards it. Waking up from a long hibernation happens slowly, then it happens all at once. All it took was taking the first step in taking care of myself. In 2024 and on, I can’t wait to keep building upon the Year Zeros and eventually reach the oasis.
If you’d like to map out a list of things you want to focus on for 2024, check out my guide on How to Set and Achieve New Goals (includes habit tracking template) and let’s work on making 2024 a great year together!
I hope this will be a year where you’re busy taking care of yourself, too.
Thank you for reading,
Kate
Kate LSY 
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