Good health doesn't happen by accident. As a teen, you're surrounded by all sorts of influences that can potentially harm your health or place you in danger. To overcome these influences, you need to make a plan to get and stay healthy and keep yourself as safe as possible.
Write down the steps you are willing to take over the next year to improve or maintain your health and protect yourself. Writing down your goals will actually help you keep them.
Your personal plan might look something like this:
I will…
- Stay away from tobacco, alcohol, and drugs, even if my friends are trying them
- Exercise 4 days a week
- Eat more vegetables and drink more water
- Drive carefully, buckle-up and never ride with an unsafe driver
- Hang with people and in places that are safe for me
- Wait until I'm older to have sex, and with a healthy partner I can trust
- Protect myself and my partner from having a baby until we are ready to take care of one
- Protect myself from diseases, including sexually transmitted infections
- Accept differences in myself and others
- Reach out for help if I'm feeling sad, scared, bullied, confused or unsure what to do
Talk over your personal health and safety plan with a close friend or an adult you trust. Sharing your plan will help reinforce your determination to stick to your goals.
It may also help to print out our flyer, Teen VIP: Planning Advice for Teen VIPs, and place it on your bulletin board, mirror, or inside your locker door to remind you every day of the goals you've set for yourself.
Need Encouragement, Advice?
Visit these teen websites for encouragement and helpful information on a wide variety of health and safety topics.