How many years you get is out of your hands. What the next twelve months are for is mostly in them.

The length of a life is not a decision anybody gets to make, and it is worth keeping that separate from the part that is. Inside any given year there is a usable amount of choice about what gets your attention: a skill, a relationship, where you live, what you stop doing. Mixing the two up produces anxiety about the uncontrollable and neglect of the rest.

Write one sentence saying what the next twelve months are mainly for. Keep it modest enough to be true and specific enough to check. Look at it again in three months to see whether your weeks agree.