Tom’s birthday was Saturday and mine was Sunday. Next year, I turn 60.
I’ve known that, obviously. Birthdays aren’t exactly sneaky. But sometime recently I started thinking differently about the year between 59 and 60.
I don’t want to arrive at 60 and realize I spent most of the year doing whatever was already in front of me. There are things I want to make real progress on before then, and other things I simply want more of.
So I changed how I’m keeping my calendar. Instead of using one that runs January through December, I’m using an undated calendar that runs August to August. It lines up closely with my birthday and gives me a way to think about 59 to 60 as its own stretch of time.
January Doesn’t Have to Be the Starting Point
We give January 1 an enormous amount of authority. New year, new goals, new habits, new plans.
A birthday makes more sense to me as a personal reset because it marks an actual year of my life. I can look back and see what changed between the last one and this one: what I did, what I kept putting off, what got easier, what got harder and what I’m still saying I want to do.
Then there’s another year in front of me.
That made me think a birthday might be a useful place to stop and decide what I want more of before we do this again next year.
I Don’t Want a List of 59 Things
This could very easily become one of those “59 things before 60” lists.
I have no interest in doing that.
I don’t need to visit 59 places, read 59 books or invent enough goals to make my age into a theme. I’m much more interested in looking back a year from now and seeing that a few things actually changed.
I want to be healthier, stronger and fitter. I want Handcrafted Adventure to have moved forward in ways I can see. I want another year of going places with Tom, spending time with our kids, trying things we haven’t done before and having ordinary weeks that contain more than work and errands.
Other things will become important as the year unfolds. I don’t need to decide all of them now. I just want this year to contain enough of what matters that I’ll be glad I made room for it when I look back next August.
Progress Doesn’t All Look the Same
Some kinds of progress are easy to measure. Strength can improve. Weight can change. A business can grow. A project can get finished. You can look at numbers, dates or completed work and see that something moved.
Other kinds are harder to put on a chart.
Maybe we spent more time with people we care about or finally went somewhere we’d been talking about for years. Maybe I protected more time for things I enjoy, tried something I would have talked myself out of before, or simply had more ordinary weeks that felt like a life I wanted to be living.
I like being able to see that steady work changed something. But improvement is only part of the point. I also want to enjoy some of what I’m working so hard to build.
A Year Is Long Enough to Change Quite a Lot
One reason I like looking at life from birthday to birthday is that a year is substantial.
It’s enough time to get stronger, change a habit, take a trip, finish a project or build something that doesn’t exist yet.
It’s also enough time to discover that something you planned no longer matters as much as you thought it would.
Something that seems important in September may matter much less by March. A possibility I can’t see yet may show up in January. I may learn enough along the way to realize I was aiming at the wrong thing.
I want my calendar to hold that too: the things I planned, the things that changed and the things I didn’t know enough to plan yet.
What Would You Like to Be Different?
You don’t have to wait for your birthday to do this, but a birthday is a pretty good reason to stop and look around.
Forget for a minute what you think you should have accomplished by your age. Look at the year immediately in front of you.
What would you like to be different by the time your next birthday arrives?
Maybe you want to feel stronger when you climb stairs, spend more time on a friendship you’ve neglected, finally take the trip you keep talking about or make real progress on work that matters to you. You might want to give less of your attention to something you stopped caring about a long time ago.
Or maybe you just want more Saturdays that feel like Saturdays.
Those answers don’t all have to become goals. Some may become plans, habits, conversations or things you start saying yes to more often.
Try This Before Your Next Birthday
Take ten minutes and answer one question:
What would I be glad had changed by my next birthday?
Then look at your actual calendar and think about what would have to happen during ordinary weeks for that change to become possible. Wanting to get stronger eventually has to become time to move. A trip you keep talking about eventually needs a date. Whatever your answer was, look for the first place it could become part of the life you’re already living.
From 59 to 60
I don’t know exactly what this year will contain. There will be things I plan and things I don’t see coming, and I expect some priorities will change once I know more.
This year, my calendar runs August to August, and I want to use it as a record of more than appointments, workdays and things that needed to get done.
I want it to hold some evidence that I used the year on purpose.
When I turn 60, I’d like to look back through those pages and recognize the life inside them.
Every Friday, I send one observation that didn’t make it onto the blog. If you’d like to be part of that conversation, I’d love to have you. Free. Subscribe →
If you’re looking for more structure around deciding what matters, building the capacity to follow through, and making more room for the life you want, the next Fully Lived Framework beta begins in January 2027. Join the waitlist →