I created a spreadsheet.

Of course I did.

In a couple of days I’ll begin the sixty-day countdown to my sixtieth birthday, and what started as a fairly simple idea has become exactly what you’d expect when you give a project manager sixty days and a goal. There’s a spreadsheet. There are plans. There are people I’ve recruited as accomplices. There are things that need to happen on specific days and other things that can move around. And because I’ve decided to share the experience as I go, there’s also the small matter of actually documenting what I’m doing and explaining why.

Apparently, putting more life into life requires project management. At least when I’m involved.

I’m calling it 60 Days to 60. Beginning October 20th, I’m going to spend the sixty days leading up to my birthday deliberately creating opportunities to participate in my own life. Some will be new experiences. Some will revisit things I’ve enjoyed before. Some will involve other people, some won’t. There are things already on the calendar I’m genuinely looking forward to, and there are things I don’t know yet — which right now feels like part of the fun.

But I want to be clear about what this isn’t, because it would be very easy to get it wrong.

I don’t need sixty more obligations. I don’t need sixty more things to accomplish successfully. I have enough of those. What I want are sixty opportunities to experience my life with some intention behind it. There’s a difference. If I turn the next sixty days into another project I’m supposed to execute correctly, I’ve completely missed my own point. So I’m setting a rule for myself before I even start: the experience matters more than the project. If something doesn’t happen as planned, fine. If I change my mind, fine. If there comes a day when the thing I most want to do is nothing, then maybe nothing is exactly what belongs on the calendar that day.

The point isn’t to finish sixty days with a perfect record. The point is to arrive at sixty having paid a little more attention to the life that got me there.

I’ve also noticed something while putting this together — I’m actually looking forward to things. Not just my birthday — I’ve never been much of one for celebrating my own. But there are experiences on the calendar that already make me smile when I think about them. There are people I know I’ll spend time with. There are things my accomplices know that I don’t, which means there are surprises somewhere in the next sixty days. And apparently you can be fully present and still look forward to something. I don’t think those things contradict each other.

Being here doesn’t mean pretending tomorrow isn’t coming. Sometimes I want to sit with a memory. Sometimes I want to enjoy exactly what’s in front of me. And sometimes I want to look at something on the calendar a few weeks away and think, I’m really looking forward to that. All of those things happen in the same life.

That’s especially meaningful right now, because of the time of year we’re entering.

I’ve written before about what this part of the calendar carries for me. There are birthdays and anniversaries connected to people I’ve lost. Holidays are coming, with all the memories attached to them. There are traditions that don’t look the way they once did and people who aren’t at the table anymore. Part of me has wondered whether 60 Days to 60 is a distraction from some of that. Honestly, I think maybe it is, at least on certain days. And I’m not convinced that’s a bad thing.

But I also want to be clear — I’m not trying to replace any of it. Those dates will arrive. The memories will come with them. Some days will be harder than others, and no amount of planning changes that. What I’m doing is adding something alongside what’s already there.

Life.

Not instead of the memories. Alongside them.

That distinction matters to me more than I can fully explain. So much of what appears on our calendars wasn’t chosen by us. Anniversaries arrive because something happened on that date. Holidays return whether we’re ready or not. Some dates carry things we’d gladly still be living instead of remembering. I can’t change any of that. But those dates don’t have to be the only things that get to shape the days ahead.

I can put dinner on the calendar. I can call a friend. I can try something I’ve never done or return to something I used to love. I can let somebody surprise me. I can remember someone I loved and still enjoy something happening right now.

That’s what putting more life into life means to me at this particular moment in my life.

I’ve spent the last few weeks thinking about what it means to actually be here. To claim some time. To claim my attention. To make the choices that are genuinely mine to make. Now I want to do something with those choices. Sixty days feels like a pretty good place to start.

Your turn

You don’t need sixty days, a milestone birthday, or — trust me on this — a spreadsheet. Just think about the days ahead and ask yourself: what’s one thing I want to put into my life that I can genuinely look forward to?

It can be something new or something you’ve always loved. It can involve other people or belong entirely to you. It can be big enough to put on the calendar or small enough to happen this afternoon.

Don’t choose it because it’s productive. Choose it because you’d like it to be part of your life. Then give yourself the chance to actually experience it.