Today, the moon in Capricorn spurs you to take life seriously and think deeply about how you want to use your limited time on earth. Instead of vaguely hoping everything will work out on its own, consider what you can do to push things in the right direction. Instead of trusting you’ll be happy someday, figure out how to ensure you’ll get there. Especially in the afternoon, you’ll have good judgment — neither clouded by wishful thinking nor unnecessarily pessimistic — and it’ll become clear what to do next.

It often feels like if you want anything done right, you have to do it yourself. Maybe the people around you don’t understand your ambition, maybe they lack your boldness, maybe they simply work more slowly than you have patience for. Instead of getting frustrated with them, you’d rather move forward at your own pace. But today, you risk missing out on valuable insights if you leave others behind. There are people who have had experiences similar to yours, and who have wisdom to share with you. Make a point of connecting with them.

You prefer not to leave anything up to chance, nor to put yourself in situations where you have to make decisions on the fly. You’ve seen how wrong things can go when people try to wing it; and you’d prefer to think through your options ahead of time. Today, though, you might be called on to make snap judgments. Don’t waffle or try to pass the responsibility off to someone else: Trust yourself. Your instincts have been sharpened through experience, and they won’t steer you wrong.

You’ve been working hard to change your life, whether that means investing in meaningful relationships, or building a career you can be proud of, or healing old emotional wounds. You’re yearning for a sense of purpose, and you understand that this means focusing on the long-term. But today you might begin to get antsy: When will all this effort finally bear fruit? Is it even worth it? Your challenge is to stay patient. Everything you’re doing will pay off eventually, as long as you don’t give up.

When you don’t have enough intimacy in your life, you crave it — but when you do have enough, it can quickly become stifling. You worry you’ll be penned in, trapped, prevented from growing; you’re afraid your freedom is the price you have to pay for love. Today, though, try to put your fears aside for a moment and look at the situation clearly. Human connection won’t prevent you from living fully: It’ll help you along the way.

It isn’t easy to focus right now: There are so many unimportant matters calling for your attention, so many tiny dramas threatening to derail your day. You can hardly be blamed if your concentration falters and you get distracted from the task at hand, and sometimes, it’s genuinely necessary to deal with an unexpected situation. But do your best not to get sucked in by things that aren’t important to you. There’s so much in the world you can’t control, but you can at least try to control where you direct your valuable attention.

Some people seem to have no filter at all, spouting off every thought that pops into their head. You, though, are probably the opposite: You wait to share your ideas until you’re sure they’re sound, keeping your thoughts and feelings to yourself unless you can see a good reason to pipe up. But be careful not to hold back too much today; your friends want to hear what you have to say. Don’t worry so much about coming up with a justification for sharing what’s on your mind. Wanting to connect can be reason enough.

Today, it could feel like everyone in your life needs so much from you — the people you live with all rely on you to maintain order; your chaotic friends all dump their dramas on you. Think about how much you’re able and willing to give. Care for others where you can, but not in a way that depletes your own inner resources. Setting a healthy boundary or two now will keep your relationships strong over time.

You want to contribute meaningfully to the world around you, but that can be easier said than done. Though you know you have skills to share, it’s difficult to figure out how to put them to good use. If you’re feeling stymied today, talk to the people around you. If you’ve hit the limits of your own knowledge or imagination, your friends may have fresh ideas to share. You can figure out a path forward, just don’t try to do it alone.

In an ideal world, you’d spend your time learning, traveling, expanding your horizons. In reality, though, practical considerations tend to interfere. You’re forced to spend your time and energy working, taking care of yourself, dealing with all the little tasks that make up a life. Today, focus on doing all the little stuff as well as you can. By shoring up your foundations now, making sure your life is solid and steady, you’ll be well positioned to have adventures later.

You can be reluctant to trust your emotions — it’s all too easy to let passion override your better judgment, so you do your best to regard your feelings with a healthy dose of skepticism. Often this protects you from your worst impulses, but sometimes it means that you miss out on valuable insights. Today, pay attention to your emotions. Even if you don’t want to act on every passing whim, you’ll learn a lot by taking your heart seriously.

Some people act like their own emotions outweigh everything else, but you do your best to maintain a healthy perspective and not get caught up in your feelings. Just remember, today, that while your inner world isn’t more real or important than anything else, it’s not unimportant, either. Paying attention to your feelings won’t take you away from the world around you, but can help you to live in it with more empathy and love.

You’ve been self-conscious lately, hyper-aware of all the things that make you different from everyone around you. As much as you’re proud of the person you’ve become, there’s also a tiny part of you that wishes you could get rid of all your quirks and just be “normal.” Today, the best way forward isn’t to force yourself to love the weird, idiosyncratic parts of yourself — but simply to stop thinking about yourself so much. Focus instead on the people around you, or the projects you’re interested in.

Buy Claire Comstock-Gay’s book, Madame Clairevoyant’s Guide to the Stars, here.