The planets bring you a burst of fresh energy today as Venus enters assertive Aries and expansive, optimistic Jupiter starts moving forward again, ending a four-month retrograde. No matter how pessimistic you’ve felt lately, this is an opportunity to channel new hope for the future. Trust that your actions can make a difference, even if you don’t see results immediately. Think about the kind of world you want to live in and what steps you could take right now to bring it into being. You don’t have to do it all alone — you just have to be willing to try.

Sometimes it feels as though there’s no point in trying to change anyone’s mind; people are set in their ways, maddeningly resistant to alternative ways of thinking. But while it’s true that some people will simply never listen to what you have to say, plenty of others aren’t so closed-minded. Today, don’t give up on influencing the people around you. You won’t convince everyone, but then again, you don’t need to. For now, changing even one person’s mind can be rewarding enough.

You care deeply about being a good person — someone who does the right thing even when it’s difficult, someone your friends know they can count on through thick and thin. Sometimes, though, you imagine that being “good” means that you have to be serious and treat yourself with austerity, that you have to renounce everything that seems frivolous. But that’s no way to live, so, today, seek out small moments of trivial fun. There’s enough suffering to go around; don’t go out of your way to make things harder for yourself.

Because you’re generally good-natured and adaptable, people sometimes imagine that you’ll be easy to push around. Today, prove them wrong. There are so many ways to show that you won’t be bullied: Raise your voice and cause a fuss; walk away and refuse to engage; quietly, amicably keep doing what you were doing. Nobody gets to force you to go against your principles or your better judgment if you don’t let them. You can always say “no” — and right now, it might even be thrilling to do so.

You understand that everybody has emotional needs, that nobody can pour from an empty cup — but you sometimes imagine that this applies only to other people, not you. You think that it’s fine for others to need rest or support, but you should simply work harder. While your friends deserve fulfillment, you imagine that you should somehow be able to run on empty. Today, your challenge is to push back against that mind-set. You’ll need emotional and material sustenance for the days ahead; think about where you’ll find it.

Everybody seems to be getting on your nerves lately, even the people you generally respect and agree with. They might not be doing anything wrong — at least nothing you can put your finger on — but they’re saying all the wrong things or being unhelpful or simply irritating you. But today, see if you can find ways to work productively with them anyway. If you wait until everyone is acting exactly the way you’d prefer them to, you’ll only end up frustrated; if you can get past your surface-level frustrations, life will feel a lot less lonely and more hopeful.

It might feel pointless to worry much about your own ambitions or career path. You care about being able to meet your basic needs, of course, but beyond that, it strikes you as foolish, even a little selfish, to put any energy into your personal advancement right now. But today, don’t neglect your goals completely. The higher you climb, the more opportunities you might have to stand up for other people, to make a difference, to create a better world — not just for yourself but for everyone.

While self-doubt might not ever feel good, it can be healthy in small doses. Nobody’s right 100 percent of the time, and questioning your assumptions can help you to recognize when you’re operating off a bias or missing critical context. The trick is to find the right balance: While living in a state of unquestioning self-confidence won’t get you far, perpetual uncertainty won’t help, either. If you’ve been doing a lot of reflection lately, today it’s time to take the lessons you’ve learned and run with them.

Although you’re not the sort of person to get lost in flights of fancy, lately you’ve found yourself dreaming about how much you could do if things were different — if you had more resources, if the conditions weren’t stacked against you, if the people around you were more reliable. And it’s important to remember that life doesn’t have to be underwhelming and that it’s worth fighting for something better. But today, you’ll be happier if you stop dealing in what-ifs and focus on how you can make a difference in the world that actually exists.

Petty interpersonal problems seem less important than ever right now — but just because you don’t want to spend your time thinking about minor social dramas doesn’t mean you can simply wave a hand and make them all go away. Today, devote some energy toward smoothing over the conflicts in your life. Mending fences will free up more energy to spend on the major issues, and you’ll have a stronger support system to help you along the way.

You’re persistent, but you also know when to quit. If it’s obvious something’s not going to work out, you don’t see the point in continuing to push — better to direct your energy toward what’s more likely to succeed. But today, it might be worth revisiting a problem you gave up on in the past. With a little emotional distance, new resources to draw on, or a fresh perspective, you could make a breakthrough. Don’t be too proud or stubborn to give yourself a second chance.

You’ve got lofty ideals, and you’re deeply committed to living up to them — just remember, today, that it’s possible to take your principles seriously without taking yourself too seriously. There’s room in your life for playfulness and creativity; you’re allowed to take the scenic route every once in a while instead of always opting for the most direct one. You’d likely roll your eyes if someone were to tell you that life’s about the journey, not the destination — but that doesn’t mean it’s not true.

It’s easy to feel as if you aren’t doing “enough” — as if your life is too small and your talents are going to waste. You imagine that you should be out in the thick of things, changing the course of history, not muddling through your ordinary, day-to-day life. But today you’ll find that you don’t need to search far and wide for ways to make a difference. Simply nurturing the people around you, helping them — and yourself — keep going, could be the most important contribution you can make.

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