If last year taught us anything, it’s that things can change in an instant. Even small things we took for granted can become complex and unknown.

Life is short. We’ve learned that the time is now to get our priorities in order. It’s important to decide on what matters to you and to focus in on it.

For many people, their personal life has a greater weight. Suddenly, a spouse, children and loved ones are more important than ever before. And, it makes sense. The realization that our lives might be cut short has never been more present.

Life continues to move forward even as a pandemic rages. This is not the time to give up your career dreams. It’s time to pursue them differently.

2020 prepared us for living and working under the strain of a pandemic. 2021 is our opportunity to put what we’ve learned into practice.

It’s likely your priorities shifted over the last year. If so, here’s an exercise you might want to try:

• Write down the goals you had one year ago this time.

• Then, adjust them for our new normal.

You might want to be in a smaller city. You might want to live closer to your family. You might want to permanently work from home. You might want to focus less on climbing the ladder and more on happiness.

Whatever your goals are, putting them on paper can help to clarify what you are setting out to do.

If you’re like many people, accomplishing much of anything right now can feel impossible. But there are things you can do to help make this process easier.

After you write down your goals, type them on your computer. This will allow you to prioritize them and to create steps under each goal.

Move the most important goals to the top of your list. Then, outline what you will need to do to achieve each goal. Estimate the time each step will take you. Begin to put a timeframe around each step and goal. Decide on what you’ll accomplish this week, next week and next month.

I know this sounds simple. But you can use your goals as a guide as you continue to live through the pandemic.

Having written goals can help you to stay on track when things are feeling tough. You have a game plan already that you can focus in on.

Don’t plan to check things off your goal list at the same rate as in the past though. The pandemic creates new challenges every day. It will likely take you longer to complete tasks, and that’s OK.

The important part is that you stay focused on your goals and on moving forward. That way, we can make our way through 2021 more smoothly than we did last year.

Although we might continue to live with a pandemic, this year we’re more prepared.

Angela Copeland, a career expert and founder of Copeland Coaching, can be reached at copelandcoaching.com.