How's this for a New Year's Resolution: try to stay alive for the entire year? It may not be entirely within your power to keep this resolution. Cancer and other diseases will take thousands of lives away from us in 2013.

So will automobile crashes, workplace accidents, and a raft of other unfortunate mishaps. but there's a difference.

While we may be able to reduce our chances of contracting some fatal diseases-for instance, quitting smoking to avoid lung cancer, changing our eating habits to reduce the likelihood of heart disease, etc.-accidental death is nearly always avoidable.

Driving offers a wellspring of opportunities to keep the New Year happy. Simply exercising more care while driving would cut the death rate across Canada significantly.

Realizing that there is more time available if you stay alive all the way to your destination might be a good incentive to reduce your speed.

Understanding the odds of killing yourself or someone else while driving under the influence of alcohol or other drugs could help you in your resolve to make it all the way to the end of the year.

And knowing that your odds of being involved in a fatal car crash while driving with a cellphone hanging from your ear are almost exactly the same as while driving drunk might make you think twice about taking that call without pulling over first.

And once you get to work, try to keep your workplace safe. Think about what you're doing, especially if you have one of those many jobs-working with machinery or vehicles or potentially deadly chemicals-that are inherently dangerous.

Now you're done your day and want to seek some relaxation? Maybe you'd like to go skiing? Stay in bounds! So no one else has to risk his or her life to recover your body after it has lost its resolve!

Indeed, staying in bounds-in whatever activities you undertake-really is the key to achieving your New Year's Resolution to stay alive through 2013.

? YOUR VIEW

Last week's question

Can a U.S.-style school shooting happen in Canada?