I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. If I have something I want to try, I decide to do it well before New Year’s.

I did give up coffee, but that was three days ago, and it was because I had a bout of upset stomach and lightheadedness. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to quit caffeine, even though my very strong morning cup has been my medication for my attention issues for years. I put my espresso maker and my coffee grinder in the basement when I decided to stop. It’s a very nice espresso maker. My husband bought it for me. I may never use it again. It wasn’t a New Year’s resolution, though.

I did clear some more things out of my basement this week, but that wasn’t a New Year’s resolution either, because I planned their removal last week. The bags of stuff were picked up two days ago, and as always I felt lighter after they went, as if I had been carrying the bags around myself. I clear out my basement whenever I need to feel lighter or whenever I am feeling muddled.

I talked to a friend about weightlifting yesterday, and got my senior citizen exercise book out of my bedroom, but I’m not starting any new exercise routine in January. I already walk quite a lot, and do exercises every evening. I may never get around to weights. I keep giving away the light weights I buy. They are lumpy and look awkward in my living room, and I never use them. Not a New Year’s resolution.

I already took the big trips I wanted to take, and though I have another one scheduled, that one is in March and I already have tickets and reservations.

But I am always making resolutions, or rather always starting new projects. The thing is, though, January 1 is nothing special. I’m likely to wake up in October, or April, or tomorrow, and say to myself, “I need to think about what I want to do with my calendar” (or my closet, or my hair, or meditating) and then I write about it for a while in my journal, thinking it through. Then I start.

Some of the things I decide to do last forever. Some of them don’t. But they rarely start on January 1.

Instead, they start today, whenever today happens to be.