It’s a new year, another beginning. It is, as the saying goes, the first day of the rest of your life, as is every day of your life. Despite that fact, we put much more significance on the first day of each new year, resolving to make changes in this new year that will correct our failures in the past.

Once upon a time I used to do that. I would spend part of January 1st writing down the things that I hoped to accomplish during the next year, including changing certain undesirable habits. Of course, I failed in my undertakings within the first few weeks and never attempted them again during the year, or at least not with any more success than that achieved on the first attempt. Since that time I have not bothered to set myself up to fail in my resolutions. I have enough failure issues without having to create more at the beginning of each year.

While I no longer make New Year’s resolutions, I have always comforted myself with the fact that I could make changes at any time. If I failed now, I could pick up the mantle later and carry on from that point. There was always the possibility that I could make changes in the future. Suddenly, I find that possibility dwindling down to zero. The old saying, “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today,” has taken on a new meaning. No longer is it about procrastination, but about actually having the ability to do something today that you will not be able to do tomorrow.

For example, no matter the resolution you make, if your old knees make it a chore to walk fifty feet there is no way that you are going to be doing the hiking that you have always wanted to do. That carpentry job that you would now like to explore is beyond your physical limits, and building your own house is so far fetched as to be laughable. Those cigarettes you’ve been smoking for the last forty-five years have made it next to impossible to travel much, having to lug an oxygen tank around everywhere you go.

When you hit this point you realize that there are a limited number of “the first days of the rest of your life” left, and that each of those days will bring more limits to what you can do with them. I imagine that at some point in time one just decides that there’s no point in making any plans. Then again, that’s probably just the pessimist in me exposing himself. He likes to do that. It’s the only thrill he gets nowadays.