Let me extend my best wishes to you for a very safe and Happy New Year. This is that time of the year when each of us should pause and reflect on all that has happened during the year just passed. What was good? What was bad? What really did not have an impact upon us? To whom did we bid a fond farewell.
We need to understand how important it is that we learn to take the bitter with the better. We can neither change nor redo what has occurred in the year we are left. But it is possible for us to waste all of the experiences we have had if we fail to assess what has happened and use it as the basis for what we wish to accomplish in the year which lies ahead.
I am a firm proponent of approaching each new year with a clean slate so to speak. Nothing is promised. Neither is anything guaranteed. You and I have the opportunity to carve out a new road along which we can travel in the coming year. Let me suggest that we lay out a general plan for those things we wish to accomplish. Set some broad general guidelines for what you seek to achieve in 2015.
You must then awake each day to the challenges which each of us will face at that time. Each day of the year will provide an opportunity to fill in the blanks in our plan for future success. Once this has been done, we can then begin to work to accomplish things on a day-by-day, case-by-case basis.
My message to you is simple. You can change and I can change. We can plan new beginnings. My friends let me share a bit of history with you. We Americans are privileged to live in a country where new beginnings are a privilege of citizenship. They are something which is encouraged. They are the very basis of our history as a nation.
Think about it. How many of our families came from foreign lands to build a fresh, new life here in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave? I know that my forbearers set out from England and Poland to explore new opportunities and create new lives for themselves and their families. They came past the Statue of Liberty and entered our great nation through the portals at Ellis Island.
They went on to create the lives which have led through the decades to the nation we enjoy today. But what was it like for them? What were their hopes and what were their fears?
Many times during my life I have wondered what my parents and grandparents faced on the many New Year’s Days which they celebrated over the years. I think about what it must have been like for my grandfather as he guarded German prisoners in France during World War I. I ponder the problems which my father faced as he batted the forces of Fascism in Italy during World War II. And how did my mother and grandmother bear up under the strain of my dad being overseas during the war? My parents were separated for 29 months while dad was overseas.
Let us go back further. What was it like on New Year’s Day in 1919 with my grandfather back from the horrors of World War I? What did my grandparents face? What challenges did my dad face on New Year’s Day in 1946 as he approached a new, post-war life with my mom? In my mind’s eye I can dimly recall the joys which I enjoyed on New Year’s Day in 1971. The joys of being with my future wife and all of our parents are still there, even if they are somewhat diminished by the passage of time. The career in the fire service which I was to enjoy still lay in the future at that time.
My friends, there was also the wonder of the unknown that lay in front of me. All that I have done, all that I have achieved and all I have enjoyed in the decades since was still out there in the future and totally unknown to me. My friends, let me suggest that you need not wait until New Year’s Day to create a new beginning and a new direction for your career and your life.
How should you approach the creation of the new beginnings I suggest? You must make the decision to change your direction all by yourself. You cannot allow your future to be controlled by the actions of others. To the greatest extent possible, I have done this. Last year I made a conscious decision to work on becoming healthier. It was a decision based in reality. I decided that I wanted to live long enough to see my little grandson graduate from high school. I also decided that I wanted to live long enough to see my son appointed as a Monsignor in the Catholic Church. To that end I took a number of actions.
My family and I began visiting with a new physician. She laid out the path for me. Although my blood work and blood pressure were all fine, she indicated that I needed to lose weight and exercise more. I have applied myself to these matters. I have lost more than 30 pounds since Memorial Day. I also try to swim three or four days a week at the local hospital’s fitness center. Recently I have found that a lot of the clothes which were consigned to the “they-don’t-fit” closet now fit again. It is really neat to go shopping in your own closet.
Am I a thin person? No, I am most definitely not. However, I am just not as chubby as I once was. It is my intention to continue traveling along the path I have laid out. Very soon I will weigh less than 300 pounds for the first time since 1992. Beyond that I want to continue downward until I reach a safer, more sustainable weight.
This is one example of how you can create a new beginning in your life. Let me assure you that at the very least it takes a conscious effort on your part. These things do not happen by accident. You must make a conscious decision to move in a new and different direction.
Let me suggest a few new beginnings which you can entertain in your life and in the life of your fire department:
- Become a better leader
- Create a better and more varied training program
- Create a new mentoring program
- Reach out to your mutual aid partners to create a better regional program
- Become a better follower (it requires a good leader to encourage this one)
- Come to an understanding on the need to improve your health and fitness
Let me assure you that I cannot do any of these things for you. It is imperative that you decide to change the direction of your department and yourself. This is a deeply personal decision on your part. Once you make it, you must then reach out for the necessary knowledge, training, and education necessary to start making those changes. It will be up to you to blend in your experience in order to beef up the equation. Once you have laid out the course to the future, it is essential for you to make it interesting in order to attract others to join you on your journey.
That is my message to you as we begin the new year of 2015. Let us approach the new year with equal parts of joy, trepidation, and anticipation. This year is laid out as a blank slate for each of us. Nothing will appear on that chalk board which is not written by you or me. Let us choose well.
Please accept my best wishes for a very safe and Happy New Year to you my fire service friends.
HARRY R. CARTER, Ph.D., CFO, MIFireE, a Firehouse.com Contributing Editor, is a municipal fire protection consultant based in Adelphia, NJ. Dr. Carter retired from the Newark, NJ, Fire Department and is a past chief and active life member of the Adelphia Fire Company. Follow Harry on his "A View From my Front Porch" blog. You can reach Harry by e-mail at [email protected].
