What’s Your Resolution?

By Bill Chatfield, CFD, MSBO Board President, Director of Operations, Walled Lake Consolidated Schools

I’ve never been one to make New Year’s resolutions. My thinking was, no matter the grandiose goal, if life gets in the way and it gets put on the back burner, it sets the stage for the rest of the year. Who wants to go through the next 11 months knowing your one resolution was a failure in the first month?

However, if ever there was a new year that needed a resolution, 2021 is that year. Most in the business of educating kids would concur that 2020 has been extremely challenging and the sooner we can move past it, the better. Having an optimistic resolution for 2021 is completely appropriate and understandable, and nobody will fault you for trying to make 2021 better, even if you come up a bit short.

Before I forget, yes, that’s me in that hairy faced picture. I know what you’re thinking – the year of COVID was rough on me. True, but what started as a solidarity beard for a coworker who had the virus earlier, it has morphed into an excuse for a fall and now winter face warmer.

As people adapted to the personal and work place changes that resulted from the virus, folks found some of those changes to be helpful and beneficial. Perhaps this is where we could start researching resolutions for 2021. In several zoom meetings, I’ve asked groups what they hope remains permanent as a result of the virus (I also asked what they hope goes away to never return, but we’ll save that for another time). Here is a summary of things folks hope remain:

The ability and flexibility to work from home for convenience or need.
Having the ability to tell people to mute themselves.
Acceptance of less formal clothing in the workplace.
Community members showing support for their hometown businesses.
Coworkers not knowing what you’re wearing below the waist during meetings.
Taking breaks during meetings to tend to the garden.
Working at home along with my spouse and taking breaks together.
People in public staying six feet away.
Folks in my department being understanding and compassionate with each other.
Playing with my dog during meeting breaks.
The ability to smoke a cigar during a meeting.

Whether you start with this list or develop your own, please take the time to find the silver linings of 2020 and use them to resolve to have a fantastic 2021. I hope everybody has a restful, healthy and joyful holiday season and a rejuvenating, prosperous 2021.

My resolution? I’m going to shave. Unless I don’t.

What’s Your Resolution?

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