Welcome to 2023! Now that I’ve gotten that overly excited (see that exclamation point?) greeting out of the way, let’s get a bit more realistic: welcome to a new year; a year full of as much potential as every previous year you’ve experienced. This year holds as much chance of good, bad, lucky, sad, healthy, sick, etc. as every other year of your life and career. The question I have for you is: what will you do with this year? Let’s talk about resolutions for just a moment.
I’ve never been a big believer in setting finite New Year resolutions. In other words, “I’m going to lose 10 pounds this year,” or, “I’m going to learn a new language.” Such goals have term limits. Once you’ve lost the weight, then the resolution terminates. Was your goal with that language to become fluent? Or just know enough for that cruise you’re taking? I’m a big believer in resolutions that aim for improvement but don’t have finite goals.
Where law enforcement is concerned, I think we need to make some resolutions around our profession. At the personal level, improve yourself: physically, mentally, emotionally and professionally. Eat a bit cleaner. Exercise a bit more. Monitor your blood pressure and weight. Improve your mental and emotional health. Make sure you have focused time to relax. Engage your support system people on a more regular basis. Make sure the job isn’t eating away at you physically, mentally or emotionally. Engage your spiritual support folks within your belief structure. Professionally, improve yourself with training. Aim to double the minimum requirements in 2023. Commit to engaging your community more and to improve your communications with them. Commit to increasing and practicing your officer survival skills, risk awareness and mitigation.
Editor Paul Peluso and I discussed New Year Resolutions as related to law enforcement and you can listen to that podcast here: officer.com/21273108. It’s about 20 minutes long, so perfect for when you’re parked trying to eat your lunch in between calls.
You’ll notice that this issue is for both January and February of this year. OFFICER Magazine has moved to a six-issues-per-year publication schedule, so we’ll only be publishing every other month. Don’t forget to visit Officer.com to find all of our other content to include videos, news, podcasts, columns and more. Our Officer Virtual Academy (https://virtualacademy.officer.com) continues to grow and, as this is typed, over 1,800 officers have taken training through it. The feedback has been very positive and we look forward to adding more courses this year as well.
So… Happy 2023. Stay safe. Stay alive. Stay healthy.
