Chesapeake Environmental Management, Inc.

Perhaps this is a subject you have thought of recently, as most annual reviews typically occur at the end of one calendar year, or the beginning of another.  How are these reviews done at your place of employment?  If you are like most people, you were “graded” on how well you did in the past year, and kindly “asked” to focus on some shortcoming of yours.  I find this practice of asking people to shore-up deficiencies ridiculous.  Fact is, everyone of us possesses a unique combination of strengths.  These are the areas where you should focus your energies, because these are the areas where you can make exponential progress.  Focus on your weaknesses, and you may make progress, but it will be incremental.  To use a basketball analogy (it is March Madness, afterall), what coach in his right mind would ask his best 3-point shooter to focus most of his energies on passing?  Ask yourself, am I focusing on my strengths or my weaknesses.  If it’s your weaknesses, make a deal with yourself to get to the point of competency, and then set it aside.  Pour the rest of your energies into your strengths and see where you are next March.

I love the month of December, because for us it is the season of giving. This is when we crunch our numbers and determine how much money we are able to share with our staff. Whatever the number, it is always a reflection on how well we have served our clients – no matter what the state of the current economy might be. This is also the time when we determine how much we will be able to share with non-profits who aim to improve the human condition. This giving will be in addition to what we have already given this year. So far, we have donated a microscope to a local school, participated in a group build for Harford Habitat for Humanity, donated to the Boy Scouts of America as a tribute to our departed friend, Roni Chenowith, contributed to the Fred & Joan Ward Scholarship Endowment at Towson University, and participated in a Career Day at Aberdeen Middle School, to name just a few. As John Bunyan once said, “You have not lived today successfully, unless you’ve done something for someone who can never repay you.” It truly makes all the hard work worthwhile indeed.

November brings us Election Day. It is incomprehensible to me how so many Americans do not vote on Election Day. There have been so many who have sacrificed so greatly to ensure that we have that right. Our founding fathers sacrificed their lives, businesses, families and homes to secure that right. President Lincoln was assassinated because he suggested that blacks should be given that right. Women were imprisoned and beaten for daring to ask for that right. Blacks and whites were murdered trying to exercise that right. So much sacrifice, so much courage, all to ensure that we have the freedom to choose our own government. On Election Day, when I go to the polls, I reflect for a moment, thinking about all those that have gone before me and sacrificed so greatly so that I might have this privilege. I silently thank them. And, then I honor their gift to me in the best way I know how…I cast my vote.