It goes without saying that if you love what you do for a living, it never seems like work. What a blessing it is to go to work every day but it does not feel like it’s a job. Enjoying what you do can obviously make the day go by faster, the tasks easier, the people fun, and the overall experience better. Do those around you at work see you as an example?
We have all worked with that person that is miserable to be around. They complain about everything and never seem to enjoy any aspect of the job. It makes you wonder why they are there. You just want to say, “Life is too short to be that unhappy at work”! The bad thing is that they rub off on others, and can actually influence those around them. Pretty soon you have a large group of difficult people to work with. Have you ever been in that boat?
Now, picture that person you have worked around that was always upbeat and happy about things, they never even had to be doing something fun. They were just happy about it and made the best of it. This person always had positive things to say and their attitude was great. It seemed like they actually enjoyed everything they did at work, even the difficult tasks. They did not talk bad about others and they did not complain about things, they just always appeared happy. This was the person others wanted to be around.
Which one of the above do you want to be? How do you want to be thought of by others? Here are the fundamentals, we are only as good as we train and prepare. We cannot be the guy that thinks we will simply rise to the occasion because we are “gun-toters”. We have all seen the officer that is not what he claims to be. Take full advantage of training, training is the link between how we will respond when the real stress occurs, training prepares us to respond effectively.
Be the guy that others will align themselves with when bad things happen, because you have prepared yourself for the high stress event. Those calls that cause the physiological changes to our body, depend on our preparation. That officer that trains outside his comfort zone, the one that goes beyond his training expectation, the thinking operator that knows lives depend on how he responds, or does not respond is the officer that will default to his level of training, which is a great thing if he has prepared.
Be the warrior because you have prepared for it. Be the leader because you trained for it. Be the protector because God called you to it. Be the example.