I am at the annual ILEETA Conference this week in Wheeling, Illinois enjoying a week of learning, personal growth, and connection. It is a week where I am reminded how much I still have to learn about training. A week where I am continually challenged to raise the bar and become a better trainer so I can more effectively train the officers I have the privilege of teaching.
During the conference I will be delivering a 2 hour presentation titled Dare to Be Great (one of 140 different classes offered during the conference) Here are a few brief insights into what I will be talking about.
Daring to be great is not about being “the best”. It is about being the best version of you that you can be. Being the best requires comparing yourself to other trainers. Being your best requires you build on your strengths and talents and seek internal motivation. Learn from others, model what they do well, but seek to be a better version of you, not another version of them.
Being the best possible version of you requires you embrace the pursuit of excellence.
Embracing the pursuit of personal excellence means that you make a commitment to always be better tomorrow, than you are today.
Fulfilling the commitment to always be better tomorrow than you are today means you have to do at least one small thing every day to make yourself better.
That one small thing can be pushing yourself a little harder in your workout, reading one chapter of a nonfiction book that will make you a more effective trainer, listening to a podcast or audio recording that will challenge you to think differently, finding one new activity to add to a course that will engage the learners and enhance their learning, beginning the process of revising one PowerPoint presentation each week based on the philosophies of Garr Reynolds and Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (2nd Edition)
The point is that you do not need to change the world, yourself or your training programs in one day, but you do need to do something every day to make yourself a little better.
On your journey to being great, take time at the end of every day to reflect on your “I Did” list and celebrate the things you accomplished that day.
Daring to be Great is a process and a journey. Make 2015 the year you commit to the journey.
When you Dare to Be Great you may just inspire some of your fellow trainers and officers to also accept the dare. It is always good to have others on the journey so you can support each other.
Thank you for what you do. What you do is critical to the law enforcement profession. What you do impacts lives. What you do changes lives and what you do saves lives. You will never know how many lives you save, but know that what you do does changes lives and save lives and for that I thank you.
Make 2015 the year that you Dare to Be Great.
Take care and always remember Life’s Most Powerful Question – What’s Important Now?
P.S. As part of the Excellence in Training membership site (coming later this spring) I will be doing a couple of webinars to dive deeper into the topic of Daring to Be Great.
Brian Willis
Winning Mind Training – Inspiring Change through Excellence in Training.
Contact me at winningmind@mac.com if you would like to host an Excellence in Training Presentation, Seminar or Course.
This spring I will be launching the Excellence in Training membership site to better serve you. Make sure you subscribe to Excellence in Training and so you can take advantage of this great opportunity as soon as it becomes available.
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