“If you knew you would be fighting for your life tomorrow, would you change the way you train today?”
Recently I was struck by the above quote in the e-mail signature of the highly respected trainer John Bostain. We all need to reflect on this question from a personal perspective, but we also need to modify it slightly and ask ourselves these two questions:
“If you knew you the officer you are training today would be fighting for his or her life tomorrow, would you change the way you train them today?”
“If you knew you the officer you are training today would be fighting to protect your life or the lives of your loved ones tomorrow, would you change the way you train them today?”
The questions are part of the overall philosophy of Life’s Most Powerful Question – What’s Important Now? The power of these questions is that they take you out of the mindset that this is just another day, that this is just another class like you have taught 100 times before. If you were to ask yourself this question every day before you enter the training room it will help you to understand that while it may just be another day for you, for the officers in the room it may be the day that determines whether they are the victor or victim in their next violent encounter. It may be the day that determines if they win that violent encounter and go home to their family or if they will die and become another name on the wall of a law enforcement memorial.
So, “If you knew, would you change the way you train?”
Take care.
Here is a link to a podcast on www.policemag.com about the book If I Knew Then: Life Lessons From Cops on the Street. PoliceMag.com Podcast
If you do not have a copy yet go to www.warriorspiritbooks.com and order one today.
Brian Willis
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