In today’s modern society law enforcement, military, and first responder personnel need to treat themselves like warrior athletes. An athlete is somebody who eats, sleeps, trains, rests, does everything in their life motivated and focused on gaining the absolute best they can out of themselves in every situation. As a police officer, soldier or first responder, you have to do the same thing. These days it’s not enough to just do what you need to do to get by. Society’s becoming more and more violent, offenders and combatants are becoming more and more sophisticated, so therefore you need to be on top of your game. If you were a professional NBA athlete being paid millions of dollars, you would do everything it took to stay at the top of your game. Your life is worth you doing everything that you possibly can to stay at the top of your game, to protect yourself, protect the other operators around you, protect society and most importantly go home to your loved one’s safe every night.
As a police officer, soldier or first responder, your responsibility is, 1. To yourself, 2. To your team and 3. To your loved one’s. You need to be eating, sleeping and training to improve everyday. You must be doing everything you possibly can to make sure you have the best chance of survival, and the best chance of victory in every situation that you encounter. It is no longer okay for you to be somebody who eats highly processed foods, doesn’t sleep well, doesn’t look after themselves, drinks excess amounts of alcohol, is unhealthy, unfit and overweight, because you will not survive. At best you will be physically or mentally injured, at worst you may lose you’re your life or cause the loss of someone else’s life close to you. The preparedness that you’ve put into yourself to be the best tactical athlete you can be will be the difference between success or catastrophic failure. As crazy as this may sound, and as challenging as it may be to treat yourself like a warrior athlete, you have no choice. There is no other option other than to be focused and committed to being the best version of you you possibly can.
When that moment comes when you rely on all of your instincts, your mental clarity, your physical fitness, and your resilience to survive, and/or save another person’s life, then you will wish you had done everything you could to be prepared. By the time you’re in the incident, you’re in the fire fight, you’re in the fight or you are struggling with the offender for your life, it’s too late. The plan that you put in place now, and the time that you spend now, dedicated to being the best warrior athlete you can be will pay dividends tomorrow, next week, next month or whenever that situation and critical incident occurs where your life’s in the balance. Look after yourself like a warrior athlete. Treat yourself like a professional. Do everything you possibly can to look after you and look after those around you. Most of all, stay safe.
