As a Police Officer Who is Your Inspiration?

More importantly as a cop who do you inspire?

I just finished reading, well listening to Dr. Wayne Dyer’s newest book: “Inspiration: Your Ultimate Calling” and found the book to be in itself very inspirational.  The book is very spiritual and that may turn some of you off but it is worth reading and if you are not ready for it now, you will be someday.

I said I read it well actually I listened to the audio book first through my account at Audible.com and then as I do with many books I bought the hard cover copy so that I could actually see the words.  I don’t know about you but I’m in the car a lot and most times can digest educational materials better if I listen to them and that’s why I have an annual membership with Audible.com so that I can just download the mp3 files to my iPod and play them in my car or when I’m working out.  But if I really want to learn and remember something I also buy the book so that when I’m listening to something, usually for the second time, I can turn to that page in the book and review the concept and remember them better for having seen them.  This works much better if the author is mentioning a chart, graph or even website or address.

Anyway back to my question to you who inspires you?  I recently attended the Concerns of Police Survivors seminar “Traumas in Law Enforcement” and found myself inspired by all of the speakers.  The survivors of law enforcement deaths have so much to teach us about ourselves and we need to learn.  They have risen above the tragedies that have changed their lives and have moved to a place where they can use their experiences to inspire others to improve the way we do things in law enforcement and policing.

But I also asked who do you inspire?  Do you ever notice all the people staring at you when you are in uniform?  We see the little kids but sometimes don’t want the adults watching us.  I’m sure some of those people might think ill of the police but most of them don’t know what to think of us and maybe we do need to be a little more conscious of the ability we have to inspire people to have faith in us to respect us and even to support us when something happens that give others doubt about the police.

U.S. President John Quincy Adams was quoted as saying “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

If you are looking for quotes on Inspiration and other leadership topics you might checkout http://www.worldofinspiration.com/

I agree with Dr. Dyer when he describes inspiration as being our choice.  You have a choice to be an inspirational person and you have a choice about being an inspiration as a police officer.  You can inspire trust within our communities and you can inspire others to become better cops.  You can inspire courage, integrity and pride in others and you can be what all cops should be and that’s a leader for our communities.

If the concept of inspiration intrigues you you might find this short list by Michael Angier entitled the “Top Ten Ways to Inspire Others to Be Their Best” to be very helpful.   Or you might find this article on management from the Management Craft Blog entitled “Ten Ways to Inspire Others” to be useful.

In any case Dr. Dyer also points out that to be inspired is to be in spirit and you might want to explore that concept as well.

If you are like me and would rather listen to a book than read it you can learn more about Audible.com by Clicking on the BUY link

Inspiration: Your Ultimate Calling There’s a voice in the universe calling each of us to remember our purpose, our reason for being here now, in this world of impermanence….

or you can check out Dr. Dyers book on Amazon.com by CLICKING HERE.