Category: Plan Your Growth

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Learned Excellence Teaches You Mental Disciplines For Leading and Winning From the Worlds Top Performers

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The new book Learned Excellence serves up a masterclass for enhancing your performance and your skills in policing or any other profession.

I’ve just read the newly released book: Learned Excellence by our own Eric Potterat, Ph.D. and his co-author Alan Eagle, and it is amazing.

Learned excellence is your eTicket to world class, high-performance, mental toughness training!

This book is going to change your life and more importantly change your quality of life.

This book is very readable and relatable. If you want to be a top performer in law enforcement or any of the emergency services, I highly recommend this book.

I’ve known Eric for a number of years. We’ve talked together, we’ve taught together, and I’ve learned a tremendous amount of information from him, but this book… Continue reading

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ATTACHED

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I recently signed up for an online, zoom-style writing course.

I am attempting to learn more about how to write with purpose and structure.

This past session, which was an hour long, focused on letting go of an outcome or agenda. I did not really understand what that meant in its entirety when applying it to writing.

As students, we heard the topic from the moderator and then began writing, without stopping, for 10 minutes. The goal is to listen to our minds, keep the pen moving and not focusing on perfection. We were instructed to focus only on what our mind was saying. Then, she reads a second topic, and we repeat the process. Just keep moving the pen and listen.

So, that is what I did or so I thought.

After the first ten minutes, we took a minute or two to finish our thoughts and get ready for the second topic.

This time, the moderator repeated the first topic, word for word, and then said, “Go.”

I sat there for at LEAST 2 minutes. Did she forget she already read this topic? Do I type her error in the chat to let her know? There are over three hundred people on this Zoom, didn’t anyone else catch that? What the heck is going on?

And then…the AHA moment.

I already had it in my head, we were doing this session the same way we had done it before.

I was attached to the outcome.

I expected a second topic.

The moderator ignored the chat comments (from all the participants) and continued forward. After the second ten-minute writing session, the moderator told us she repeated the first topic on purpose.

She gave us a live experience of what it is like to be attached to an outcome. Man, That. Was. Good!

Looking back, I recalled several ways I had been “attached!” I thought for sure I would be married at least five years before I had a child. I was pregnant within six months of my wedding. I thought for sure I would work in the medical field my entire life. I changed careers at age 34 to law enforcement. I thought for sure I would work in law enforcement for at least 20 years. I retired after 13.5 years.

The change and flow of my life… Continue reading

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Hows Your Spirit?

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So, How’s Your Spirit?

We talk a lot in law enforcement about having a strong will or inner spirit. We discuss being warriors or being brave and true, but do we really ever take time to analyze or decide if those things are true? Do we ever spend any time cultivating a true, written code of our behavior?

A lot of global history talks about the Way of the Warrior and the Code of Chivalry. If we are indeed modern Warriors should we not be driven by those same kinds of codes?

My question for you is that if you don’t have one of those kinds of doctrines in writing then the best person to write it is you! I’ll give you a head start here but… Continue reading

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We Must All Recommit To Our Communities

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Our hearts go out to the men, women and families of the Dallas Police Department as we, as a nation, mourn their loss.

At the same time we as leaders within law enforcement must all recommit to providing the best service we can to the communities within which we live and work.

We must commit to both protecting and to serving our communities
We must commit to holding ourselves to the highest standards
We must commit to fair and impartial policing
We must commit to caring for ourselves and our peers so that we may better do all of these things

This has been a horrible week… Continue reading

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On Human Stupidity and Violence

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Albert Einstein once said “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” Seems he was sure about human stupidity.

In light of recent events, it has become increasing difficult to argue against Einstein’s position. The human capacity for stupidity, especially when assessed through the observations of nearly incomprehensible human cruelty, certainly seems unlimited.

As a species, humans are an interesting lot. Collectively, we have developed sciences and created technologies that would have appeared magical just a century ago.

Modern medicine, space exploration, computer science, electronic communication, social media, and numerous other disciplines are reflective of advances that are unprecedented in the previous totality of human history. Our knowledge and accomplishments increase exponentially with every passing year. Maybe we are not so stupid after all.

But there is another side to the human equation. This side has less to do with science, technology, and achievement. This side has to… Continue reading

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The Day The Brotherhood Of Law Enforcement Died

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Catchy title eh? Well if you started to read this looking for answers you might be disappointed because this discussion is more about the questions. At this point in our profession asking the right questions may be more important than arguing about the correct answers.

Questions like: “What is the brotherhood and sisterhood of law enforcement”? and “if it existed, is it dead”?

Our profession has been under a tremendous amount of pressure and scrutiny lately, in fact the worst pressure I’ve seen in my lifetime, and I have to say that I think it will be for the best. Horrible things have happened under the watchful eyes of the cell phone camera and law enforcement officers around the country, and around the globe, are being examined like never before. Split second decisions are being captured on video so that they can be examined for years to come in all their slow motion, stop action, glory.

This is a discussion about the culture of law enforcement and if it is serving us, and our communities, or is it hindering us.

Robert “Coach” Lindsey a retired Colonel from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana, and I, will be presenting this topic next week at the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA) Conference in Chicago. We will be challenging law enforcement educators and trainers from around the globe to consider this question and all it’s ramifications. We will be challenging them to take this discussion back to their respective agencies and… Continue reading

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Rededicate Yourself To Law Enforcement

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ThinBlueLineStayStrongNow is the time to rededicate ourselves to this profession of law enforcement.

There has been a lot of turmoil in the media about law enforcement lately, and much of it is based on lack of information, misinformation and ignorance. This is the perfect time for those in law enforcement to rededicate ourselves to our profession.

It’s easy for people to misunderstand issues about the police and law enforcement when they are uninformed and under educated. It’s our job to inform them.

The vast majority of the citizens in our communities support law enforcement and understand the complexities we face, but they are the quiet majority.

We must work with our community groups to properly educate them about law enforcement training and operations. Then when we need their support for more personnel, more equipment or more… Continue reading

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Officers Need Your Prayers

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During this season of sacred and religious holidays around the globe police officers everywhere need your prayers and support.

I attended a prayer vigil this morning outside Denver General Hospital in support of Denver Police Officer John Adsit. Officer Adsit, a nine year veteran of the department, along with three other Denver PD officers where injured while riding bicycle patrol to escort a group of Denver East High School students who wanted to protest the Grand Jury verdict on the police shooting in Ferguson Missouri that took the life of Michael Brown.

The four Denver officers were escorting a group of approx. 500 high school students who were marching down a busy Denver street in protest of the Ferguson Grand Jury’s acquittal of Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson. All four bike officers were hit by a vehicle that went out of control after the driver suffered a medical emergency. Three of the officers were treated and released from the hospital but Officer Adsit is still in critical condition over two weeks after being hit by the vehicle. He has undergone numerous surgeries and has been battling infection and pneumonia.

adsitfamilyPlease support the men and women of the Denver Police Department and the Adsit family as they pray for the quick recovery of Officer John Adsit.

I raise this issue for two reasons. First, this officer and his family need your prayers and secondly the citizens of the United States need to recognize that this officer was injured protected the rights of people who were protesting against the police. I’m sure when he recovers Officer Adsit would do it all over again. That’s because he is just one of hundreds of thousands of heroes that serve their communities around the world in the role of law enforcement… Continue reading

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Thank You Kevin Gilmartin

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esflebookcoverIn the United States it’s time to celebrate our holiday of Thanksgiving whose tradition has roots to a feast of thanksgiving for a good harvest in Plymouth Colony Massachusetts in 1621, but now is utilized by many as a way to acknowledge all that we are grateful for in our modern lives.

By way of acknowledging what we in law enforcement should be grateful for, beyond the fact that we go home alive every day, I am, as you should be, truly grateful to Kevin Gilmartin, Ph.D. for all that he has done over the last several decades to bring to light all the issues about emotional survival in law enforcement. Without his lighting the path I don’t think any of us would be any closer to understanding what happens inside the psyche of this profession.

Gratitude should be an important concept in what we do today in law enforcement. If we seek it, we should be able to role-model it. Gratitude is an important building block of self-respect and community strength.

If you would like to consider what you are thankful for today CLICK HERE to download our CopsAlive Gratitude Worksheet.

Thanks are also due to Allen R. Kates, MFAW, BCECR for bringing the concept of “CopShock” and PTSD to the forefront of our minds as well as to Ellen Kirschman, Ph.D. for her loving and compassionate reminder that we are only as strong as the family that supports us in her book “I Love A Cop”.

Thanks are due to Joseph Wambaugh… Continue reading

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Happiness in Law Enforcement

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happyfaceDoes happiness play a role in law enforcement?

More importantly what are your beliefs about your own happiness?

I think these are important questions because, sometimes if we lose sight of the prize, so to speak, we lose track of ourselves. We all know that depression, suicide, cumulative stress and PTSD are very real hidden dangers of a law enforcement career. What we do about that, and how we stay focused, are the important areas for our examination here. Learning to assess and develop their own personal well-being can go a long way to protecting a law enforcement officer from the toxic side-effects of the job.

In the Armor Your Self™ How To Survive A Career In Law Enforcement training program I suggest that everyone in law enforcement, and yes that means both sworn and civilian employees, learn to strengthen and condition themselves physically, mentally, emotionally as well as spiritually. I believe that these four areas of your “self” are the areas that are vulnerable to the toxic effects of this job that… Continue reading