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| Warrior New Year |
| By Kevin E. Bedore , Canadian Federal Correctional Officer |
| Published: 12/27/2010 |
A new year approaches and the thought of another failed New Years Resolution follows closely. Instead of focusing on something specific that surely can lead to failure, why not begin a journey into the complete new?
What kind of new? How about choosing the way of the warrior? That sounds like a whole bunch of commitment, time and a bit of mystique doesn’t it? Yes it does and is. It begins with a choice. This choice is simple when you consider there are really just two options for law enforcement officers. There are warriors and victims. Just keep doing what you are doing and not care about yourself and the people you are duty bound to protect and you will one day likely become the victim. If you have chosen life and to live it to the fullest being willing to offer yours for someone else’s, you are choosing the path of the warrior. The warriors of past originate from the military roots of our civilization. A person at war by definition is a warrior. The warriors that have throughout history fought for the quality of life and freedom’s we enjoy today knew the importance of choosing life. They many times gave up theirs or vital parts of, to offer you the life you are living right now. In continuing the legacy of our warrior ancestors, we as correctional officers are very much in a war against evil. These are the predators that attempted and sadly in far too many cases succeeded harming the society and people in it we love most and are sworn to protect. The so called bad guys of society are committing crimes and perfecting their attack. Prison, despite the well-wishing often times doesn’t make an offender a better rehabilitated person – only a more skilled predator. Violence is growing by epidemic proportions inside our prisons. The offenders are educating themselves on vulnerabilities and becoming more dangerous by exploiting identified weaknesses. In the war we fight as law enforcement officers we must realize that the offenders on the streets and in the prisons are training constantly by their continued criminality perfecting the attack with more aggression and planning. What about us? Sitting in front of the TV playing video-games or other time wasters is not bringing you closer to the warrior-hood that all officers should be striving to achieve if they want to win deadly confrontations and fully enjoy long healthy lives. If we want to win we need to take the time to prepare for the situation which could change all things in our lives and the people we love. At a conference I attended some time ago a very skilled trainer, Brian Willis talked about the concept of the “Ten Minute Warrior". It was genius. His plan simplified was that all officers need to devote ten minutes each and every day of their lives to bettering their warrior skills. This is daily training that can be anything from firearms training on a shooting range to scenario rehearsal visualizations in the privacy of your own mind with any number of other valuable ‘mini trainings’ in between. Reading is one of the finest ways to increase your skill set and ten minutes of warrior related reading can be done even with the most hectic schedules – no excuses! Finding ten minutes a day to work on your warrior craft is a small investment that will pay off to you, your family, organization and society as a whole many times over. These extremely abbreviated daily training commitments over and over lead to an incredibly valuable and thorough training experience over the long run. It is a priceless form of assurance that unlike the failed resolutions of New Years past can be just the thing needed to begin the journey toward warrior-hood or renew your warrior commitments you have already made. Though being a very broad change it is the best one you could ever wish for and one that will never fail you this New Year and the many to come over the course of your life time. Editor's note: Corrections.com author, Kevin E. Bedore has 28 years experience in law enforcement, 23 as a Canadian Federal Correctional Officer. He began writing as a form of personal therapy to combat the negative effects that the correctional environment was having on him. He then realized that he had discovered something truly amazing that definitely needed to be shared with other officers facing the same challenges he had. "...All law enforcement and military personnel face unique challenges that many times are not completely understood by the people that they seek to protect and in this confusion there often is a compromise to the emotional well-being of these 'guardian-protectors of society'..." Other articles by Kevin Bedore |
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