Monday, July 8, 2013

"I Will Give My All For....."

There is a sign above the door in the University of Tennessee football locker room. The sign reads "I Will Give My All for Tennessee Today". It is the last thing the players see as the exit the locker room and enter the tunnel to take the field. All the players touch it as they go under making a promise to give there all for their teammates, school, fans, and state on any given Saturday.

As a life long Vols fan, I have seen this sign many times. I never really thought a great deal about it until I saw it on a bumper sticker sitting at a red light the other day. As I thought more about while driving behind this vehicle, this should be us as a fire service. Are we (you) giving our all for our station, department, citizens, etc?

I am not talking about giving your life, we are all wiling to do that, its a given when you sign up for the job. I am talking about giving your very best, to the best of your ability, day in and day out for the profession. Do you come in ready for work or just show up cause its your day in the barrel? Are you checking equipment to make sure its ready to go or just assuming because it was there yesterday it is there today?

Do you come in and ho hum around, no desire to train, workout, or make sure you and your crew are ready  at the drop of a hat? Do you spend the day doing recliner Olympics? If  this sounds familiar then you are not giving your all. You owe it to your family, crew, department, citizens and most importantly yourself to make a change.

I will be the first to admit that I am pointing the finger directly at myself on this one. I am guilty of not giving my all as of late. Some things have happened that left a bad taste in my mouth, and instead of working through it I just threw my hands up and sit back. It was not what I should have done as an officer, but taking a step back allowed me to see that I was failing and not giving my very best. I have changed something's both personally and professionally, not only for my benefit but those around me.

So the question is, are you giving your all or just enough to get by? If you are doing just enough to get by, maybe you need to look for something else to do, or maybe you just need to sit down and evaluate what needs to be done and work on changing it. Like I stated before, this is mainly for me and my experience but maybe it helps someone else needing a little pick me up. We should all strive to wake up everyday and say "today,I will give my all".

Until next time, y'all stay safe