Some years back when I was responsible for fleet maintenance for my police agency, we kept track of the service life of our patrol vehicles by how many miles they had on them. Another agency I knew of tracked the service life of their patrol vehicles according to service hours. We scheduled maintenance according to miles. They performed service in accordance with service hours. Back then, everyone who worked fleet maintenance kind of thought that the “service hours” method was kind of silly. Sure, it made sense to do that for things like boats and aircraft, but police cruisers? Why? (more…)

In today’s computer age, days where you can’t look around without seeing someone on their “smart” phone, and times of everyone being connected nearly full time, the word “hack” has come to take on a whole new meaning.  It is essentially used to mean “something that makes your life easier or an easier and faster way of doing something.” I’ve seen some pretty cool hacks posted online but I often wonder how come nobody ever shares TRUE “life hacks:” hacks that actually make your life easier in the way(s) that count most.  So… I had to.  I considered it a challenge I couldn’t back away from. (more…)

From dictionary.com, the definition of “Warrior:” A person engaged or experienced in warfare; soldier. A person who shows or has shown great vigor, courage, or aggressiveness, as in politics or athletics. I would submit to you that all too often in today’s society the term “warrior” is too narrowly applied to a profession and inadequately used to describe individual outlook. However, the value of seeing one’s self as a warrior and acting accordingly is grossly undervalued and that’s what I wanted to discuss today. (more…)

Just recently on Facebook I saw a meme that was a joke. In essence it said, “Shoot for the stars because even if you only make it to the moon… you’ll still be thousands of miles away from me with your motivational BS.”  I had to laugh and share it with my friends. I wondered how many people had that outlook about the motivational stuff I try to generate and share?  I KNOW I have at least one friend who stopped following me on Facebook because, and I quote him, “You’re motivational crap every morning just turned my stomach.”  To each his own.  Some people are just determined to be negative, or aren’t happy unless they have something to complain about. (more…)

You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.  How many times have you heard THAT statement?  Better yet, how many times have you heard that statement used by someone who you believed simply didn’t want to try to teach someone something new? Or learn something new themselves?  From past experience I know for a fact that you CAN teach an old dog new tricks.  In fact, you can teach an old dog new tricks right up until you have to say goodbye to them and wonder if you’ll go get a puppy replacement. (more…)

I’ve made the observation that the older I get the more friends I have who are, seemingly all of a sudden, interested in “staying in shape.”  Yes, it is somewhat funny that “staying” implies they are already in good physical condition, and they’re not, but it’s also sad too.  For that matter, it’s far easier to stay in shape if you start focusing on it when you’re…  wait for it… IN SHAPE and at about the age of 18; or somewhere along in your teenage years.  After that you’re trying to recover the shape you know you can be in but haven’t been for years. I speak from experience here.  That said, “getting in shape” requires being in motion.  Some I know believe that unless you’re moving FAST then you aren’t moving enough to do yourself any good.  Few seem to appreciate that any motion is better than no motion and that any motion tends to increase itself over time unless we do something to stop it or slow it down.  Let me explain what I mean.

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