The Sheepdog Mindset — Part 3: Define Your Mission.

Welcome to the third in a 6-part series on cultivating The Sheepdog Mindset.

In part-2, I suggested that you conceptualize your mindset as the concrete foundation upon which you construct your personal safety and security methodology, and your orientation as the form you construct around your mindset, to contain it while it settles and hardens, and give it the correct shape for its intended purpose.

Today, I’m going to ask you to draw this analogy out a little further (please, just humour me), as we explore the next step in the cultivation of your Sheepdog Mindset — which is to:

 

Define your mission.

Okay, so if your mindset is the foundation of your methodology, and your orientation is the form that contains and shapes it, your mission should be thought of as an artist’s conception, or 3D model, of the structure you intend to construct upon that solid, purpose-built foundation.

Make sense… ? Had enough of the construction analogy yet… ? All right, all right… I’ll set it aside for now, but I reserve the right to whip it out and wave it around again next Monday.

 

“If you don’t have a plan, you become part of someone else’s plan.”

~ Terrence McKenna

 

In layman’s terms, you need to define your personal safety and security mission — what precisely you want to accomplish if/when you encounter the Wolf — so you can determine what tools you will need to acquire, what kind of training you must undertake, and which strategies, tactics, techniques and tools will be most effective and appropriate for the tasks at hand.

The first step in defining your mission, is to identify your flock — those select, special humans you feel compelled (or are legally and/or contractually obligated) to care for and protect. How do we do that… ? It’s simple; ask yourself the following questions:

For whose life would you sacrifice your own… ?

For whom are you willing to risk serious injury or prison time to protect… ? 

Whatever name(s) came flooding into your consciousness just now — that is your flock.

If you are entirely alone in this world — a flock of one — good for you; you have only your own ass to cover, and your mission is a simple one: “I will survive.”

But, if you have a family, or a few really close friends who are like family to you, guess what… ? You’ve got a bunch more asses to cover. Your flock is still likely limited to a small number of your close family members, but more asses to cover means more interests, roles and responsibilities for you to balance, and a more complex mission: “I will ensure the ongoing safety and security of my loved ones, and myself.”

Whether you’re a flock of one, or the self-appointed coverer of a small flock of asses, you should have no problem defining or articulating your mission — and that’s a good thing. In fact, that’s pretty much as good as it gets, when it comes to personal safety and security missions — because with every ass, or group of asses, we add to our flock, we increase the number of interests, roles and responsibilities we have to balance, and add another layer of complexity to our mission.

What if you have a family, but also work in the private security industry, as a close protection specialist (aka. “bodyguard”), or on a nightclub, event or corporate security team… ? If you are a professional, and take your job seriously, your flock could, at times, number in the hundreds, or even thousands — most of them complete strangers to you. How do you balance your professional mission of ensuring the safety and security of your paying clients, their guests, and their property with your personal mission of ensuring the ongoing safety and security of your family, and yourself… ?

Or, what if, like me, you’re a spouse, parent and grandparent, who makes your living as a police or correctional officer… ? On your days off, your flock may be relatively small; a dozen peeps, or so. However, when you are at work, your flock expands to include your colleagues, the Wolves to whom you have a duty of care and safe custody, and the general public, whom you are sworn to protect from the Wolves. How can anyone possibly cover that many asses… ?

Believe me, the mission of any private security or public safety professional worth his or her salary and benefits is a hot, tangled mess of interests, roles and responsibilities. I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone, but if you’re wired for this kind of mission, and lifestyle, it’s worth enduring the daily juggling act.

Bottom line: It doesn’t matter what your mission is, or how many interests, roles and responsibilities you have to balance. It only matters that you identify, understand and accept what your unique and specific mission is, and is not, and that you let your mission inform and inspire the decisions you make around your training and preparation for the day the Wolf comes.

All right, let’s bring all of this into focus with a little what-if scenario, to which most of us can relate…

You’re stuck in traffic on your way home from work. You’ve had a rough day, you’re exhausted, and your mission is to get safely home to your family. Out of nowhere, some idiot cuts you off, causing you to brake hard, swerve right, and almost hit the BMW in the lane beside you. You… are… livid. Traffic soon grinds to a halt, and you pull up right behind Mr. Idiot.

What do you do… ?

Do you lean on your horn, shout profanities, and make obscene gestures at Mr. Idiot… ? Do you get out of your car, walk up to his window, and give him a piece of your mind… ? Would you stop at your trunk to grab a tire iron… ? Are any of these responses congruent with your primary mission to ensure the safety and security of your loved ones, and yourself… ? Would these actions serve your current mission of getting safely home to your family… ?

Do you know what kind of day Mr. Idiot — a complete stranger to you — is having… ? What his mental state is at the moment… ? What kind of person he is… ? His orientation… ? His mission… ? Do you know, for certain, how Mr. Idiot will perceive and interpret your actions… ? Do you know whether or not he is armed… ? Do you know, for certain, that he won’t respond with hostile aggression, physical assault or murder… ? Are you willing to risk serious injury or death for some momentary, perceived sense of satisfaction… ?

I can’t answer these questions for your, but I will tell you what I would do in a situation like this: I’d swear at Mr. Idiot under my breath, and then I’d let it go.

My primary mission is to ensure the ongoing health, happiness, safety, security, prosperity and peace of my loved ones, and myself, but when I am on my way home from work, my immediate mission is to get safely home to my family. In both cases, my mission objectives are as follows, in order of priority:

1. Avoid the Wolf — ie. potentially dangerous people and situations — if at all possible;
2. If avoidance is impossible, escape from and/or evade the Wolf, and alert authorities;
3. If escape and evasion are impossible, engage the Wolf, resolve the threat, and alert authorities.

 

These mission objectives remain the same, whether I am alone, or with my family, and when I/we are at home, in town, or on vacation abroad. The strategies, tactics, techniques and tools I use to accomplish my mission objectives may change from one of these situations to another, but the objectives themselves — and their relative priority — never change.

It isn’t an act of weakness or cowardice to avoid confrontation, or walk away from people who offend us, and let their juvenile or hurtful actions go unchallenged; it’s an act of strength and duty; of grace and compassion. It’s putting your mission, and the needs and expectations of your flock, ahead of your own momentary, ego-driven needs and expectations.

And that, my friends, is what being a Sheepdog is all about.

( * Preacher holds microphone at arms-length, drops it, and walks off-stage * )

 

Next week, we’re going to talk about step 3 of our Sheepdog Mindset development process — ‘Establish mission parameters’.

I hope you will consider joining me. It’s gonna be a good time.

Until then, take good care — and prepare to prevail!