I Don’t Talk About This Too Much
I don’t talk about being a cop much.
It’s almost a totally separate life that I live apart from being a business owner, husband and father.
It’s a very unique career to say the least.
I consider it a “9-5” or “W2”, but it’s kind of on another level than that.
This is a career that most enter having wanted to be cops since they were little.
It’s a calling for many.
There’s a para military aspect to it with very defined superiors and a chain of command.
We often are “volun-told” for things that we really don’t have a choice in. We do… but we don’t. IYKYK
We see things that people shouldn’t ever have to see and then we need to compose ourselves and handle the next call like nothing happened.
We know that people hate us and want to hurt us, but we still have to engage with the community like it’s all hunky-dory.
But as unique as this career is, all of us are still just humans trying to make a living
I sat at a lunch table the other day watching as overtime texts came through and everyone scrambled to grab shifts.
At the same time, they’re verbalizing how burned out and exhausted they are and how they just want to be home with their families.
And don’t even get me started on retirement.
That's the golden handcuffs that keep people here. But then you get closer and closer to the retirement day and you realize that it’s not what you thought it would be.
You put your 35 years in….and then have to apply for the county jail where you can work another 10. Just to get by.
Being in your 50s doesn’t sound old, but being in your 50s as a cop is a different kind of old. We age differently in this career.
Why am I telling you this? Because this is part of my story here. And for some of you, it might resonate a bit.
Maybe it’s not the same career, but it is a career that you know you’re not meant to be in another 20 years and you’re trying to figure a way out.
Maybe you’ve started to see people promote and completely burn out and you don’t want ANY part of that life.
Maybe you’re starting to see people retire and BARELY be able to stay afloat financially…
Maybe all of it. Maybe you’ve already made the leap and you’re still trying to figure it out.
If any that is you, you’re not in this alone.
I’m right here with you building the bridge out and sharing the blueprint as I go.