Are You Ready?

Does the spare tire in your trunk have enough air in it? If your heat and AC went kaput, would you have enough money in your budget to cover replacing it? If your boss asked you to step up to the plate for him in a fashion not familiar to you, would you be up for the challenge? It's time each of us asked ourselves, "Am I ready?".

I hear many people talk about stress these days. There are so many situations and pressures that cause stressors in our lives. We usually think of stressors as being negative, like a sudden death of a loved one or a rocky relationship.

However, positive events such as getting married, buying a house, school, or getting a promotion can cause stress as well. So with that in mind you could say what causes stress depends, at least in part, on your preparation for it. Something that's stressful to you may not faze someone else; simply because they have prepared for it. For example, your morning commute may make you anxious and tense because you worry that traffic will make you late. Others, however, may find the trip relaxing because they allow more than enough time and enjoy listening to music while they drive. Simple.

Being a firefighter, my job is to be ready, and I mean ready for anything. In any given moment I could be thrust into one of a million scenarios. Many of these can be very dangerous and even deadly. I'll be the first to admit that I can get lazy at times and not practice some of my firefighting skills, but if I see a guy outside a burning building fumbling with his gear because he has it on backwards, it's time to re-examine one's self.

I'm not going belabor this topic too long because we have been told to "be prepared" since the Cub Scouts. What I'm going to do is look at my life and its surroundings. I'll be looking for that monkey wrench that's about to fall into the works and just mess things up. Now one could get stressed out looking for cracks in the dam, and I have been guilty of that in the past, but my hope is to simply take a closer look into potential stress causing areas of my life, and make any adjustments. The result... hopefully a less stressful and serene lifestyle.

Won't you join me?