Mastering your Trade
Learning a new skill can be overwhelming. Intimidating even.
We start to learn something we’ve never done before. Depending on the skill, this could be something that leads us to fail numerous times before we even begin to show hope of succeeding.
Now you may think that failing numerous time would have you pushed into something else quite quickly – however – we’ve all learned things where we failed numerous times before being successful.
As babies, we’re quite helpless. It takes a lot of growing, eating, learning, and more growing before we really start making some big noticeable progress.
We learn to walk at the end of the baby stage and the brink of the toddler stage.
Sure. To some this might not quite seem like a skill, however there are a lot of people that for various reasons can’t walk. And there are a lot of on the brink toddlers that are trying their hardest to master this new found skill.
Learning to walk is one of the biggest first skills all of us ever have to master. And I’d like to say almost none of us push ourselves up off the floor in one go and just set off walking.
It takes a lot of trial and error. A lot of learning balance, stability, and trust.
All of these little things that we could apply to any skill we learn later in life.
Trust being a main one.
A skill isn’t mastered until you yourself trust what you are doing, and others trust your abilities.
If you’re learning to walk and don’t believe you can do it yet, then most likely you’ll have issues with balance, you’ll hold on to things a lot, and there will be a lot of wobbling.
Once you gain the confidence, you begin to master walking. From there (much to most parents dismay) Running follows closely behind.
We take the opportunity of mastering one skill, and applying it to higher goals.
Without even realizing it, toddlers are really setting the pace for their future selves.
Once we’re up and walking, and running, we’re taking a look to see what we can conquer next.
We’re at a whole different eye level now so things are newer – bigger – and brighter. There is more to explore and our thirst for more starts to grow.
Not only this, our independence starts to grow.
As soon as we learn to do something on our own, we want to see what else we can do.
Feeding ourselves, dressing ourselves, developing an imagination, developing an opinion, potty training.
Our first years of life we spend entirely evolving, growing, and mastering skills.
So why do we tend to settle?
I guess at some point we learn the definition of ‘enough’. And what ‘enough’ means to us as individuals. Complacency and happiness play a huge role.
Don’t fix what isn’t broken.
But that doesn’t mean you can take something – or someone – and make improvements.
I’m a huge believer in there is no such thing as perfect.
If everything was perfect, you couldn’t make it better.
There would be no ‘what ifs’ or ‘if only’. A pillow is a pillow and thats it. The same pillow isn’t good enough for everyone so there is therefore no such thing as the perfect pillow.
If we find ourselves in our trades feeling complacent, that doesn’t mean we have to find a different career. It just means we have to look forward to see how we can make ourselves better at what we do.
More efficient, knowledgeable, cross trained.
There are always options.
In security, there are many different faucets. If you’re great at watching a door and thats how you want to spend your life – then great. But if at one point someone says that the camera watches the door, or the threat isn’t great enough, how else can you make yourself viable?
Cross training into different aspects of security isn’t just making yourself good for the company, you’re making yourself good for YOU.
While you want to think of your company as an extension of your family, you still have to ensure that your needs are being met.
Making yourself invaluable by mastering – or attempting to master – new skills, will make you someone that is worth keeping. You’re showing that you have an interest, you’re keen to expand your knowledge, and you’ll be able to help out in multiple situations.
Its a win – win – win.
If taking on another skill sounds scary, remember that at one point you had to literally drag your entire body around on the floor. And now you’re up on two feet walking, running, driving, and taking on the world.
Anything is possible.
Guest Blogger Rayna Davies
Rayna Davies is a graduate and practitioner of Business Management. She has developed an expertise in blogging, covering subjects like travel, world events and security. Having grown up with a father who has developed an expertise in Physical Security and Executive Protection in the RCMP and two major corporations, she has personally observed and 
experienced many security details. These experiences have included personally meeting HM Queen Elizabeth, Prime Minister Jean Chretien and many celebrities. She presently assists Sentinel Security in Executive Protection workshops and guest blogging and also assists Gloprosec Preventative Services in Intelligence gathering and Business Administration. Her passions include World travel, having visited every continent.
