Consistency and Mixing Things Up
Routine can be a wonderful thing.
Every morning you wake up and you know basically what your day holds for you.
Your coffee maker is programmed and by the time your feet hit the kitchen floor, you’re being embraced by that delightful caffeinated smell.
Breakfast and maybe a quick glance at the news and you’re on your way to work.
Emails, voicemails, follow ups. Reports, conversations by the water cooler, talking about your past weekend and discussing plans for things ahead.
More coffee, more mundane. The ebb and flow of the day is ever the same and sometimes thats not a bad thing.
Even in security, we become complacent.
While security is there for a reason, ideally those reasons never come to fruition, leaving us often as stationary as the furniture around us. Always watching and waiting but never having to react. Moving with the tides of life, barely making a blip on the radar.
This gentle rhythm allows us to live our life without the element of surprise. Constantly knowing what to expect and never having to worry about the unexpected.
Always having an idea of where you’re going to be and when, allows you to plan ahead. Make arrangements, and keep the ripples to a minimum.
From a planning and scheduling perspective – consistency can be a dream. Having the same team for the same places that you can rotate through cuts down on a lot of the decision making process.
Having a team that knows layouts and arrangements, processes and systems – it makes things easier for everyone.
There is a downside however. What if your a-team isn’t available? Having all these perfect people in the perfect place is great – until it doesn’t work.
Next you’re subbing in people that aren’t as in tune with the others, the systems or anything.
Its not the end of the world, but it may not always be ideal either.
This is where mixing things up sometimes helps.
Cross training is always a good thing. Ensuring you have a back up team that may not be as well versed as the originals, but can act and play the part.
Knowing everything isn’t always important. A willingness to learn, acting with confidence, and a professional demeanour can still get you to where you need to be.
Complacency can be a wonderful thing. But it makes the element of surprise sometimes that much more difficult to handle. It can be stressful for some.
Mixing things up every once in a while can in the end, sometimes take the edge off.
Variety can be the spice of life.
Mixing things up keeps you on your toes. It doesn’t mean that your life has to become a chaotic ball of stress. It doesn’t mean that every day has to be so different from the last that things become a nightmare.
There can be a happy medium.
Have a general routine. Keep that coffee pot programmed so that you wake up to the smell of a hot cup of coffee.
Have a job that keeps you with a circle of people – a team – that supports you. But if an aspect of the job has you running in a different direction one day, embrace it.
Take the opportunity to explore. Learn new things, meet new people. Try things you’ve never done before.
It could very well be that there is a better fit. Or perhaps the better fit is keeping things mixed up. Not specializing in one thing but learning many things. Expanding and growing and keeping yourself on your toes.
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.
