Knock Knock time to get up!
This is the US Navy wake up call – Reveille.
Well this is not the kind of wake up call we’re talking about today.
However, it is a blessing that we often don’t appreciate enough, to wake up and be alive each and every day.
I’m asking you if in your entire life up until now, have you ever had a wake up call?
A tap on the shoulder saying to you – “do you see what’s going on here? Something has to change or this is not going to end well.”
Yes and it may not just be a tap on the shoulder.
It may be more like a BONK! on your head or right between your eyes! Screaming WAKE UP!
This may be a career or work related awakening.
It may have been something that happened in your personal life with your family or friends.
In my life so far I’ve experienced a few wake up calls. Some were clear as day and yes, these were wake up calls that changed my behavior and probably saved my life. You heard that right – more than once and saved my life.
Thankful isn’t a strong enough word.
Others I either didn’t recognize as wake up calls or was in total denial and didn’t act on them until many years later. Never a good thing.
One incident took place at sea on a supertanker. I’ll summarize the story here, however, the full story is one I share from the stage as a professional speaker or at times in a workshop or training.
Some repairs needed to be made to a valve control down inside a tank. The tank was empty and had been washed and then ventilated for over 24 hrs. As the Chief Mate I was in charge of the entire operation and would be the person entering the tank to conduct the repairs.
A couple of different detection monitors are utilized to test the air quality inside the tank before someone enters the tank to go down 90 ft. climbing a series or ladders and steps to get to the bottom. Just as we were starting to test the air quality in the tank someone called me on the walkie talkie and they needed me to check on another project back aft.
I said let’s wait and let me see what’s going on there.
The two experienced seaman helping me said don’t worry about it we’ll run the air checks while you go there.
Fast forward now – my wake up call was always Inspect What You Expect. I was almost gassed to death down in that tank!
So my question to you is have you had a wake up call?
Would you like to share it in the comments?
What happened? What did you change?
Mitch Tublin is an entrepreneur and founder of Wenkroy International LLC, a boutique consulting company with a main focus of adding value to people. Through speaking, training and coaching clarity is achieved and distractions are reduced. People now focus on what matters most. My passion is to take people to the next level in their life and in their career and business.
