It’s there. We see it and know it but won’t acknowledge it. A sports figure has had a hall-of-fame career, but time has a way of slowing them down.
With time no longer on his side, he begins to bounce from one team to another, often going from being the star to the second unit, maybe begins playing a different position, begins making errors on routine plays, gets fewer at-bats, doesn’t carry the ball as often, not called upon when the score is tight. Many former stars “hang around one season too long.” Everyone but the athlete sees what he doesn’t, namely that it’s time to retire!
In executive protection work, the calculus is similar. When do we recognize that the time has come to step back and let the younger protectors carry the load? Years of stress, tension, standing long hours, traveling city to city, state to state, or country to country, adjusting to changing time zones, eating irregularly, sleeping on a limited time, and little or no time for mental and physical relaxation.
All this happens year after year, as the personal chronological time clock ticks away, turning a finely tuned, enthusiastic, protective mind and body into a robotic figure that works from memory and habit. The job is routine; he has seen and done it all.
What is said about police work is also true of protectors; they begin their career with enthusiasm, eating, sleeping, and talking about the excitement, job satisfaction, brotherhood, and bonding with other officers.
By most accounts, it takes approximately five years for a police officer to become fully accomplished, knowledgeable, and experienced. By that time, they have witnessed every aspect of crime, violence, and the entire downside of society and humanity. However, they have also experienced the thrills and highs of helping those in need, be they victims, mental patients, or lost tourists.
After five years, everything they do is repeated. In other words, in a twenty-year career, they have five years’ experience times four. Year after year, the excitement and enthusiasm fade, they might even become bored and cynical with work, only enduring the routine while looking forward to retirement.
A protector is like that fading star athlete and the cynical police officer, after about five years, they have been everywhere and secured every type of venue, and met more celebrities, politicians, and successful, wealthy businesspersons than they would ever have dreamed of. The assignments have become routine.
The initial years are an upward learning curve; everything is a new experience filled with excitement and adrenaline-pumping moments. After that, they are gaining versions of those experiences over and over, with the only things that are changing being the names, faces, and venues.
Almost imperceptibly the human body changes, and what was once a highly physically trained individual slides to less fitness. The feet become achy, the back pain becomes unbearable, legs get tired easily, breathing comes with huffing and puffing, running is difficult, the stomach muscles have expanded to begin hanging over the beltline, the mind becomes forgetful and mistakes, though minor and unnoticed by others, happen more often, fatigue and complacency result in overlooking some details, and family and social life have suffered, and personal friendships are limited to primarily others in the protector brotherhood.
The buzz has worn off, but like a working farm horse, the protector wakes up every morning and goes on and on… One day, they realize the hours drag longer and the days are routine chores. Along with all this, attitudes change when they realize they are doing the job only for the dollar rewards.
They begin to question their purpose and mission but also their own capability to uphold their commitment to the highest principles and peak awareness that was once their pride in performing a necessary service in providing a safe and secure environment for others. It is a personal decision of when to say, “the time has come to step aside.” However, it is a law of nature that all warriors eventually must lay down their arms.
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