Saturday, March 10, 2012

Empty Police cars…



It works…
The empty police car studies have shown that people slow down when they see police cars. I know I, at least look down to the speedometer when I see one, or make sure I’m in my lane, signaling, etc.  It’s a strategy for old police cars, and ones that are spares to be used for, to impact people in how they drive. It’s not a bad strategy and it keeps us from getting tickets, so I can handle that. 
However, I don’t like the feeling of stress that comes on when I see the car and think I’m speeding, but the plan works. 
I do think that having your “breath taken away from you” should be for roller coasters and not speeding ticket fears, but again, it works.
My fail in this one is that I speed. If I never sped, then I wouldn't have fear of trouble or fear of the ticket. If I speed, I run the risk of getting a fine. If I don’t speed, I can just give a friendly wave or nod to the officer - or empty car in this case. 
I know we can’t always be fully aware of our speed and it’s certainly not the be-all, end-all of sins that we can commit, so I get it, that we will likely still speed, but it made me think about how sneaky we humans are, in general, and how we hide what we do sometimes, unless there’s an obvious punishment sitting out there.
I know we are all imperfect and we all have areas that we struggle in or with, but we still have a choice to do our best, rather than hide our faults and weak areas. 
So, when we have an opportunity to do right and our best, why do we do little, or choose the wrong way?
We don’t see the consequence, or think the consequence is minimal. If we had the negative consequence in front of us all the time, we would likely do our best in every case, because our natural fear is to avoid failure and negative results. 
We don’t really care about doing right or our best, so we hide and get away with what we can. We are normally lazy people and we just like to get by with as little as possible. This hurts, but it’s so true in us, that we give the lazy side of life more attention than the work hard side of life. It’s a simple flaw in human nature.
We think no-one will see us or find out. When little children play hide and seek, they are usually very easy to find, because they either make a noise, or they end up leaving a body part showing from under the bed, or behind the door, or under the clothing in the closet. They think if their eyes are hidden (they can’t see us) then we can’t see them. Unfortunately, we do this to, but because we are adults, we get better at hiding than our younger counterparts.
Next time you see an empty police car or one of those “Your speed is” signs, think about doing your best...
Lessons Learned: We have to choose our best in every way possible. I still struggle with not doing my best or choosing wrong, so I have to fight this every day.
Thoughts: What area have you given your all in or with? Why can’t you do that in other areas too? (BTW, I’m asking myself the same questions)

Another BTW - I drive a white Dodge Charger and I have people slow down by me all the time - I even have police officers wave at me regularly...very cool.

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