Author: Joe Lawrence
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Disagree, but don’t Disrespect
It is blatantly obvious that people are getting their feelings hurt a lot lately. Whether it is a disagreement over politics, religion, social views, affiliations with groups, or whatever the ideology; emotions are running high. This is not beneficial to anybody. It is not productive. It honestly comes across as childish. We all have opinions…
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Are you Pushing the Snooze Button on your Goals?
It is a goal of mine to read more, learn more and to mentor more each day. One way I do this is by waking up before my family so I can have some quiet time to reflect and work towards this. This morning as my alarm was going off at 0405, I hit snooze.…
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Network Effectively
Think about all of the people you have met throughout your entire life. There are probably thousands of people whose paths you have crossed. How many of these people are you still connected with? How many of them are you adding value to their lives? A quick skim of my Facebook friends and there are…
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Service Before Self?
“My EPR is coming due! I need to get some base/community service in so I can get a bullet.” Sound familiar? I wish I could say that I have never said a version of this, but I think all of us have at one point. Although serving is ultimately a good thing, we carry this…
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Whispers Turn into Screams
After I gained some experience as a leader, I realized something simple and yet profound: whispers turn into screams. Small issues can become large issues if left ignored for too long. Something that can be handled very quickly is often ignored until it becomes an emergency. Time and time again, we hear about a systemic…
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What Would the Forefathers Think of Us Today?
240 years ago some brave statesmen adopted our Declaration of Independence from the tyrannous Great Britain. Their signatures were treason and punishable by death. Their signatures and courage to stand up was a declaration of war on the most powerful nation on the planet. Have we let our forefathers down as many claim? It is…
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Leave a Legacy

When the topic of legacies arises, who comes to mind? For many, it is a former president, commander, etc. There is often very little talk about those who have the most impact in another’s life, the people who impact others on a one-on-one basis. In many families there is a lineage of veterans leading from…
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Are you a Pinger?

“We are working for a real pinger today,” were the first words out of the mouth of my Senior Airman trainer on my very first day on the flightline. He went on to explain a pinger is a person that freaks out and is bouncing from one thing to the next like a ping pong…
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Fail Forward
“Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat.” These are the words from the former Naval Aviator and best selling author, Denis Waitley. Often times we all look at failure as the end of the road and when we fall down, we do not want to get back up again.…
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Why Do We Need to Develop Professionally?

Have you ever played with a child? I have eleven nieces and nephews and two children of my own and each of them is very different. However, they all liked to play peek-a-boo when they were tiny tots. I could have hidden behind those hands and then suddenly revealed myself for hours with a giggle…
