Two veteran law enforcement trainers have launched what they hope will become an international mentoring movement for men who, they claim, are “facing more challenges and mixed messages” today than at any other time in history.
At the core of the project is a thought-provoking new book, Am I that Man?, a collaborative effort by Brian Willis, a graduate of the Force Science certification course and president of Winning Mind Training, and Ron Scheidt, lead instructor of natural response control tactics with the Community Corrections Institute and retired senior U.S. probation officer in Nebraska.
Their book, subtitled “How heroes, role models, and mentors can shape your life,” presents 31 highly personal accounts written by a wide variety of men, describing how influential individuals guided them through critical times to become the people they are today and enumerating the positive qualities they hope that they themselves are now passing along to others. More than half the contributors are or have been law enforcement professionals.
The book is designed to stimulate reflection on where you are in life, how you got there, and what you can do to build strong relationships to help others. Scheidt told Force Science News that he and Willis hope that readers will be spurred to action in three ways:
- To honor the past. “So many people have been inspirations in our lives, yet we often lose track of them over time and never thank them for their help. We hope readers will reach out to important people from their past, acknowledge their influence, and reconnect.”
- To acknowledge the present. “We need to be very grateful for what we have and to realize that we haven’t gotten there strictly on our own.”
- To invest in the future. “This is perhaps most important. Who are we investing in today with our time, our energy, and our guidance? The way to honor your own mentors is to do for someone else what has been done for you.”
Beginning in June, the messages of the book will be offered in a half-day seminar format, with Willis, Scheidt, and two former athletes who are now motivational speakers joining in the presentation. The program will be conducted June 13 in Omaha and the next day in Lincoln, NE. Other appearances will be announced later.
“The book and the seminar are about the conscious decisions you make every day as you move forward with your personal growth and development,” Willis says. “They’re about how you respond to failure, whether you pursue your dreams, and how you choose to treat other people.
“Am I that Man is really a philosophy, a way of living for men who want to make a greater impact in the world by being a better son, brother, husband, father, friend, mentor, role model, and leader.”
Although the book and seminar are aimed at men, who Scheidt says face unique pressures today, women are by no means excluded. Indeed, he says, women have driven most of the book’s sales so far. “They give it as a gift to the males in their lives,” he says, thereby perhaps delivering a message of their own in the process.
For more information, visit www.amithatman.com or contact Brian Willis at: Brian@amithatman.com or Ron Scheidt at:Ron@amithatman.com.