The Power of Self Control

One time while working in EMS, my partner and I placed a BIG patient in the ambulance. This man was unconscious (or seemed to be). We couldn't figure what was wrong with him. His vitals looked fine, blood sugar looked good, and he showed no signs of any distress. The fire fighters were at the scene first, but once they helped us get this big guy in the ambulance, there was no further need for the fire fighters. My partner and I were left alone.

Then suddenly, the patient started going wild! He started yelling, mouth wide open where I could see all his teeth. This dude was big enough to have me for dinner! My first inclination was to run out of the ambulance to protect my life. However, my crazy partner just stood in front of the patient (who was still on the stretcher) and demanding that the patient calm down.

Dang! I wanted to leave the ambulance, but I couldn't abandon my partner. So, I stood behind the patient and near our portable oxygen tank. I was ready to use this tank to smash the patient if I needed to.

But as I saw that the patient wasn't getting up and throwing fists at us, I calmly went to my radio and calmly asked communications to send the police. My voice was calm, but you could hear the patient screaming and hollering in the background.

In no time, the fire fighters who helped us were racing back to the ambulance with lights and sirens. They heard my call for the police on their radios. Those fire boys jumped onto the back of the ambulance to help us restrain the patient. Shortly after the fire guys came back, the police showed up on scene and hopped in the back as well.

During this entire time, nobody, including me, lost any self control. From calmly radioing communications to get help to properly restraining the patient without beating him up, self control was practiced the entire time. I didn't run out of the ambulance, I didn't scream on the radio, my partner and the fire fighters didn't start beating up on the patient, and the police didn't go taser happy on the patient.

We went to the hospital, discharged the patient, and returned to base in one piece.

Had we lacked self control, that entire situation could have gone wrong. I could have abandoned my partner and the patient might have attacked my partner. The fire fighters and the police could have easily knocked the patient senseless and we would have been on the news. But because of self control, that entire scene was nicely managed and no one was hurt...or sued.

Long story, I know, but it shows the power of self control. Whenever I teach my CPR classes, I expressed that you could make an emergency into a non-emergency by simply being calm -- that is, having self control over the situation. You don't let the situation control you: YOU control the situation.

When you practice self control, not only could you think clearly, but you could better handle ANY situation in your life no matter how dire it looks.

At my church, a member was teaching a self defense class. One of the things he went over was NEVER let anybody kidnap you. If someone is holding a gun to your head or a knife at your throat, don't let that person take you anywhere -- because once he or she kidnaps you, your chances of survival is slim.

Our natural tendency in such situations is to do whatever the person tells us. But self control would tell you to say no to the kidnapper. The kidnapper most likely won't want to get caught, so instead of staying and fighting with you, he or she may just simply run without any harm done to you. Self control prevented you and your family any heartache. But lacking self control and doing whatever the man or woman tells you would start a long series of concerns for you and your family, and the story may still end up bleak.

Self control is all about discipline. Naturally, NOBODY has self control. You would do whatever you feel like doing it. But self control comes with lots of discipline -- and it's this kind of discipline that puts power into your hands.

If someone insults you, your natural tendency is to insult back and you would make a benign situation into a bad one. But once you practice self control and hold back your insults, you would have just cut short that situation and you would have avoided any further problems.

Someone hits you, your natural tendency is to hit back. But if you do, a fight would happen and you could end up dead. But with self control, you could hold back your pride and walk away with no further damage.

With raising kids, you really need to practice self control, especially if you have old school values of parenting. Kids get you mad and you would want to spank them for everything, or put them in time out for everything, or just scream at them for the littlest things. With self control, you could learn to justly punish your kids for their crimes in a way that would teach them to know better the next time. With me, I want the punishment to be a teaching lesson. I don't care to punish my kids simply because I'm mad -- that would be losing self control.

Driving a car is about self control. You are driving a weapon! If you get irresponsible with the car, you could kill someone -- like you, another driver, a pedestrian, etc. With self control, you could drive from home, to work, to the store, and back home without ending up on the news.

How much self control do YOU have?

Your natural tendency is to do or say what immediately comes to mind. But with self control, you could train yourself to choose what actions you'd take or what words you'd use.

Self control is a discipline that teaches you what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. It teaches you what to say, when to say it, how to say it -- or more importantly, IF you need to say anything!

When you're exercising, you definitely have to practice self control. When I tried out for fencing back in high school, I went to training for just ONE day and quit. The exercises were too hard. Instead of taking the pain and trusting that I would get better and better, I decided to punk out like the weak, chubby kid I was.

Self control gives you power! It helps you control the situation. It helps you direct your steps. When you lose self control, you could end up losing everything  -- like your money, your family, your job, and even your life.

Before you FEEL that you have to do anything, stop and think. Before you FEEL that you have to say anything, stop and think. Before you FEEL anything that makes you think a certain way -- stop and think. Don't do or say the first thing that comes to mind. Practice self control in your life so that you could have control in your life.