What Crime Scene Work Taught Me About Making Decisions You Can Live With
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Some moments don’t wait for clarity.
They don’t pause to let you gather your thoughts, phone a friend, or draw up a pros and cons list.
They come in hard, loud, and messy.
And all you’ve got is yourself.
Your training.
Your gut.
Your experience.
And your ability to make a decision that won’t keep you up at night.
That’s what this is about.
Not making perfect choices.
Making decisions you can live with.
The Scene That Changed the Way I Work
Just after midnight. Raining sideways.
The kind of winter night where even your bones feel wet.
I was first into the scene.
Serious assault. Possibly attempted murder.
Somewhere remote. No cover. No lighting. No backup.
The police had already secured the perimeter.
It was now my job to take it from there.
The ground was soaked.
Blood in the gravel.
Clothing scattered.
A phone half-buried in the mud, screen flickering.
And the growing awareness that this scene was actively degrading by the second.
No textbook prepares you for that.
You train for protocol.
You train for best practice.
But in that moment, you’ve got to act.
And you don’t get a pause button to second guess yourself.
Responsibility Isn’t a Buzzword. It’s a Weight You Carry
I stood there for a second, rain dripping from my hood, thinking:
If I hang about, critical evidence could be gone.
If I rush in without thinking, I could compromise the scene.
Nobody else was going to make that decision.
This was mine.
Not just to get it done.
To get it right.
That’s the thing about crime scene work.
You’re not following someone’s lead.
You are the lead.
And whatever call you make, you carry it with you.
It’s not drama.
It’s not pressure for show.
It’s real. And it’s yours.
Integrity Is Built in the Messy Moments
It’s easy to talk about integrity when nothing’s at stake.
But when you’re soaked through, running on instinct, trying to document everything before the rain washes it away, that’s when you see what you’re really made of.
For me, integrity means being able to stand behind your decisions, even when they weren’t perfect.
Knowing you acted from principle.
From experience.
From a place of respect. For the victim. For the evidence. For the truth.
That night, I worked quickly but carefully.
I documented what I could.
Protected what I could.
Made judgement calls about sequence and prioritisation.
No glamour. No spotlight.
Just graft and clarity in the rain.
You Can’t Control the Chaos. Only How You Show Up in It
That scene stuck with me.
Not because it was dramatic.
Because it was defining.
You can’t train for every possible scenario.
You won’t always feel ready.
But resilience isn’t about being ready.
It’s about being steady.
That doesn’t mean fearless.
It means prepared.
Prepared enough to act without needing a checklist.
Prepared enough to trust your instincts because they’ve been sharpened by experience, not ego.
Prepared enough to carry the consequences and your own conscience when you walk away.
You’ve Got Your Own Version of That Scene
You might not be out in the rain trying to preserve evidence.
But you've had your own moments.
That big decision you had to make without a guarantee.
That call you made when nobody else had answers.
That situation where every option had consequences and you had to pick one anyway.
And if you haven’t yet, you will.
Here’s what matters when it comes:
- Get clear on what you stand for before the pressure hits
- Understand your own emotional patterns under stress
- Stop chasing perfect. Aim for honest, informed, and consistent
- Learn to back your own judgement, not second-guess it every time
That’s how you build real resilience.
Not by removing the pressure.
By becoming the kind of person who can handle it.
Why I Built Thrive in Chaos
There’s a reason I teach this stuff.
Not because I read it in a book.
Because I’ve lived it in scenes like that.
Cold. Wet. Fast-moving. Heavy with consequence.
Thrive in Chaos was born from those moments.
The ones where you don’t feel certain, but you still have to move.
It’s not a mindset book.
It’s a survival system.
Built for high-stress, high-responsibility lives. Just like yours.
Ready to Build Decision-Making Strength?
You don’t need to wait for a crisis to learn how to lead yourself through one.
Inside Thrive in Chaos, you’ll learn how to:
- Anchor to your values when everything feels unsteady
- Act with purpose even under pressure
- Make hard calls without breaking your own trust
- Respond rather than react, especially when time is tight
- Build internal structure you can actually rely on
🔓 Download the First 30 Pages Free
Not sure if it’s for you?
Try it.
Read it.
See if it fits.
👉 [Download your free preview here]
And if it hits home, you’ll know where to go next.