PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH… PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

It is funny how things that your parents say to you growing up seem to resonate with you for a lifetime. “Practice what you preach”, was a common phrase used in my household. If you had an opinion regarding someone else, make sure you could “practice what you preach”, before sharing your opinion of them or their decisions. If you were going to tell someone to make a better life decision, whether it be sharing toys when we were young or saving money as an adult, you had better be doing for yourself what you were preaching to someone else.

This phrase came back to bite me recently after our home was broken into. I had even previously written a blog about this exact thing, always arm your alarm. Practice what you preach!

In December of 2014, my house was burglarized just 15 minutes after I left the house. There is a YouTube video of the break in if your interested. And even though my normal routine was to arm the alarm every time I left, I was only going to be gone for a few minutes, so I thought. Practice what you preach!

So as I preach/advise all of you to always arm your alarm, I didn’t take my own advice. I will now forever arm my alarm, 100% of the time. And I have a whole new perspective for when I tell you to do the same. Always arm your alarm!

1. Create a habit/routine and get everyone involved.

2. Don’t forget to use “AWAY” when you leave, “STAY” when you are home, and “INSTANT” if you are home and nobody will be entering/exiting before the alarm is disarmed. (If you have any questions about this, please call the office during business hours and we would love to help you.)

3. There are multiple ways to Arm/Disarm:

a. From the keypad

b. With a Keyfob

c. Remotely from smart phone, ex. iPhone, Droid with Total Connect or Alarm.com

d. From a computer with Total Connect or Alarm.com

When you are first starting to routinely arm your alarm, especially at night, you may set it off accidently. If this happens, don’t worry! Just please answer the phone when the Central Station calls and give them your all clear password.

If you feel like you need additional training, here is a link for a Honeywell system (most common system). The Honeywell Channel on YouTube has several other videos that are very informative if you have some time to browse. You can also call our office and schedule a training session for on site or in our demo room.

I hope that sharing my embarrassing mistake will help someone else avoid the same.