Thursday, October 30, 2008

Tactical mindset




WARRIOR MINDSET
What will you do in a crisis? How can you train to survive? I think the warrior mindset may benefit from some kind of epiphany. Mine came as a college student when I was mugged at gunpoint. The horror of the experience helped to open my eyes to the fact that evil cannot be ignored on the physical plane, or for that matter, any other. Like the yin and yang, we all have a balance of the pacifist and warrior within. Depending on the circumstance, there is a time to reap and a time to sow. While keeping a calm vigilance as a pacifist maintaining all options of avoidance and flight, the warrior within each of us needs to be ready in an instant to spring into devastating, aggressive, decisive, no holds barred fight to the finish. Each one of us needs to find the motivation to train and flip that switch without hesitation.


When I read this I thought of how much different training I have received and the mindset that is required to survive a life threatening situation. In my younger days I was always, and I mean always in the warrior mindset(you can thank the Army and my law enforcement training). It was nice, I was always vigilant, always prepared. I had a plan to kill everybody that I saw. I was comfortable with myself. According to my wife, I was also an asshole. Marriage and children have calmed me down considerably. I now only have a plan to kill half of the people that I meet.


This brings me to my actual point. It took many years and some wisdom to discover how to use the mindset to my advantage, and only when I need it. The warrior mindset is the only way(baring luck) that you can win a fight. The easiest fight to win is the one that you can avoid. If you can't avoid the fight you have to be aggressive, you have to fight dirty. You have to plan on going home after the fight is over. If you cower in a corner waiting for the moment to come to you, you are going to lose. You choose your own destiny, you have to make your own moment and take full advantage of it. I'm not saying to be stupid and blindly charge. That will kill you just as fast as waiting in the corner.

Finally, remember that anything is a weapon, and that the weapon does not make the man. Don't ever forget that the your most important weapon is your brain. It will save you when nothing else does. Don't be a sheep, don't be a wolf, be a sheepdog. Trust your instincts, watch your surroundings, be mindful of people who want to cause you and yours harm. After it is all over go home and kiss your significant others and tell them that you love them.

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