The Light Within the Stone


If you have ever worked with me directly you probably have heard me say, "I haven't trained my entire life to be more violent. I'm working on being LESS violent."  

This is the theme of warrior training: Skills to become a better protector, not a fighter or a thug! That is not to say that you won't have to fight, because as a protector, you WILL have to at some point. It may or may not be a physical engagement, but you will eventually have to make a stand. Just make sure you are fighting for the right thing.


Too often people are quick to protect their relative values (something that they hold as important, but others may not) and forget to filter that value through the Dual Life Value. Meaning are your actions respecting Life and supporting most good / least harm for everyone under each circumstance?

Remember that a protector doesn't always have to fight and a fighter isn't necessarily being a protector.

So how can you tell the difference between training to be a fighter or a protector? Simple, a fighter is training for themselves, their "team," their egos. A protector develops the clarity, skill and courage to utilize her abilities for most good / least harm for everyone. A fighters skills are to dominate and win. A protectors skills are used to serve. A fighter fights for himself, a protector fights for self and others... all others. A fighter often fights because he wants to. A protector fights because they have to, as a last resort to protect life.

Training to be a protector is paradoxical because it needs to encompass: Self, Others & All Others.

I've used the lifeguard v. Olympic swimmer analogy in the past.   In short, an Olympic swimmer trains to serve themselves (and to a lessor degree their team), whereas a lifeguard trains for others. Personal performance is needed for both endeavors. If you are training to protect life, you better be good, because it's risky! Remember when you are a protector, more than just your butt is on the line, so your skills have to be good!

The next time you are training or using your conflict management skills ask yourself this:

Can you see the Life that you are protecting inside of the behaviors you are managing in yourself and ALL others? If not, look deeper, soften and... Keep going.

All the best,
~Craig

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An Uncomfortable Situation

Image
  Funny pic (and movie) about a not so funny situation… In training as in Life, it’s better to treat people with dignity and respect. However… What does that look like in the moment? Being that I’m teaching a Women’s Assault Prevention and Response Workshop this weekend - it’s probably a good time to talk about… Uncomfortable Situations Let’s talk about training at the academy for a minute… We run open co-ed classes at the local academy. What does that mean? Men and women train together, but we don’t stop there. People of different skill levels, backgrounds, ethnicities, sexual orientations, careers, religious beliefs, political affiliations, ages, injuries, pre-existing conditions, life experience, training expectations etc. etc. train together! We ALL work together! Overall, I think it’s better this way. Of course sometimes there’s static, you know, conflicts, and misunderstanding. When something happens, most of the time it’s just that, a misunderstanding… Sometimes people ...
Read more

What'd You Say?!

Image
  You ever have a conversation with someone who really lifted your spirits? How about having a conversation with someone who’s a real downer?! We spend a lot of time talking to people. Matter of fact, talking is one of the most under rated and under trained aspects of protecting yourself. It’s much better if you can talk your way out of a bad situation, rather than having to resort to some form of physicality. This is why we spend so much time on sharing effective communication frameworks in the PeaceWalker course. But All of that Aside… When we think about communicating, we often just think about talking to other people. We forget how we talk to ourselves! You may have heard it called, “Self talk.” All day long we talk to ourselves. We carry on an inner dialogue in our heads that only we can hear. Unfortunately, this means it's very easy to be hard on ourselves. There's something about privacy which makes it easy to say the things you would never say out loud to another living...
Read more

Cracks in Your Foundation?!

Image
  Last night we had one of our weekly coaching calls for the PeaceWalker Evolution Course. What a great call! Rob and Jenn, a couple of the Level II - Momentum folks (people who graduated from Evolution last year and came back for the second Level.), were tasked to run the meeting as part of their training. I must say, they did a stand up job! The topic of discussion was building an Unshakable Foundation. WTH is that!? It’s basically the way you live. Your habits. What you do in your day to day life. How do you train your… Body  - Your physical health Mind  - What you’re filling your head with Mouth  - How you’re communicating Heart  - How you foster your relationships Why?! Without a solid foundation it’s difficult to remain balanced. When you are not balanced, it more difficult to stay calm, cool, and collected, (especially) under pressure. As I often say,  “You can’t hide crazy.” (It eventually comes out!) Regardless… You don’t have to be in the PeaceWal...
Read more