Ambush vs. Hiding



My '2nd' Mom turned 70 the other day. Who is my '2nd Mom? I have a friend who I've been hanging around since I kindergarten.

I've know them for over 40 years!

(Yikes! am I really THAT old!?)

I think I was over to his house more than my own as a kid.

Needless to say his Mom over the years became my 2nd Mom.

...Anyway we had a surprise Birthday party for her and seeing three generations of people who I've 
known my whole life and I feel are more of a family to me than friends...

...It Reminded me how important our relationships are...

How important living a good life is...

It reminded me why being a protector is so important!

It reminded me on WHY WE TRAIN!!

For Life...

Yes, our own protection, of course...

But, even more so to help protect others too...

      
...That brings us back to our discussion...

Avoid - Escape - Ambush - Attack

What happens when Escaping isn't an option?!

We already (briefly) talked about Avoiding or Escaping one of these overwhelming instances...

Now lets discuss what I mean by AMBUSHing rather than just hiding during an event like this.

Before we talk about this subject, I want to clarify that these strategies are not necessarily linear. 

Where you would do one than the other...

Or that you would do them as a continuum either...

Rather, you have to choose which is most accessible and appropriate for the situation.

You may have to begin with one strategy and than move to another one as quickly as needed.

ALSO, please keep in mind that we are talking about dealing with a situation that you tried to AVOID if at all possible and you are now forced to choose BAD over Worse!

Why do I use the word AMBUSH, rather than just HIDE?

Think about the two words for a second:

What do you think of when you think of HIDING?

How empowering does that feel to you if you have to go from passive, defensive mindset of hiding 
and hoping that you won't be discovered...

...to then maybe having to shift to directly verbally or physically defending life (your own and 
possibly others) if you come face to face with the assailant?

The mentality of 'hiding' and 'hoping' can be an additional psychological barrier, making it more difficult to shift gears into action IF you have to.

Now, think of how the thought of laying a trap to AMBUSH the person if they come in the proximity 
of your position and looks as if they are going to discover your location.

Yes, of course you are hoping that you are not discovered, however you are also psychologically 
preparing yourself to be more assertive about the strategy and preemptively focusing on a tactic to attack the attacker if necessary...

Rather than focusing on your fear and being a victim. You focus on what you CAN DO in that moment.

You focus on the plan to eliminate the threat if necessary to protect yourself and others.

It changes your mindset to that of a survivor, rather than victim.

REMEMBER I am NOT advocating this necessarily as your first and/or only option. We are exploring different possible strategies to handle this extreme situation.

Hiding & barricading can be a portion of your strategy for ESCAPING or AMBUSHING, but they are only a portion of the equation...

Does thinking about AMBUSHING someone feel different to you?

Does it feel more powerful?

Does if feel like you have some control over your own fate, even if it ends up worse case scenario?

Does it feel different even if you don't have to use the tactic, because your whereabouts is not discovered or the assailant moves on?

...or like 9/11's flight 93 where the passengers resisted and although they themselves perished, they saved other lives...

I know, these are pretty serious things to be considering, but it's easier to work through things and consider options before, rather than during!


For Life...

~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