In today’s world, it seems that you are not safe from anything anymore. The 6:00pm News shows nothing but bad news. Someone has been killed, someone had a car wreck, and there is a serial murderer loose in your city. If you believe everything you here, why would you even want to leave your house? The world is not as bad as the media wants you to think. They show the most graphic images in hopes of getting more viewers for their advertisers. If the story is not bad enough, the media will do what they can to make it seem like it is the end of the world.
Is the world dangerous at times? Yes. Is it more dangerous then before 2001? Unless you are in the military or going to places that are listed as hostile, you are probably not in as much danger then you were in the past. What seems to be worse is that life is portrayed as more dangerous now than at anytime prior.
The media feeds on the fear of Interpersonal Aggression. The normal human being has more fear over an attack by a person then anything else. It stems from the human psyche wanting to do no harm to others. The normal person does not worry about auto wrecks, cigarette smoking or habits that they can control. Smoking kills more people on a daily basis then other humans do. While people know that smoking is harmful and can kill them, they do not stop smoking. They know that you need to wear their seatbelt, but many adults do not do so as they think nothing will happen to them.
Col. Dave Grossman illustrates this in his lectures and writings. Col. Grossman says that you can throw a bunch of snakes in a group of people, some will react with fear, some with interest and some will not really care. But introduce a serial rapist or murderer in a city of one million people and they all change their actions and live in some way. The Railway Killer from the 1990’s is an example. People across the country lived in fear of this person. As a Police Officer, I was called on to search many buildings that ran along a railroad spur, tracks not even used for regular traffic. People were so scared that they saw the killer everywhere they looked.
Martial Arts and Self Defense Classes thrive on this type of fear in society. The problem is it is not the way the world really is. Do I want to earn your money? Yes, otherwise I would not be running a school and offering a service. I do not think that you need to learn to fight because you are scared to death. I want to teach people that want to live a life without total fear. It is one thing to scare you so badly that you cannot think about anything else but being attacked at all times, it is quite another to realize that you can live with confidence by taking a class that gives you skills to survive an aggressive encounter on the off chance you are one of the small percentage of people to suffer one.
A great teacher and friend, Tony Blauer, introduced me to a powerful tool that changed my life. Tony taught me about “Get Challenged, or Get Threatened.” It was a life changing moment for me. As a Police Officer, I had been in a life or death struggle on the side of the road by myself at 4:00am on one shift. I was successful in surviving my encounter and that subject will spend the rest of his life in prison. After the encounter, I doubted myself and my abilities. I thought that everything I knew and thought was not worth a hill of beans. I was threatened by my perceived lack of ability and skills. I was threatened by my own mortality. I went from being ten foot tall and bulletproof to realizing I was human after all. I was so threatened by what happened that I believed that everyone that questioned me about the encounter was second guessing me. Why? I was threatened by my own feelings.
What is the solution? Get challenged. When you are challenged, you have actually take action. When threatened, you get stuck in a rut where you continue to spiral downwards. Taking action gets you going and gives you a reason to excel and find ways to overcome whatever obstacle that you are facing. Being challenged is empowering, being threatened makes you a victim.
Since becoming challenged, I have used that operating programming to my advantage. I have faced many challenges where it would have been easy to be threatened and have a victim mindset. I went through a divorce, where I could have collapsed and given up. Instead I raised a daughter as a single father for several years. I was challenged by a tumor in my femur. I never asked, Why Me? I looked at it as a way to grow and find what other doors would open.
The point of this whole article is that do not let fear of attack and injury rule your life. Realize that anyone could be attacked and look at it as a challenge that you can rise to. By being challenged you become responsible for your own safety. Do not be threatened, but be challenged and strive to overcome any obstacles that you face. Empower yourself, not the bad guy, through a positive mental program. Be challenged or threatened, it is your choice.
Paul Britt
copyright @ 2007 Britt's Self Defense Systems
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