As I sit and relax on my back porch this Thanksgivings Eve, armed, I reflect on how wonderful it is to be in a relatively safe place. For the vast majority in this world are not in this place. Even most of the ones who think they are. I am here because I have worked hard to create a safe life for myself and my friends and family. This includes where I live, where I work, who I am with, and ultimately what I do and how I prepare for the future.
To be the proverbial sheepdog in a world of sheep, wolves, and other sheepdogs is to live by the creed of prepare, practice, process. This will mean different things to different people and if you’re not having fun with it then you may just be living in a very paranoid place.
Prepare: learn what you can about the things you need to know to stay safe. This could be survival in a Third World country or suburbia or the deep woods. Preparation in my world is learning skill sets like martial arts, shooting, and driving. Awareness, avoidance, running, deterrence, and fighting when one must which should be never.
Practice: practice what you have learned. Diligently and perfectly. So that if you need the skills they are there on command. So that if you need the skills you can think faster and more efficiently then your adversary. This takes time and you must realize that there is much that you can be prepared for and some things that you cannot based on the time that you put in.
Process: you must always concentrate on the process. This means putting 100% of your mind into the process while you are doing anything. Practicing must be done with the mindset that there is nothing else that matters. People watching, other thoughts getting in the way are not part of the process. The process involves only what you are doing at the time. Nothing else matters. This is the mindset and when you must call on that, it needs to be there, without hesitation.