"the warrior mindset" brainstorming from therooste

[therooster]

i didnt know exactly where to put this topic, so i just droped it in General... i hope thats ok.

this is a little something i typed up a few months back. i hope you guys can get something out of it.


For all of you who express your gift to be able to bear arms for personal protection... this is for you. you are a warrior not on a battlefield afar, but right here in our homeland. you are caught amongst a war on crime, a war on drugs, a war on terrorism, and many other battles going on in and around our every day lives. you choose not to be a victim. by carrying you choose not only to protect your life and the life of your loved ones, but you fight for the honor of man, by standing up against "evil" and taking actions against it. “Now, we must all fear evil men. But there is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men.�

“The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.� -- Edmund Burke.


first of all i want to define the word warrior.

"a warrior is not proven only in combat, but also life. he lives by a code, not because codes are 'honorable' or a fad, but because that is how a warrior thinks and so it is how he lives. Combat is an extension of that code, not the source."
"his code in peacetime is the same as that in the military: do your duty, protect the weak, protect the community, face the bully, stand tall, stay aware, think ahead, be ready, be loyal, avoid aggression if possible and, if not, win and win fully. respect and honor are earned by actions, not granted by birth."

the point is (this is my all-time favorite quote)..."Live with honor, and let not your death be born by the pallbearers of disgrace, cruelty, weakness and fear."


Abraham Maslow's four levels of mastery

Unconscious incompetence - this is the lowest level of mastery. this is where you are bad(or have a problem) with/at something, you don’t know you are bad(or have a problem) with/at something, and you refuse to admit it. the old adage "the first step to solving your problem is admitting you have one" is the key to the next level of mastery.

conscious incompetence - or, your bad(or have a problem) with/at something and you know it. you will always learn more if you can admit you know less. this is what separates professionals fighters from bullies (besides training). a professional fighter is aware of the fact that there is always going to be someone bigger and badder than he (so he trains to progress through the next 2 levels until he is one of the baddest). a bully is stuck in the unconscious incompetence stage, he thinks he knows it all and thinks he is the baddest dude around - he "talks the talk, but doesn’t walk the walk" - and in the end this is why he gets his butt whooped.

conscious competence - you are good at something, but you have to think about it to do it good. in other words, you can perform a task well, but its not a conditioned response. this level is hard to explain without knowing the last level of mastery. here is an example. lets say hypothetically that in a race the biggest speed factor is shifting gears. so a professional race car driver has to shift gears. Obviously he is good because he is a professional, but he is not the best. he constantly gets beat by the guy in the next level of mastery. why? our driver who is in the conscious competence stage is good, BUT he has to think/concentrate(<=i will get more into concentration later) about shifting the gears and this is where he looses. Concentrating on an action means that that action has become a conscious thought. it takes analyzing and interpreting which equals time. if he is shifting from second to third and accidentally puts it in fourth he has to reanalyze and reinterpret every action he did all the way back to taking it out of second gear. do you understand what i mean?

unconscious competence - the highest level of mastery. Bruce Lee put it very well "learn it until you forget it". What he means is this. When you were a child and you touched something burning hot, did you think about jerking your hand away? NO! (at least i hope not) it was a natural reaction. a (key word here) Programmed Response. back to our 2 race car drivers. our second place driver always lost because he had to think about shifting gears. our fist place driver didn’t, he had a programmed response to when to shift the gears and what to do if he messed up, which made all the time in the world.


Col. Coopers Color Codes

condition white - (heart rate is 60-80bpm) worst condition to be in. this is the condition that i call sheeple. This is where you are (this goes back to Maslow) unconsciously unaware, you are completely oblivious to your surroundings and to what is happening around you. These are the people you see in the news always saying "i cant believe it happened to me". Another perfect example that i love: people who own pit bulls. There is tons of irrefutable evidence that pit bulls are known for violent attacks, especially towards children. yet when one kills a child you see the owners on TV saying "but he was the nicest dog ever, i cant believe this happened" and they will never admit that it was because of the type of dog even though there are whole organizations with thousands of people who do research that prove it is the type of dog.

condition yellow - (heart rate 60-100bpm) this is the condition that you should be in every day of your life, and if you practice it enough you can even be in this condition while your sleeping. in this condition you are in an elevated state of awareness, you are constantly scanning your surroundings and taking note of anything that catches your eye. this is the condition that i want all of you to be in every day of your life... in fact i challenge you. i challenge you to pay attention to everything, when your walking down the street look up, look down, look to your left, look to your right, look behind you. when you are walking down the street i want you to look at things and imagine if... look at that dumpster over there, what would i do if someone came out from behind it with a knife?... look at that manhole cover, what would i do if a guy popped out of it spraying an AK-47? i want you to be on the verge of paranoia. if you do that every day i guarantee no one will ever get a surprise in on YOU...

condition red - this is the "fight or flight" stage. any of you who have been in a fight have experienced this stage. your hear rate is 120-145bpm, you start to lose complex motor skills (due to vasoconstriction from the introduction of adrenaline), but your visual reaction time and your cognitive reaction time increase. this is the stage where people say "i saw my life flash before my eyes" because they literally relive hundreds of thoughts with perfect clarity in hundredths of a second.
at any time in condition read you can experience one or several of these:
tunnel vision
visual clarity
intensified sound
diminished sound
slow motion time
fast motion time
memory loss of parts of the event
memory loss of some of your actions
dissociation
intrusive distracting thoughts
memory distortions
distance distortions
it only takes your body a millisecond to transfer from one to the other, and you can experience more than one at one time.


condition gray - (heart rate 145-175bpm) this one is very complex and takes a lot to explain it so i will just give you the basics. basically condition gray is a controlled condition red. its where you can take advantage of the good things like increased reaction and cognitive response, and then switch back to condition yellow in a fraction of a second to perform a complex motor skill. we will go back to our #1 race car driver, he is constantly in condition gray... he can literally see things go by in slow motion, it will be absolutely quiet, and he can focus one one thing with the visual clarity of a hawk... BUT when he has to slow down to shift (a complex motor skill) he instantly transitions to condition yellow. he can now hear the engine, notice everything around him and make the shift... then go back into condition gray.

condition black - (heart rate is 175-220bpm) bad place to be. your cognitive processing deteriorates... you stop thinking. your inner child or animal will take over. you will experience intense vasoconstriction, which will cause loss of complex/fine motor skills and can possibly pass out... you will literally turn white. not much is know as to what exactly happens to your body in this stage.



"concentration killed the cat"


when is the one time you can sneak up on a cat? when he is concentrating on something, like when its about to pounce on a mouse. other than that he is always completely aware of his surroundings.

as i stated earlier concentration requires thought, evaluation, and analyzation, and when you are trying to learn something, or get better at something those do nothing but hinder you. Concentrating on an action (learning) means that that action becomes a conscious thought, and we already know that’s only as good as second place.

if you want to better yourself at the task at hand... you need to be aware. be aware of your surroundings, BUT at the same time be completely focused. take in as much info as you can, experience it, and don’t analyze it until you are done. if you are not learning anything every time you shoot (or do any other hobby) then you are not aware of what is happening as a whole... you will be chasing your tail.

i have been asked before "how can you be aware of your surroundings while being completely focused on one thing all at the same time?" the answer is simple... read a book. when you read a book you are completely focused on the words and sentences, right? how do you know when to turn the page? do you read to the very last period on the page and say "o crap its time for the to turn the page"? no, you are aware that you are on the last paragraph or last sentence, what have you, and you automatically place your finger in a position to turn the page. that’s being focused and aware at the same time. this is the mental position you need to be in while shooting or doing any other hobby; be aware of everything happening around you yet focus intensely when you need to.

[Lumberjack98]

Good read. Thanks Rooster!!

[gigag04]

Good read. Thanks Rooster!!

+1

[humblebyday]

Good stuff, Rooster. Thanks for posting.

[RatMan]

Good stuff, Rooster!

[stevie_d_64]

Ahhhh, a philosopher...Good stuff to keep in mind...

Next we'll speaking and writing in Latin...And wearing togas...

The only problem...How do you conceal in one???

Very well put together Rooster...

[Greybeard]

"Abraham Maslow's four levels of mastery"

Gee, I thought Uncle Mas (Ayoob) was the origin of those ... Well, to hear him explain 'em anyway ...

[therooster]

"Abraham Maslow's four levels of mastery"

Gee, I thought Uncle Mas (Ayoob) was the origin of those ... Well, to hear him explain 'em anyway ...

dont get me wrong, i'm not an expert. this was just some brainstorming i did on some of the stuff i picked up from books, rewritten in my own words. some of it could be wrong... although, i'm sure it isnt.

Ayoob. thats a name i hear a lot. i can tell you i have heard more negative things about him than anything else, all from people like himself. i havent read any of his work, because i have been told to stay away from it. i will probably studdy up on his philosophy sometime, but he isnt at the top of my list.

[Jacob Staff]

rooster, I have a copy of "In the Gravest Exteme" by Massad Ayoob I will loan you. It is a short book. Like other books, you have to pick out what is useful and purge the rest. The hard part is picking the right stuff.

[Paladin]

I've got Ayoob's book "The Truth About Self Protection", which is a bit dated but a good general book about self protection.

I understand that Ayoob is a talented shooter, but doesn't like to share much of his shooting knowledge to non-law enforcement.

He often comes across as an elitist, but does stand up for us civilians on occasion.

Personally I think he's too sympathic to criminals (he admits to having been involved with criminals/illegal activity in his youth, before he went straight)

[dws1117]

Good read. Thanks

[orc4hire]

[Chris]

"For not by numbers of men, nor measure of body, but by valor of soul is war wont to be won."

Byzantine General Belisarius at Tricameron just before destroying an army 3 times the size of his own.

[therooster]

* In White you are unprepared and unready to take lethal action. If you are attacked in White you will probably die unless your adversary is totally inept.
* In Yellow you bring yourself to the understanding that your life may be in danger and that you may have to do something about it.
* In Orange you have determined upon a specific adversary and are prepared to take action which may result in his death, but you are not in a lethal mode.
* In Red you are in a lethal mode and will shoot if circumstances warrant.

cool.... thanks for the info/clarification. as i said before, i'm not an expert, this is just my thoughts on writings from other people. i think i will keep the subtitle the same - "Col. Coopers Color Codes" - because Cooper "invented" the color code, and if i change the subtitle it will seem as though i'm taking credit for his idea.