Why It Worked

The mysterious question of the decade or millennia. Then you have to ask, "why it did not work?" The answer, which by the way I don't have, is not to be trusted. To trust an answer is to be absolutely sure of its validity when in self-defense you really have to trust what you know and can do but not trust that it will work or not work depending on the present moment circumstances.

What works and what does not work is about the individual, i.e. that persons experiences, perceptions, cultural influences and beliefs. If you truly believe you "must" turn the other cheek you are going to get hurt or even killed in "some" circumstances. Belief systems are very powerful. Rory Miller speaks to "permission" in some of his works. You have to give yourself permission to act properly especially in self-defense - violence, etc. Just my opinion here but I believe he is more often right then not right - right and not right are not the best descriptive words here either. Maybe it is about what works or does not work for him vs. what works for me and what does not work for me - or you or them, etc.

Isn't this the crux of many issues regarding self-defense? How does a person know what is being taught will work or not work? I mean, even if it is a good, solid and more often than not a thing that works, how do you know it will at any given moment? Even the best of us in self-defense or combatives with the best training and practice possible may find one day something worked wonderfully then another day the same thing failed. This is not the first discussion on this subject but worth going back to again and again and again. 

I often think to myself what if and would I act properly if the "what if" occurred. I remember instances in my past, youthful times, when my reactions seemed adequate, relevant and they worked for me, at that moment but would I still act or react that way today? Especially since I am not training that way anymore or my training is not relevant toward those goals anymore. 

When I contemplate those past events it tells me my instincts tend to go in the right direction when threatened. Maybe it is about acting or reacting adequately before my mind can chime in and tell me how stupid I am being, you know that faster than light Monkey brain shit that sometimes becomes your doubting Thomas (or is it the human brain or lizard or all three). 

I guess maybe it is more about refusing to even ask these types of questions and then ignoring them in training and practice because your mind tells you it won't work or maybe your only experience with it was when it did not work so you discard it as a waste when in reality it has proven time and again to work, mostly and you just had a bad day that day. How do you find out these things and make sure you are not "lying to yourself" for some Lizard/Monkey driven reasoning. 

Why it worked and why it didn't work are important considerations. I believe the professionals use their "after action" discussions to determine things like this and I wonder if this is taught in self-defense courses as well as all that other good stuff. 

Then how far do you take this because you don't want to erode/undermine confidence, etc. What is the balance point where you still benefit but don't make yourself a doubting Thomas. You don't want to go the other direction either where your over confidence leads to relying on things that will not work. 

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh :-)