As I talked about in my podcast, 5 Skills to Win a Gunfight, mind set is the most important thing there is in any fight. You have to continue to fight, you can never give up, and you have to continue the fight.
I do a mindset lesson during every class I teach. It’s not the most fun thing I do, but is necessary. One of the main points is “Never give up, never give up, never give up.” – Winston Churchill during World War II.
This should be your thought when you have to defend yourself. The only way you lose is when you give up or when you are dead. You have to put the simple fact in your mind that you will never give up. Once you start fighting, if you give up, the other person will press their advantage and hurt you even more.
I learned this lesson when I was a teenager. I volunteered as a Police Explorer in southern California and went to the crime scene of a fallen police officer. It happened in the middle of the day, in a crowded area, where some of my friends actually witnessed it.
The officer pulled someone over for speeding on the highway. The speeder got off the highway and stopped at a busy gas station surrounded by a strip mall and several places to eat. When the police officer stepped out his vehicle, the speeder stepped out, also. The speeder raised a gun as he exited and fired at the police officer. The officer was struck multiple times, most in the vest.
The officer fell as the speeder, turned cop killer, continued to fire. When the killer ran out of ammo, he calmly walked up to the officer, stood over him, reloaded, and emptied the new magazine into the officer striking the officer in the head multiple times, killing him.
If you give up, this is what could happen to you, is all I could think of from then on. Now I know that I will never give up because that is what will happen to me if I do. Now that I have a family, I know the same thing will happen to them if I give up. So I will never give up! Never!
You have to get that deep down in your soul and being. If you can feel anything, if you know anything, you are still in the fight. Don’t give up!
Stay Safe,
Ben