Dragoon's Rules of Survival #1 Part II

#1. Do Not Neglect the First Weapon.

Part II. Mental.

    The human mind is probably the one thing that brought us to the top of the food chain. Think about it for one second... Humans were not blessed with the tools of survival that the animal kingdom received. We have no claws for fighting or hunting.We don't have a thick hide or fur for protection from the elements. Our vision, hearing, and sense of smell isn't nearly as developed as most animals. The one advantage God saw fit to give us is our brain. No other species has the raw brainpower we do.
     The human mind is capable of amazing feats of true greatness. With it, we created civilizations, music, art, and infrastructure. The first time man was able to find a rock that made a spark, or saw that he could take a naturally occurring brushfire and make that fire work for him, we started to become the masters of our environment. We humans were able to take a world that that we were not built for, and mold it to our needs.
    The first part of Rule #1 was about your body being your primary weapon. I may have gotten a bit ahead of myself. Your mind controls your body, and that makes your brain your true primary weapon. One cannot function without the other though. If you prepare the body, but neglect the mind, you will fail. The same is true the other way around. Like everything in life, you have to strike a balance, and that balance will be a personal one.

 Like the old saying goes, knowledge is power. Your mindset will dictate your actions. How are you preparing your mind to help you prevail? If you aren't mentally prepared, but have a great bug out bag, nice AR, and six-pack abs, where does that leave you when your life as you know it collapses?

Square One.

    There is no replacement for a prepared mind. With a prepared mind you have a shot at surviving an emergency situation, no matter what happens to your gear. With all the right gear, you will fail if you don't have what it takes under that high speed kevlar helmet. Or tinfoil hat. Or whatever headgear you prefer.
 
    How do you work on your mindset?  Unfortunately, there is no short answer to that. Every person has to decide what they will do, and how they will make themselves mentally prepared. One thing I always did before a mission in Afghanistan was do mental reps. It was something they always preached in football, but I didn't really understand it then. Now I do. It works in the real world too. If you carry a weapon daily, mentally run through the process of trying to deescalate a situation so that you don't have to draw. Then run it differently, in a situation where you do have to. Wargame as many situations as you can think of. You will eventually run into a lot where there is no simple way to win. Be honest about your abilities in these mental reps. You should know what you are capable of from training.


   Skillsets are also part of mental preparedness. As a person who is interested about survival and preparedness, I have researched and practiced...
First aid, combat medicine, natural medicine, wild edibles, self defense (armed and unarmed), alternative energy, wilderness survival skills, emergency management, amateur radio, bushcraft, firecraft.... you get the idea. We live in an age where if you want to learn something, it is basically at your fingertips via the internet. If you think you may need a skill in an emergency situation, now is the time to learn it. There may not be time later. Don't count on just building a "survival library" either. Buying the Special Forces Medic Handbook is not going to help you treat that GSW in the field, and having an SAS survival manual will not mean you can live out in the woods the rest of your life. There may come a day where the only things you truly own are what you can carry, and trust me, the human mind can carry a lot. Make use of it.

Do not neglect the first weapon.

-Kyle
18AUG2012