*Thinking Out Of The Box*
Newspaper Stories amaze me... Every day, in any given Newspaper there are stories of needless deaths and suffering by victims that didn't have to be victims. To these victims, "having their back against the wall" means just that, "No Options". When begging doesn't work, they die... needlessly in many cases.
Thinking Out Of The Box is important in Survival situations and everyday life. However, Learning to think clearly under pressure is important before Thinking Out Of The Box can do you any good, and it's a skill you must practice.
There is a saying in some Martial Arts about "Trained Spontaneity".... it sounds like an oxymoron, but it's not really. Practicing any given subject trains not only your body, but your subconscious mind. When a threat is faced, the mind now has more "instant options" available to it due to training. You've practiced so much that you don't even have to think about it, you just DO IT.
One way to practice thinking clearly in stressful situations is to do just that, practice it when you are under pressure. The next time you're nervous about a teen coming home late, or your boss chewing your butt, or whatever, play the "what if game".
"What if an earth quake hit right now?"
"What if a terrorist attack happened right now?"
"What if I lost my job?"
Think these mental scenarios through and make detailed plans... this not only teaches you to think under pressure, but it allows you to take your mind off a current problem that you can't do much about.
Once you start getting a handle on thinking under pressure, then learn to "think out of the box"
A recent Newspaper article lamented the death of a woman that was the victim of a home break in. She lived in a mobile home and heard the break in occurring. She had obviously retreated to a small windowless bathroom and, being "trapped" in there, she tried to hide... she was raped and killed.
This was a mobile home, not Fort Knox. She was separated from freedom by some thin sheetrock, a layer of fiberglass insulation, and some vinyl siding... one good kick to the inner wall would have created an instant escape route to the outside, but in her mind it was a wall, and that was that.
As silly as it sounds, another man was robbed in his home by a club wielding attacker... when asked about the shotgun in his bedroom, he said it was for "Hunting".. DUH!
Yet another man was stopped in his car at an intersection by a group of "kids" with baseball bats in a bigger city. They beat him almost to death... He was sitting in a 4000 pound weapon, simply hitting the gas would have stopped that attack at the onset. To him it was "just a car", not a weapon.
Recently during the flooding out west, another man was rescued by National guardsmen after sitting on his roof top for several days... one of the rescuers commented that there was a large Plastic "Kids pool" floating nearby, complete with 4 sandbox shovels, plastic pails, etc"... sounds like a boat and 4 paddles to me.
How 'bout the man found frozen to death in his car during a snow storm last year? Why not cut the car seats up and use them for body insulation?
Learn to think "Out of the box". Is a wall really a wall? During your "What if" scenarios, look around at what is available to you and find creative uses for it.
In parting, let me tell you about the friend that had a leak in his kitchen ceiling... did he stick a bucket under it? Nope, he used some kite string and a thumb tack. He stuck the thumb tack in the ceiling at the leak, tied the kite string to it, and then ran the kite string over to the kitchen sink... the drip ran down the string and into the sink, saving him from having to empty a bucket every few hours until the rain stopped. THAT is thinking "out of the box"
Warlord
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