Background
In previous articles, I laid out my Training Tenets, a process for deciding What to Prepare For, and an introduction to developing the right Mindset for self-defense and personal protection. At the end of the mindset article, I promised the next article would get more specific on how to prepare or how to be ‘more ready.’
What is Readiness?
For purposes of this article, ‘readiness’ will refer to self-defense and personal protection. There are, obviously, other things we must be ready for, but we cannot discuss all of them in one little Substack post.
As you’ve probably already noticed, I like to start by defining things before going deeper. So let’s look at how the Oxford Dictionary defines it: read-i-ness / noun
The state of being fully prepared for something.
Willingness to do something.
Immediacy, quickness, or promptness
In the military, readiness was defined simply as, “the capacity to engage in combat and fulfill assigned missions and tasks.” I obviously love this definition.
To me, readiness for ‘personal protection and self-defense’ involves ‘being ready’ or ‘being prepared’ for moment of consequence in a variety of environments or circumstances.
Moment of consequence: threat of violence, violent encounter, medical emergency, or other high stress, high stakes circumstance.
Environments: at home, in your car, at work, at a restaurant, at the gym, at church, at dinner or even the mall (please not the mall!)
Why Readiness?
The data indicates, at some point in your life, you will face one of these ‘moments of consequence.’ It could require you to de-escalate, retreat, or even engage a threat and defend yourself (or others). It could also be a situation where you could help someone else by simply giving first aid treatment.
Given the odds (and the stakes!) of the above, it makes sense to spend some amount of time preparing or ‘getting ready’ either to defend yourself, defend others, or help others in a crisis or medical emergency. You have a choice be an asset, or a liability!
Hobby: Training for ‘readiness’ or to be more ‘prepared’ can be a great hobby or recreation. Going to the gym is fun. It makes you feel better and makes you healthier. The same is true for martial arts training. It’s fun, you feel good, and it can improve your health. A trip to the gun range is also fun and it’s a great activity to do with others. There are lots of things we can do for fun or to be healthy. But unlike golf or pickleball (both fun, both healthy), training to be more ‘ready’ or ‘prepared’ for a moment of consequence is a hobby that can save your life or the life of someone else.
Duty: For me, being ‘ready’ or being ‘prepared’ is more than a hobby. It is a responsibility, or a duty of mine as a husband, father, family man, friend, etc. Our first responders are amazing, but there are not enough of them. They cannot always be everywhere. The safety and security of my family and me is my responsibility! If I take this responsibility seriously, I will train and prepare as much as I can (time, money, energy) and hopefully be prepared when or if a ‘moment of consequence’ arises. As mentioned, we don’t rise to the occasion. We fall to the level of our training or preparation!
“We don’t rise to the occasion. We fall to our level of training.” – Archilochus
How to be Ready?
For starters, no one can be ‘ready for everything.’ So, we must choose what to be ready for. I addressed this in my article ‘What to Prepare For?’ Once you’ve decided what. Then you must figure out the ‘how.’ One thing that’s helpful is to budget some time and money and simply ‘do the best you can with what you got.’ Start with the basics and go from there.
I used to over-complicate readiness until I heard my friend and former teammate Bill Rapier talk about it at one of his classes. He referenced the Readiness Triangle from Tom Kier, a friend, mentor and Instructor at Sayoc Tactical. The readiness triangle is simply: Aware, Willing, Prepared. (For semantics, I’ll replace ‘Prepared’ with ‘Able’ since I have already mentioned that ready and prepared are basically the same thing).
“Readiness = Aware, Willing, and Prepared” – Tom Kier, Sayoc
Step 1: Awareness
We must have the appropriate level of situational awareness. That means being aware of our surroundings and others around us. It also means NOT doing those things that compromise our awareness such as drinking too much or constantly looking at our phones. It all starts with situational awareness. Why? Because “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” as Ben Franklin once said. I would argue that 80% of self-defense is just that, PREVENTION. The more aware you are, the better your chances of preventing the threat in the first place. When you SPOT danger, you may be able to AVOID it. If you recognize a potential threat before it becomes an actual threat, you may be able to run away. Or, worst case, at least you’ll be able to respond to it more quickly than had you been taken by surprise. The list goes on and I’ll expand on this one later. Awareness is the number one thing keep you safe each day!
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound in cure.” – Benjamin Franklin
Step 2: Willing
The next step is to be willing. We must BE WILLING to do what it takes to either prevent such an event or PREVAIL in one. Willingness starts well before a moment of consequence. We must be willing to make certain sacrifices in to be more ready. This means giving up some time, some money and even some ‘fun’ all in the name of being ‘one who will bring others back!’ Then, if the moment comes, we must BE WILLING to FIGHT! Some are naturally more willing. Some must develop this will. However, you arrive at it, being WILLING to do what it takes is one of the most important aspects of prevailing in one of these events. Having tools, tactics, or techniques and the ability to use them is worthless if you are not willing to use them when they need to be used. Like awareness, we will do a deep dive later will. In sport, often the team that wants it more wins. In a fight, the same is often true. The person who just wants it more and is more willing to do what it takes, including fight dirty, is more likely to prevail (usually).
“It isn’t always being fast or accurate that counts. It’s being willing.” – John Wayne (playing John Bernard Books in The Shootist)
Step 3: Able
Last and certainly not least is being ABLE to deal with the situation. This could mean being able to deal with an attacker, or the threat of being attacked. It could also mean being able to deal with a medical emergency or simply having the mobility to escape a disaster. Again, in this instance I’m replacing ‘Prepared’ from Tom’s formula with ‘Able.’ To me, being able means owning the hardware (equipment, tools, weapons, etc.), having the software (training on how to use said equipment, tools, weapons, etc.), and having them on you in a moment of consequence. The best first aid kit in the world is not worth much if it’s not with you when you need it. Similarly, the best gun or pocketknife you own does you no good sitting on your nightstand when you need it outside of your home! It is my strong belief that ‘availability is the best ability.’ You must have it when it counts and have them when you need them. In future articles, we’ll do a deep dive on being more ‘able’ or ‘capable.’ We’ll discuss different hardware, software, and methods of carry. We’ll also talk about developing the ability to respond when we don’t or cannot have this equipment with us.
“The best ability is availability!”
No Pep Talks and No Warm-ups!
My friend and former teammate, Bill Rapier from American Tactical Shooting Instruction has some great material on readiness. He incorporates it into many (if not all) of his shooting courses. I’m not exactly sure how he says it, so I’ll summarize: “If you ever are faced with a violent encounter, or a fight, you won’t have the luxury of getting a ‘Pep Talk’ and you won’t be able to warm up.” I couldn’t agree more. Given the above, if we really want to be ready, we must be able to perform on demand! BTW, if anyone wants serious training, I recommend you look into Bill’s classes and take one!
“If you are ever faced with a violent encounter, you won’t have the luxury of getting a pep-talk or doing a warm-up!” – Bill Rapier
How Do I know if I’m ready?
In the military, we had pass certain tests individually before moving on to the next level of training. We also had to pass certain tests as a team to determine if we were ready for a combat deployment. The tests were both objective and subjective and usually graded by someone more experienced. Readiness is a huge part of military culture.
How can we know if we are ‘ready’ for a ‘moment of consequence’ that may occur in everyday life? Can we ever truly know? We do know we cannot possibly be ‘ready for anything.’ Can we be ready for ‘most things?’ Or at least be ready for the worst?
In my experience, you don’t ever really know if you’ll be ready. All you can do is your best. Make the most of your resources. Spend some time, money, and energy getting ready. Start small and keep it realistic. Do NOT set impossible standards or goals. It will simply scare you away.
Good News
The good news is that most ‘bad guys’ don’t spend their resources training. So, with a little bit of work on your Awareness, Willingness, and Ability, you can expect to be better prepared than most of those who would do you harm. The other good news: if you focus on the basics and doing them better (as mentioned in my Training Tenets), you will be better prepared and ‘more ready’ than most!
Performance on Demand
As Bill points out, if we ever face one of these crucible moments, “We won’t get a pep-talk and we won’t have time to warm-up.” That means, we will have to be able to perform, on demand, on our best day, worst day, or any day in between. One approach to determine if we can do so is to have some simple tests we do regularly. Set some realistic goals that are objective based, such as time and/or accuracy. Then test yourself cold and often. The stress of the timer or just knowing you are ‘testing’ yourself helps pressure test you, your equipment, and your technique in general. In future articles, I’ll address some good standards to aspire to.
Bad News
Important note: you can do EVERYTHING RIGHT and still lose! You can train more, have the best gear, have it with you, be aware, and be willing, and everything we mentioned above and STILL LOSE or still fail. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t stive to be more ready. Being ready and more prepared still gives us our best chance of PREVAILING. It does, however, mean that we should do EVERYTHING we can to AVOID the fight or situation. (Refer to being AWARE above!)
“You can do everything right and STILL lose!”
Summary and Closing
That’s it for now. We have a simple definition of ‘readiness’ and some reasons why it’s important. We have a formula for being more ready, using the Readiness Triangle. We explained what it means to be Aware, Willing, and Able. I plan on going deeper on each of those in later articles. We also talked about knowing if you’ll be ready and a method for testing that.
Readiness, like Success, Fitness, Fun, or Adventure is up to YOU to DEFINE. So take what I say with a grain of salt, and decide what it means to you!
My question to you is: Will you be ready?