Training Your Mind

For the last few days I have been in a turkey-induced comatose state (just like most of us have been) and it got me thinking today: working in either Law Enforcement or Corrections we know that we have to physically prepare ourselves for any situation that may arise. We train physically so that our bodies can sustain the pressures of our chosen profession. Unfortunately, many of us do not train our minds as well.

It takes the average person 1000 repetitions of doing something for it to become muscle memory. In other words, we don't have to think about what we are going to do, we just do it. But when it comes down to our minds, do we really do the same thing?

While it is true that most of us do not have the time to sit there and practice our response to a scenario 1000 times, nothing says that we can't think about what are response will be when we are faced with a situation. Think about the amount of time that we have to think throughout the course of our day: in the shower, cooking (or waiting for our order at the drive thru), waiting in line, driving (not so safe but we still do it anyway), in the bathroom...

We have the time to think about what are response will be to any situation that we can come up with. Most of us will never be Bruce Lee so we can forget anything that is going to involve a lot of complicated moves unless we have the time to physically practice. The Inverted-U Hypothesis states, in a nutshell, that as our stress levels (arousal) increase, our fine motor skill will decrease and is therefore detrimental to our performance. What do we have left then? Gross motor skills.

If we repeatedly practice just a few simple responses to situations that do not involve fine motor skills, our performance during times of increased stress will improve thereby increasing our chances of survival. This also applies to our mental exercises. If we repeatedly think about the same adequate response to a certain situation, eventually you will not have to think about "what will I do," you will just do. Just remember the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

When it takes an average person 1.5 seconds to close a 21' gap, do you really have 1.5 seconds to think about what you will do as a response and take action? Guess how long it takes that average person to see something, recognize it as a threat, formulate a response and put it into action? Yep, 1.5 seconds.

I know I don't have the time to think about it. Do you really do?

I want to know what you think!