The Will to Prepare to Win



You may have heard this before:  “"The key is not the will to win... everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important." – Bobby Knight (remember that hot-headed NCAA basketball coach?  Yep that’s the him.)

I’d venture to say the will to prepare to win is an often overlooked skill set in today’s microwaveable ready world.  Can anyone blame us?  We’ve been programmed to take care of things at the last minute.  Everything we want, we get because of “just in time” logistics at the super-market or convenience stores.  With lay-away and credit cards do we really even have to plan and save for what we want?  And believe me, we’re not pointing any fingers.  The “just-in-time” thing effects all of us.

However, there are some things I think we can all agree that deserve a little farther look down the road when it comes to planning a favorable outcome for the protection of our family.  Taking time and spending a few dollars to learn or send ourselves for retraining when it comes to survival, self-defense and first aid can mean the difference in life and death.  Trying not to be melodramatic, the reality is that training equals proficiency and proficiency equals the speed in which we can help save lives, defend threats and find safety.

And unfortunately we can type away on blogs, write books, and theorize about what’s what, but it doesn’t replace getting “out there” with qualified instructors and learning new skills, or for some of us, knocking the rust off and retraining.  It’d be nice if it weren’t so, but survival skill sets are a perishable good if not used regularly. 

And that’s where the tag line comes in:  Having the will to win in a bad situation is common, but having the will to prepare to win is stacking the deck in your favor and is the key.  Having the will to get out there and prepare to win (by training) against life threatening situations is a great start.  Our families deserve the best protection we can offer.

Luckily for us there are a number of private companies in several different regions of the US that are willing to train law abiding citizens in wilderness survival, self-defense and first aid:  John Mosby (West & Northwest), SFMedic(East / Southeast), Max Velocity (East), DTG (Great Lakes) .  These are just to name a few.  It seems that most students are satisfied when finding training instructors who’s expertise is vouched for by those in their respective community of contact.  Equally important is feedback from fulfilled students.

Life gets in the way sometimes, but it’s important to take the time to prepare to beat the odds of a SHTF situation.  We hope that as summer is waning this post finds you and your family healthy and full of energy.  Perhaps we’ll see you in the field when it’s time to retrain some of those survival skills.