Be Consistent & Be Prepared

Brendan,

In the world today carrying a gun for a living or as a way of life is more common than you may think. Some of us may carry as a responsible citizen executing our constitutional right to bear arms, for some it’s their sworn duty, for others a profession, however one critical aspect stands out. The ones who are true professionals are predictable in that they are consistent and prepared.  

Professionals train in such a predictably manner for a reason. These types are Military, LEOs, competition shooters and hunters all tend to train the same way. I’m not saying they run the same weapons, or drills, or follow the same shooting curriculums. What I mean is that they prepare correctly and train efficiently to meet their mission/task requirements. Professionals do not go to the field, range or shoot house without a training plan. Training is costly and time is precious.

Professionals take the necessary time to develop systematic and effective training plans to maximize resources and efficiently improve perishable skills and tradecraft. You may have attended training where it was evident proper planning did not take place. That’s a significant risk to take, especially in professions where the consequences for failure are so critical. Avoid the, I’ll just wing it mindset.  Simply put that is lazy, wasteful, counter-productive, and highly unprofessional. Do not cut corners or be cheap when it comes to your training, preparation, mission planning, gear, etc.  A goal of training is to sharpen strengths and to improve on weaknesses or deficiencies. You and or your instructors should take a long, hard look at what the desired end state of training is and plan accordingly. Once identified, you and or instructors will often use drills and scenarios to train the specific skills needed to reach the training objectives and end state. When your time and resources are limited, having a well thought out training plan is the best way to maximize sustained improvement.  I’m talking about operating with surgical precision.

Professionals prepare predictably and consistently. We should all agree that the above lay down for training is part of preparation. For this topic, however, I am discussing how professionals prepare to go to work and accomplish the mission.  Have you ever seen someone scrambling to get out of the loadout room or rushing last minute to find a piece of gear? Or the guy who needs to use his weapon mounted light, only to activate it and the battery is dead? The first thing we always did once we returned from a mission/training was to ensure we prepared for the next one. Vehicles fueled, weapons maintenance, ammo, comms, water, etc. All radio batteries on the charger and all personal and team equipment that took batteries had fresh ones put in. The list goes on and on. Professional gunfighters do not forget or neglect to conduct weapon maintenance. They do not forget to load their secondary weapon. They don’t go on patrols with un-zeroed sights. Their kit looks the same all the time, with minor changes made for different missions. Cords are secured, gear is in logical locations, and their plate carrier fits appropriately. They conduct PCI’s (Pre-Combat Inspections) religiously, whether for training or real-world operations. They conduct rehearsals if time is available, even on simple tasks. Most, if not all, of these can fall back on the establishment of proper habits. The ground level truth is that professionals do the hard right over the easy wrong every time. Complacency and laziness can be deadly.  The bottom-line here is, mistakes on the battlefield, to the city or small town USA are unpardonable sins punishable by death.   

Professionals are predictably on game day and we bury second place. We are all human, and all of us make mistakes. The types of errors, the frequency of occurrence, and how we recover from them is a significant factor when you differentiate a professional and a novice. It would be like comparing an all-star team to a JV team. A novice will naturally have more errors, more often, and take longer to recover or learn from them than an expert. This will be the natural progression that occurs when trying to master any skill. With that being said, a professional will not make “day 1” mistakes. An example would be that the number one man through the door in CQB will ALWAYS clear his corner first in his sector of fire. It’s taught day one. An inexperienced assaulter will make this mistake, even after understanding why it’s so important to do correctly. How many times he makes the same error is dependent on his aptitude, and ability to maintain composure in dynamic and dangerous environments. An expert at CQB will NEVER miss his corner as the number one man. He might make minimal, seemingly un-noticeable mistakes to the untrained eye, but he will not make huge mistakes with tremendous consequences. He is predictable, and never strays from his mastery of the fundamentals. He knows what works, and he sticks to the basics. Have you ever caught yourself deciding to change the way you’ve always done something at a crucial moment? Whether running a stage at a shooting competition, or something tactics based such as how you enter a hallway from a room. These impulsive ideas and actions rarely work out in your favor. The time to make changes to what you know, or vet new TTP’s, is not on game day or on an operation, it’s in practice or during training. The good idea fairy never enters the professional’s mind while he is on the field - working/operating. He predictably conducts his actions the same way every time, regardless of external or internal circumstances. Most of us have known someone who is predictably unpredictable. You never know what he’s going to do next, and he’s a risk in an already dangerous world.  Keep this in mind; anyone who will get you killed is the enemy.       

To be a professional, you must devote countless hours honing your skills and craft. As you climb the ladder of progression, you will ultimately find the better you get, the more predictable you and your actions become. To reach the apex of your potential, you must be predictable. This powerful trait can, and will, spread to others in your family/team if you lead by example.   

TRAIN-FIGHT-WIN

See you on the high ground…

-T

AM STRONGHOLD - TRAVIS N.