by Rich Portwood
(GSL) – Eight months ago, John Boch asked if I would be willing to write something about mindset. Unfortunately for John, I had to think about it for a few months. What did I come up with? Mindset can’t be taught; mindset is the result of conditioning.
For anyone who is thinking about spending money on a course that teaches mindset, save your money. How do you teach aggression? How do you teach the willingness to stand up for yourself or others? Some of us are born with it while some of us aren’t.
Several years ago, I called nationally-known firearms and tactical trainer Wes Doss with my new lesson plan. I can’t begin to describe how excited and nervous I was to tell Wes about the new class I had planned to teach through his company, Khyber. Wes, who was usually a gentleman and diplomat, instantly told me, “I hate it” when he heard it was an Officer Survival calls. I was stunned, hurt, and defeated. He hadn’t even heard what was going into the class!
Wes told me that just the title of officer survival was setting students up for failure. What? How? I just couldn’t understand. Wes must have sensed what I was thinking so he explained a little more. He said that when someone survives something, it means that it was by chance, and by the skin of their teeth. People survive a shipwreck by finding a piece of wood to hold onto. People survive a car crash by being thrown clear from the car. People survive being attacked because the attacker left them for dead and the victim was found by a passerby and rushed to the hospital.
The idea was to win. Wes had a PhD. in sports psychology and was, in my opinion, the best tactical trainer in the world. Wes authored the books, “Train to Win” and “Condition to Win.” Lucky for me, Wes sent me both of those books and it really opened my eyes to how important it was to choose the right words in order to condition students to win.
When I was diagnosed with cancer in 2022, my oncologist told me I had a good chance of becoming a cancer survivor. I told him I would NEVER be a cancer survivor and to never use that term around me again. He was more than a little shocked when I told him that I wasn’t going to survive cancer, I was going to kick cancer’s ass and move on down the road. That was my attitude. I wasn’t going to survive by chance; I was going to actively fight cancer. My approach was probably tough for others to watch but I pushed hard. Even during my hospital stays, I was committed to trying to walk and attempt push-ups.
On the other hand, I was in chemo one day when a new patient came for her first treatment. Patients are only separated by a thin sheet so I could hear the nurse reading her name and treatment protocol when I heard the patient start yelling, “Help!” and “You’re killing me!” Being curious, I drug my IV pole to the edge of the curtain to see what was happening. The nurse was still holding the medication and the woman’s IV hadn’t even been inserted yet. The nurse had to lead her away to speak to a counselor. She had already made up her mind that she was going to die of cancer and within a month she fulfilled her own prophecy. She gave up.
I tell you the cancer story so you understand how important it is to have the right mindset. As a fresh-faced rookie, a sergeant told me that I had to come to work every day with an “S” on my chest. Not once during the next twenty years did it ever cross my mind that I could or would lose any fight. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t take unnecessary risks, but I didn’t shy away from anything. My mindset was that I was not going to lose and I would do anything it took to win. Do you feel that way? Do you know you are prepared for whatever comes your way? Do you know with all certainty that you can take on the world and win?
So how do you condition yourself to have an undefeatable mindset? Are you tested? Are you prepared? Physically, have you pushed yourself to find your limits and push past them? Running, swimming, cycling, jiu-jitsu, or whatever you can do to test your physical limits is the first step. Train your body and learn to like being uncomfortable. Train with your weapons and with your mind. Learn how be a better shooter but learn tactics, too. I also think competition is a great way to test your skills against an artificial stress.
Hard times create hard men and women, right? None of us want to live like Spartans, but we need to push ourselves and test our limits.
To develop a mindset to win our fights, condition yourself to win both mentally and physically.