Get Real Self Defense Podcast
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Get Real Self Defense Podcast
Ep #16: Self-Defense Strategies: Embracing Murphy's Law
Do you ever wish you had a handbook for life's unexpected curveballs? Join us in this episode of the Get Real Self Defense Podcast as we delve into Murphy's Law and its implications in self-defense. We're quickly unearthing the roots of this concept from the aerospace industry, threading its relevance into law enforcement and military tactics, and finally, applying it to everyday life scenarios. Whether you're thinking of personal protection or concerned about your children's safety, our discussion on building awareness and preparation is sure to be a game-changer.
Ever thought of having a plan B, C, and even D for unique environments like a waterpark or shopping mall? We're not just talking about the quickest exit routes or the closest first aid stations. We're introducing PACE - Primary, Alternate, Contingency, and Emergency plans - that can be tailored to your specific operational environment. Learn about anticipating different scenarios through an understanding of Murphy's Law, and discover how this knowledge can equip you to handle emergencies confidently. Tune in, take notes, and master the art of preparation today!
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Here's the crazy thing when I started this podcast just a few months ago, I've done zero advertising, and the fact of the matter is that we just hit, today, 1400 downloads on this podcast. I just want to say thank you to all those who have been following me on this journey. Thus far, we only have 15 episodes and in this case now 16 episodes, and we have 1400 downloads, with all 100% organic traffic. And so the fact that you guys have found this podcast, that you've found that you like this podcast, the comments, the emails that I get all those things from you guys. Thank you so much. Please keep those emails coming If you have questions or anything like that that I can help you with.
Speaker 1:As far as when it comes to self-defense, that is what I want to do here. So, thanks again. Can't wait to see what will happen when we actually put out advertising for this podcast, but until then, guys, let's keep the numbers rolling, keep hitting those likes and comments. And for those that are listening to the podcast and do not know, this podcast episode and the episodes previous are actually YouTube videos. So if you want to actually see my face and see what some of the examples of things I'm talking about, as well as some other content that's up there, including self-defense breakdowns of actual live fighting. Then be sure to go to the YouTube channel at SmartSafeDefense, instagram under the handle at SmartSafeDefense. So with that, guys, once again, thank you so much for all the support so far and let's hear to another 1400 more. So thanks again, guys. See you in this episode.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Get Real Self-Defense podcast. Here you get your daily dose of personal protection discussion to help you be more confident and prepared to protect yourself and your loved ones. And now let's get real with self-defense.
Speaker 1:Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. In this episode of the Get Real Self-Defense podcast, we're going to be going over Murphy's Law and how you can solve a lot of Murphy's Law with what's called a pace plan. Hello and welcome to the Get Real Self-Defense podcast. My name is Adam Jolly, helping find tips and tricks to help you become a more confident, competent and capable protector for yourself and your family. Like I said earlier in the intro, this is about Murphy's Law. Some of you will know what I'm talking about when I bring up Murphy's Law. Murphy's Law is something that is used quite a bit in law enforcement and the military, and often it can be used in business as well. Interesting thing about Murphy's Law is it's not a literal law in the sense of something like the law of gravity, but it does carry a lot of weight and really what it's about is encapsulating the idea of being prepared and expecting the possibility of things going wrong for you in whatever endeavor that you're going for. So, like I said earlier, murphy's Law is a popular adage really, and it basically states anything that can go wrong will go wrong. This phrase, believe it or not, actually originated in the aerospace industry somewhere around the mid 20th century, and specifically in the 1940s, there was a man named Edward A Murphy Jr and he was an American aerospace engineer. So at Edwards Air Force Base in approximately 1949, during a rocket sled test, there was a scientist that was working under Mr Murphy and had, according to the story, crossed wires incorrectly and it messed things up. And that was when Edward Murphy exclaimed if there's anything that can go wrong, he'll find it, or if there's any way to do it wrong, he'll find it. His remark later became known as Murphy's Law Originally, from what I understand, it's kind of a joke sarcasm and then it turned into oh no, this is actually a concept. It evolved basically from that to a general statement used as a tendency for things that can go wrong in various situations. Murphy's Law gets used a lot in law enforcement and military in particular, firefighting, first responders in general.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of things that you train for, but a ton that goes wrong, a ton of things that you can't control. This, essentially, is something that is taught in the military, not officially. It's not like an official concept. It was never an official concept taught to me. But when something went wrong in training or something went wrong on deployment. Someone would just exclaim Murphy's a lot bro.
Speaker 1:And the idea is that it doesn't matter what you do, there's always something that can go wrong. If it can't go wrong, it will go wrong. So the idea is to strive for the best possible outcome while at the same time expecting that things are not going to go in your favor. So why does this apply to you? Why does this matter? Well, the reason why it matters is, in self-defense, we are striving to prepare for those worst case scenarios of someone accosting us, someone attacking us, whether that be a home invasion, a carjacking, someone hacking into our bank account. There's all sorts of things that can happen, and anything that can go wrong will most likely go wrong.
Speaker 1:By learning and studying a little bit on Murphy's law, we can kind of essentially acknowledge the possibilities and then, because we acknowledge those possibilities, we can prepare for those possibilities. If you play like an ostrich with your head in the sand and try to ignore the problem, then the problem is still can exist, even if you choose not to acknowledge it. How little kids, for instance, I have one of my sons, you know sometimes will plug his fingers into his ears and then just kind of go oh, I didn't hear anything, I didn't hear you, so therefore it didn't happen. Well, it did happen, obviously. I have younger brother and he's autistic and he does the same thing. Sometimes when he's walking away, you'll call out his name because he's trying to sneak away and run outside and you'll see him plug in his ears as a way to say, since I can't hear you. It must not be happening. Obviously that is not the case.
Speaker 1:So the idea of Murphy's law for the military or for yourself when it comes to self-defense, is the idea of being aware of potential hazards and risks. After you acknowledge that, prepare to minimize those risks, enhance your planning and ensure that way greater resilience in your day to day life. Or, if you were in the military or firefighting police officer, for your operations, for your cases, so on and so forth. It's a reminder basically to prepare yourself for the worst case scenarios, essentially with the idea of that being case. There's a really good summary that was used back in the day for Boy Scouts Now, I guess, known as Scouts. But back when I was a kid doing Boy Scouts and I earned my Eagle Scout, one of the things that was hand, you know, hammered into our heads, hammered into my head was the essential slogan, that was, be prepared. The idea of be prepared encapsulates the whole thing when it comes to Murphy's law and day to day life.
Speaker 1:So as an example of how Murphy's law might apply to your day to day life that has nothing to do with self-defense. Let's say you want to take your kids out to the water park. Okay, we're going to leave at, you know, nine o'clock in the morning, so that the sun is nice and warm by the time we get over there at 11. And while we're there, you know, let's make sure that they have a change of clothes, let's make sure that we have snacks, let's make sure that we have extra cash in case we want to buy like ice cream or something at the water park, and let's make sure we have sunscreen, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you go down the line, you prepare for all these different things, and then, as you get there, there's a ginormous traffic jam and has nothing to do with you, has nothing to do with your planning, has nothing to do with your activity, but now you're stuck in traffic.
Speaker 1:That, essentially, is a concept of Murphy's Law. You're now stuck in traffic and you're not able to get there at 11, like you thought, and so the idea behind it is that anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and you're gonna hear me say that quite often, and so that's just a docile example. Another example would be you lock your doors at night and you are making sure that you know. Let's say you have a dog and the dog barks at a lot of things, and let's say that you maybe even have some ring doorbell cameras and you have these different things semi-prepared, ready to go in your house, and then maybe the wifi stops working or something, and the ring doorbell cameras don't work. Or let's say that maybe in the middle of the night, when you let the dog out to go pee, you forgot to lock the door. You know, just take your pick of a possible example that could go wrong. A window's left open downstairs. There's all sorts of things that can go wrong potentially and that could cause that home invasion can still very much happen. Or let's say, none of those things were going wrong, but someone kicks down your door anyways and rushes you.
Speaker 1:Again, the idea of Murphy's law things that can go wrong will go wrong, and that's not a way to say that we should be all doomsday and think that everything's gonna happen, never in our favor, and we're never gonna have good fortune and we're never gonna be lucky. But the idea is that if we can acknowledge the possibility, then we can prepare for it. If we see the hole, we can fill the hole, we can plug it, we can. You know. If you see a leak sprung in your boat, you can do what you can to stop the hole from continuing. You don't just ignore it.
Speaker 1:One of the ways that we can solve this problem is the idea of what's called a PACE plan, and for those that are in the military and maybe in some law enforcement circles, you'll know what I'm talking about. But a PACE plan is an acronym and PACE basically means primary, alternate, contingency and emergency, and the idea is you have your primary plan. Like I said earlier, the primary plan is that we're gonna leave at nine and we're gonna get to the nice fancy water park at 11 and we're going to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all the things that I said before. We're gonna have all these things prepared, ready to go. That's your primary plan, and then your alternate plan will be something like okay, if the water park is too full or if we are missing our window, then our alternate plan could be that we go to the beach or the movie theater or you know, a park or whatever else it is, and then your contingency plan would be something else and your emergency plan would be something else. So for self-defense it'd be something similar where maybe your primary plan is I'm gonna go out and I'm going to use situational awareness as I go about my day and we're gonna go to the mall or go to the park and have a good time.
Speaker 1:Your alternate plan is that if you notice something going bad, if you notice that someone is off or is coming towards you, that you know in your intuition is telling you this is wrong, then your alternate plan would constitute making space, getting your family away. If things get worse, your contingency plan is that you're going to basically accost that person, approach that person, get in that person's way so that your family can escape effectively, and then your emergency plan is that you just have to use as much violence as possible to stop that situation. Or let's change it up and say that your emergency situation actually could be something like a mass shooter that your family's caught in the middle of, and your primary plan is just making general situational awareness and then everything that's in between those, from the just general situational awareness in your everyday life down to the mass shooting scenario. Those would be your different situations. Are you prepared for those different scenarios? Now, obviously we can't be prepared for necessarily everything, but what are the things that you're confident in and what are the things that you're not so confident in, or that is a worry for you, and be prepared for those. And part of that is considering your environment.
Speaker 1:There's a saying that was taught in the military. That was understand your operational environment, know your operational environment. In business. You can apply that same phrase know understanding your operational environment in business by the understanding who are you talking to? Who are you selling to? Who is trying to sell to you? What's the business deal? What are they looking for? I mean, you can go down the line and your operational environment is what are we doing? Where are we at? How are we proceeding? Are we at a golf course? Are we in a business? It's like a meeting room, smoking cigars and having a discussion. These are all things that you have to understand in your operational environment to proceed.
Speaker 1:And the same thing goes with self-defense and your pace plan. Your pace plan will be adjusted based off your operational environment. If you are going to be in swim shorts and you are at the water park, chances are you're probably not going to have a firearm, a knife, you know, pepper spray or anything like that on you at that time. That doesn't mean that someone can't walk in and have those weapons on them. You know what is your place plan. Do you know where the exits are? You know those are the things to consider. What is your primary plan while you're at the water park? What is your alternate plan, your contingency plan and your emergency plan? And basically each one is if the primary plan doesn't work, what's the alternate? If your alternate plan doesn't work, what's the contingency? And if the contingency doesn't work, what's your emergency plan? And basically, if you apply the general concept to pace plan and apply it to Murphy's law, then you start actually creating a system for yourself to where you can start backing up your ability to handle when Murphy's law rears its ugly head and gets in your face and tries to keep you from doing whatever it is you need to do, whether that be just be left alone or just go about your day at a water park or go to a mall, whatever it is, take your pick. These are the things to consider when it comes to your Murphy's law.
Speaker 1:To give an example of Murphy's law and this is a true story, a personal story that I just had a few weeks ago and I've been thinking about for the last about two and a half three weeks, whether you know not or how to share this story Literally I'm heading over to see Sound of Freedom. A lot of you, I'm sure, know what it is. And Sound of Freedom, by the way, as a side note, a fantastic movie. It's not like what I would call an amazing movie in the sense of it's not really made to entertain, though it is still a movie. It is made to create awareness. Pretty incredible, connected to Operation Underground Railroad, which is a nonprofit organization that helps rescue children from human trafficking in particular. Highly recommend, if you haven't seen it, to see it.
Speaker 1:But the point was that I'm heading over to see that film and it's an hour away from my house. I have my kids with me, I have my wife with me and my kids are going to be dropped off with my folks to hang out while the wife and I have a little. You know midday movie date to go see this film. And as I am about gosh, halfway there maybe a little bit more, about 40 minutes into this hour long drive there, I noticed that there's a bunch of cars on the highway and it's not even really a highway, it's a. It's a state route really, because I live a little bit more on the countryside, and on the state route there's like seven or eight cars on the sides of the road and that is abnormal for that environment. So that perks me up.
Speaker 1:And then I noticed that there is a messed up I mean completely destroyed motorcycle off on the shoulder on my right hand side, and I noticed that there's a something or other. It was hard to tell at first what that was, but not to get too graphic, there was a person that was in the middle of the road and there was some people gathered around them. And so what I put together in that assessment I'm off duty, I'm not working, I'm trying to go to see a movie with my wife. That was my primary plan Murphy's Law, reader's ugly head and something went wrong. And it wasn't wrong necessarily for me, but it something that got in the way of what I was expecting to happen in that routine in that day. It was a motorcyclist who had gotten into a really bad car accident and was now in the middle of the road and everybody else was standing around kind of looking, thinking, freaking out, calling 911, whatever it is.
Speaker 1:And because of the person I am and my background, my experience, as well as being the fact that I was a you know that I'm a law enforcement deputy, though off duty I grabbed my emergency kit, which is an iFAC Basically it's a first aid kit that's for yourself, individual first aid kit iFAC and I which had chest seals, it had tourniquets, it had, you know, penny cutters which are like little shears that you cut clothing with. All those things blood clotting material. And I had this stuff to take over because I didn't know what to expect and I ran over and my primary plan was to apply tourniquets on this person because if there's massive hemorrhaging or anything else, I was going to have to stop the bleeding and when I get, there wasn't really any blood, wasn't really a lot of blood and the person was not moving. So I Check their pulse. They had a pulse but it was very, very rapid and weak and for the few of you that will know. Basically, this person's on their way out and they did not look good. I'm gonna keep it off of Off of the podcast and off of the YouTube channel describing exactly what they looked like. But they did not look good and it didn't look like that person was gonna survive at all. But I, you know that someone had gotten on the phone with 911. I was in the process of checking their pulse and Saw that their pulse was weakening, it was going away. I told them who I was and they instructed me Yep, you're good to go, just go ahead and do CPR. I was trained in CPR and moved on to applying CPR. When that happened, you know, I did what I could and the person still ended up passing.
Speaker 1:This is all to say that Murphy's law will happen regardless of what you do. You could have a great day, sunshine your day off, like me, planning to go see a movie, a date with the wife, take your kids over to visit your parents and Just have a good day and a relaxing day and not expect that something like that's going to happen. And yet for me it happened, where I had somebody who was in need and I did what I could to help protect them, help save them, and it didn't work out in my favor. So the purpose of me sharing this is that you, you have a plan. Plan can go wrong, the plan can Change drastically and it could be something that's tragic, something that's traumatic, something that's violent. And Just because you don't think it'll happen to you doesn't mean it won't happen and doesn't mean that it can Happen. It will happen. If it can happen, it most likely will happen to someone. It may not be you, but what are you going to do and are you prepared to help that person if you are there? So that is just what I want to Share with you, guys the concept of Murphy's law and the concept of the pace plan and, basically, if you have any questions on Murphy's law or the pace plan, you can feel free to message me down in the comment section of YouTube or reach out to me at Adam, at smart, safe defense, calm, as far as if you have any questions on those things or other Concepts that we've discussed in the podcast.
Speaker 1:In general, at this point, guys, I would love to continue to get your feedback. Please give me your feedback. If you've been joined this podcast, just go ahead and check out the YouTube channel as well. Give it a like, comment, subscribe and let me know if you came from the podcast. And that's about it for this episode. Guys, I appreciate you. Be sure to acknowledge Murphy's law and Be sure to start applying that pace plan. You can use it for emergency situations or just use pace plan for your everyday life. Get with your spouse or you know, if you're going to college. Just get with the idea of putting together a pace plan of how you're gonna go about your day. And if things go wrong, what's your alternate plan, what's your contingency plan, what's your emergency plan. And with that, guys, thank you very much for watching, for listening and train today, protect tomorrow. I will catch you, guys, next time.
