Get Real Self Defense Podcast
A dose of personal protection discussion to help you become more confident and prepared to protect yourself and your loved ones. Train Today. Protect Tomorrow.
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Get Real Self Defense Podcast
Ep #24: Enhancing Self-Defense Skills Through Self Development
What if self-defense was more than just a physical skill? Imagine if improving your self-defense abilities also enhanced your personal and professional relationships, stress management, and overall self-development. In today's episode, we take a fresh perspective on self-defense through the lens of self-improvement. We kick off the conversation with a unique approach to enhancing situational awareness. Remembering details about people such as their names, clothing, and physical features not only boosts our interpersonal relationships but also primes our self-defense reflexes.
We then dive deeper into the adrenaline dump phenomenon and how daily physical activities like cold showers and workouts can bolster your mental and physical resilience. Tune in as we discuss the power of influence, both in de-escalation scenarios and in our everyday roles, be it as a parent, a leader, or a colleague. We also share a list of must-read books to give you an even more comprehensive understanding of these topics. Get ready to take your self-defense skills and personal growth to the next level.
Check out the suggested books here:
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
The Prince
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Hey guys, first and foremost, I just wanted to say my kid was born, so that's kind of exciting. He was born on the 11th of October and, coincidentally, is the exact same birth date as my second or middle child in this case. So they share a birthday even though they're four years apart to the date. So pretty crazy. We're going to have to figure out birthdays and stuff like that. But as far as the episode goes, in this episode of Get Real Self-Defense podcast, I am actually covering with you guys self-defense through self-development. Now what does that exactly mean? Well, first and foremost, what I mean by self-development is what it sounds like. We still have to do things to level up our personal lives, and sometimes it can feel like self-defense training kind of derails that. Obviously, I still recommend that you practice your kicking and punching and things like that. But here I wanted to share some strategies that you can work on to personally develop yourself in other facets of life that simultaneously apply to your self-defense. Hence the title Self-Defense Through Self-Development. So with that, guys, let's get started.
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:All right. So, like I said, self-defense through self-development. So let's kind of go over some of the ways that we can do self-defense through self-development. There are three categories that I wanted to go over mainly, which are situational awareness, de-escalation and then stress adrenal-dump management. So, without further ado, let's go into situational awareness.
Speaker 1:Now, a lot of these tips are going to be pretty simple, and they're made to be simple because I want them to be applicable. So with situational awareness, it is no different. What I simply want you to practice, to develop your situational awareness that will apply to your personal or work life, is noticing details of people, such as remembering their name. So when we talk about situational awareness, we're looking at weapons and clothing and demeanor and stuff like that. And in your personal life or as a leader in the workplace or in the home, noticing details of a person or a new contact, a new customer, a new worker all these things apply. You are remembering that person's name, remember what their goal is or what their small talk was with you. So then it can be like oh hi, my name is Adam. What's your name? Oh, my name is Jesse. Well, Jesse, welcome to this place of work. Blah, blah, blah. Or this business? Yada, yada, yada. Where do you, where do you hail from? Oh, I hail from Utah. Oh, really, utah, that's great. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then remembering that, remembering that Jesse comes from Utah and whatever other small talk or details, remembering like their hair, like their hair color, let's say, let's say their hair color is pink, and then they come back a couple of days later and it's blue, and remember saying, wow, jesse, like I noticed, you changed your hair. You know, oh, wow, that person remembers me. Because there's a saying that goes and I don't recall, so I can't give credit to who the person that said it, you know who it's connected to, but basically I'm paraphrasing, but the phrase goes if you remember their name, they will be loyal to you forever. So the idea is remembering a person's name when you meet them and then, when they come back and you meet them again or, you know, re get reacquainted with them by remembering their name, they will feel special, they will feel listened to, they will feel like you care because and hopefully maybe you do care, but even if you don't, they're going to feel that way oftentimes because you listened. You know, wow, that person remembers my name is Jesse. Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 1:And this kind of detail management and gathering actually not only helps you in the workplace or as being a good leader or manager or a worker. Is also applicable to situational awareness, because you're learning to practice picking up details and paying attention to detail, which I've talked about before. So just by practicing when you interact with people, you meet people remembering their name, because I'll tell you what I have a bad time remembering people's names, sometimes really good with faces and physical details, not so good with their name. I can almost say my name is so-and-so and they'll say, oh, my name is so-and-so, and I'll almost immediately try to recall what's their name again, and sometimes a week or two goes by and I definitely forget their name. So you know, one of the ways that you can practice like name management is like let's say, they have an earring in their right ear or, like I said earlier, pink hair. You could say Jesse pink hair in your mind, like Jesse pink hair. So pink hair, jesse. Okay, that's their name. However, you need to wordplay it or make it a game that will assist you in remembering details about them, which will help enhance your memory and help enhance your recollection of memory, therefore enhancing your situational awareness.
Speaker 1:Now on to de-escalation. De-escalation is gonna be pretty simple and that is mainly studying of influence. So one of the things that is really powerful about influence is that influence attracts, and influence is applicable to almost every faster life Influencing as, or being influencing as a parent, as a child, as a sibling, as a worker, as a leader, as the CEO of a company, as a military personnel, like it doesn't matter. Influence is huge, and influence and de-escalation work hand in hand, because, in order to stop somebody who is really highly emotional or in crisis, or someone who is very angry or someone who wants to be violent, being able to de-escalate that person, is influencing them in the direction that you're desiring. And because of that, there's some books out there that are very popular when it comes to influence and there's some podcasts that talk about all sorts of things when it comes to influence.
Speaker 1:But for now, I'm gonna be focusing on a couple books that I've read and one that I'm reading right now that I recommend that you check out. So, obviously, as a honorable mention, verbal Judo is the go-to when it comes to learning, de-escalation and influence. But Verbal Judo by George J Thompson we covered that in a previous episode, an early episode of the Get Real Self-Fedest podcast, so I'm not gonna go too deep into that. But essentially, other books that cover influence are things like how to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Another one is Influence the Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Chaldini, and then the one that I'm currently reading right now is the Prince by Nicola Macchiavelli.
Speaker 1:Now the third one for those that don't know is a pretty old book and it's a heavier read, so you might wanna listen to it via podcast or audio book in some ways. But the Prince actually is considered by many to be the tyrants playbook, so a playbook that people who are tyrants and enslave their people or rule over their people in a horrible way, in a fascistic way. However, that's not what Nicola Macchiavelli actually was intending for the book to be. It was during the time of Medici and he was trying to pay homage in a way, as a way to show how to be a good leader, but still not just a good leader in the time period, but also know when to be ruthless or dangerous when it was time, and obviously it is dated in the sense of the time period. There's obviously different rules If you're a believer in the Constitution of the United States or a believer in democracy or a democratic republic. This book is not gonna completely apply, but there's several good tidbits that have to apply with leadership and with making hard decisions fast and when to be gracious and when to be ruthless. And so, by that sense, just because I am a person that enjoys history and a person that wants to level myself up, the prince, which has stood the test of time, has stood the test of time for a reason, so hence why I check it out and so far it's been a good book. So those are kind of the main books that I recommend on the front end that you can check out. I'll put links down to them in the description so that you can check them out as well, but in the end, take your pick. There's also other podcasts that you can check out too. When it comes to specifically influence coming up actually not obviously this episode, but the next week's episode we're actually sitting down with an expert on de-escalation and crisis management and influence that I'm really excited to bring out and release as a podcast episode. So I expect that and look forward to that, but with that we're going to go to the final piece, and that is stress and adrenal dump management.
Speaker 1:Now, what does that mean exactly? Well, when you are in a stressful situation, especially a violent encounter or an encounter where a lot is on the line, particularly your life or the safety of yourself and others, your adrenaline is going to go. Part of that is a physiological response. We've talked about the physiological response is a fight, flight and freeze in a previous episode, so I'm not going to go too deep into that. Check out fight, flight and freeze if you are interested.
Speaker 1:However, our body wants to do an adrenal dump because and usually when we get scared or you hear about people that get scared they want to. You know they pee their pants or whatever. That's your body's physical response of lightning the lighting, the load to make yourself more mobile and faster and getting rid of excess weight. And the same thing happens with the adrenal dump. Your eyes will dilate and you'll take in more sounds. You'll be like really hyper focused. Things will slow down in motion sometimes. Or you can go into what's called the black or color code black, which is just basically you don't. You're like losing your mind. You're kind of like basically frozen with fear in some ways in your mind, or you're acting in a way that you wouldn't normally act or react in a way that you normally wouldn't react. That isn't helpful and you are not in control of your mind and body in a good way. So not to get too deep with it, but basically, how do we manage the stress that we're going to feel or the adrenal dump? How are we going to manage all that in a safe environment without having to put ourselves in those stressful situations literally? And here's a couple really in some ways over simplified ways, but they're still useful nonetheless, because they do different things for different reasons, but they all come down to the same result, which is stress and adrenal dump management.
Speaker 1:And that is one take a cold shower. Take a cold shower every single day. It's actually miserable at first and then you start getting addicted to it. It's a weird kind of kind of thing because it just it. I don't know about you, but I came across taking cold showers first through Wim Hof. Wim Hof is an expert on it. He's made a name for himself and the whole thing. He's been on Joe Rogan's podcast and he's got his own business with the whole thing that he's made off of taking cold showers or just cold plunges and breathing and that's oversimplifying the man, but basically certain kind of breath you can do. His breathing method, as well as the cold, has created a lot of raving followers and fans that follow his work and just a lot of good stuff.
Speaker 1:And so I've been following it for a while and the first thing and the main thing that I've been doing is just getting comfortable, being uncomfortable, taking a cold shower. I'll tell you what. It is one of the best things I can do. It's better than a cup of coffee or an energy drink. You take a good cold shower for a minute or two and you're just electrified, you're ready to go, and what's nice is your body. One of the benefits of taking a cold shower is that your body is put into a stressful environment and your body manages that stress Again being comfortable, being uncomfortable. So again, that's what's pretty sweet about taking a cold shower simply, and also it makes you, it creates a little bit of practice of mental resiliency, which your body and your mind desperately need to make yourself again a little more resilient when it comes to bad situations. So, just by taking a cold shower, take your shower, wash with warm water, whatever, and then at the end the last minute, minute or two, drop that down to the coldest level temp, seize up a little bit, do your thing and then get it done. So I don't know if you guys can hear, but I got my little one in the arms. He might be making some noises, so you might pick up on that, and that noise, though, is the baby. He's sleeping in my arms right now.
Speaker 1:So with that, the second thing that I wanna talk about when it comes to stress and adrenal dump management is simply just work out, working out and working out pretty hard, I mean and I say hard carefully like getting up your body to where you are having a certain amount of adrenaline going. You're breathing hard, you're sweaty, you're tired All these things apply If you just kind of do a simple workout where you're not breathing hard or doing anything that's not what I'm talking about but moving at a fast rate. Crossfit does it pretty well, you know, running sprints does it pretty well. Doing things like that, where you're gonna get a higher heart rate and you're gonna breathe hard and you're gonna be sweaty and your adrenaline's going, that's gonna help you practice managing that similar response your body will feel from a stressful or adrenal dump management scenario. But you're doing it through a way of working out and, again, notice that these things that I've shared with you guys all apply to your everyday life. Taking a shower well, you take a shower every day, don't you? Hopefully you do. I mean, I definitely hope you guys are taking showers and you can take a couple minutes to take a cold shower.
Speaker 1:Working out. People talk about how exercise is super important. So exercising in such a way that enhances your ability to manage stress or adrenal dump and it also makes you physically fitter, which applies directly to your self-defense, because if you are not fit and you gas out really fast, then it doesn't matter how good you are or how well trained you are if you can't manage the muscles and the body that you have. So that's really important. Influence is super huge in business, in parenting, in basically every level of our lives. Communication influence is super huge, and so, by practicing influence that directly correlates with de-escalation and then situation awareness being the simplest of all. Just remembering people's names, remembering their faces, remembering what the small talk was that you had with them last week, and being able to recollect those things is gonna be huge, because you're also gonna build relationships, create loyalties among those relationships and you're also just doing better paying attention. There you go, buddy, it's okay, and then that way you're able to apply all these things in such a way that you would do in your everyday life. That applies directly to self-defense and personal protection.
Speaker 1:And the last thing I wanna share and this is just kind of a bonus piece is some of the podcasts that I recommend for personal development. There's a couple, but the main one that I think I wanna focus on and highlight and he doesn't know me. He doesn't even know I exist. Maybe one day I hope to be able to speak with the man and sit down with him, but that is Jordan Peterson. Jordan Peterson's podcast is amazing. I highly recommend that you check out Dr Jordan Peterson's podcast because he talks about a lot of things that get your mind and your emotions and your soul kind of in a way that elevates your being, and the reason why I recommend this is because he talks about how the most dangerous person in a room is a person who's articulate, and one of the more articulate people out there that I know of is Dr Jordan Peterson, and so, to finish this off, I will share this quote with you guys that he was, that he had given in answer to a person's question. So check this out right here.
Speaker 3:Becoming more articulate is definitely, I would say that's the primary array of weapons. So I mean, physical prowess is something and it's not nothing, that physical confidence that comes along with that as well, but the same thing, replicated at the level of the ability to communicate and to think, that's way broader field of battle and opportunity.
Speaker 1:So, like I said, guys, that is Dr Jordan Peterson's answer on who the most dangerous person is and a little snippet on why that person is super dangerous. We want to be dangerous. Being dangerous is good, and we'll cover being dangerous in a future episode. But one of the best ways to be dangerous is by self-developing ourselves and becoming articulate, and not just articulate in a way that of communication and influential, but also just being able to articulate our thoughts and our goals. And one of the best ways that we can combine and articulate our self-defense goals and our self-development goals is by doing some of the things that I suggested, in my opinion. So take it for what you will. If you have any other suggestions that you think would be really helpful for self-defense and self-development simultaneously, be sure to email me at adam at smartsafedefensecom. Other than that, guys, that is it for you today.
Speaker 1:I hope you guys enjoyed this episode of the Get Real Self-Defense podcast. Please be sure to check out and try some of these things and let me know what you think. Send me an email, tell me what works for you, what doesn't, and go from there, guys. So, train today, protect tomorrow, check those things out. I will catch you, guys in the following episode, where we talk about de-escalation and influencing crisis in depth with Andy Prisco from Jumpstart Mastery. So with that, guys, catch you in the next episode. I will see you guys next time.
