UltraKen

No one is coming to help. EVERYTHING is your RESPONSIBILITY. Save who needs to be saved. Kill who needs to be killed. Never stop working. Matt Graham

When you find yourself is a serious, life-or-death situation, you can’t afford to depend on someone else to save you or your family. No one is coming to help until after the predator has done most of his damage. Saving yourself, your loved-ones, and those in need, falls on YOU, and you only. It is all YOUR responsibility.

At that time, you need to be prepared. You need to be ready to act. Standing around like a deer in the headlights will only put you and your family at risk. Turning and running with the crowd, only makes you one of the targets. You have to fight back; you have to take control of the situations and make sure your loved-ones are safe.

As Matt Graham stated, “Save who needs to be saved. Kill who needs to be killed.” But, in order to do this, you must be prepared long before you find yourself in this situation. THIS is what you train for. What good is your martial arts training if it doesn’t give you the tools to save your life, or the life of your loved-ones, when your back is against the wall?

If you are training in sports martial arts, don’t make the mistake of thinking that you are ready to take on such a threat – YOU’RE NOT! You are no more ready to handle a deadly predator than a soccer player or jogger.

In order to handle a situation like this, you must prepare for a situation like this. You must train to take down and stop a dangerous predator, not to score points and scream like a banshee. If you want to be able to protect yourself, you had better get serious about your martial arts training, the correct KIND of martial arts training!

All martial arts training is not equal. There are some instructors who have been there and done that, and then there are others who read about maybe being there and fantasized about doing that some day. You want an instructor who KNOWS, not an instructor who THINKS HE KNOWS.

Either way, when the s**t hits the fan, you are on your own. Everyone will be looking out for number one. No one is coming to save you. Your safety and the safety of your loved-ones, will be YOUR responsibility. Make sure you are ready, willing, and able to handle it.

The police are very rarely there to STOP a violent crime; they get there to take a report and try to find the wrong doer. That does you no good after your wife, son, daughter, or even yourself, has been killed by a psychotic predator. I cannot stress this point enough – your survival is your responsibility. You had better be ready!

Wise martial artists understand this. They don’t live in a fantasy world. They understand that there are really bad people in this world. They understand what the police can and cannot do. And, wise martial artists understand that martial arts are more than a fun hobby or sport; true martial arts are about survival.

This is why you must develop your warrior spirit. You must train to make your martial arts skills deadly serious. You must be ready to do whatever needs to be done to save your life or the life of your loved-ones. This is the way of the warrior. All else is the way of the average man or woman. Choose to be a warrior, not a statistic. Bohdi Sanders ~ excerpt from BUSHIDO: The Way of the Warrior, available from Amazon at: or from The Wisdom Warrior website. Also, check out my #1 Bestsellers, MODERN BUSHIDO and MEN of the CODE!

There is much to be considered before the sword is drawn. Baltasar Gracian

Fighting is serious business. Even when you win a physical conflict, there is a very real chance that you will not walk away from it unscarred. I have won many fights, but have ended up with the short end of the stick in the long run in a couple of them. Breaking a bone in your hand can take well over a year to heal. Sure, you may have won the fight, but the other guy’s black eye and busted nose will be healed much quicker than your broken hand. This is only one of the many things that you must consider when it comes to fighting.

The bottom line is that you should never fight unless you absolutely have no other options. The warrior realizes this. He is not out to prove himself to others or to test his martial arts skills in the streets. Warriors know how fragile the human body is and how easily it can be damaged, especially by a skilled fighter. Fighting can cause more problems than you can imagine. It is not the carefree brawl which is depicted in so many movies and television shows.

Every fight carries with it the very real possibility of death, even if no one is consciously attempting to mortally injure the other person. Many people have died in fights which consisted of only one punch. People get hit, fall, and hit their head on something, and that’s that. As Gracian states, there is definitely much to be considered before things get physical, and these things have to be considered ahead of time. You have to know what you are willing to fight for and how far you are willing to go before you find yourself in that spot. Bohdi Sanders ~ excerpt from, BUSHIDO: The Way of the Warrior, available from Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1937884201 or from The Wisdom Warrior website at: https://thewisdomwarrior.com.

“Be the bigger person” is bulls**t advice. My character is not determined by my capacity to put up with bullying, lies, and personal attacks without fighting back. You hit me, you WILL get hit back twice as hard.

I constantly hear people saying, “Be the bigger person,” when someone is being attacked, as if hitting back somehow shows some unspoken lack of character; whereas, allowing yourself to be abused is somehow honorable and to be praised as you “taking the high road.” Sorry, but this is bulls**t advice.

Not defending yourself against bullying, lies, and personal attacks does not make you the “bigger person”; it simply make you a door mat and an easy target. I have been dealing with bullies for as long as I can remember, and I have never seen a bully decide to stop harassing and bullying someone else because that person was the mythical “bigger person.”

Let’s get one thing straight right now, bullies only have a change of heart when someone fights back and hits them twice as hard as their original attack. THAT is what adjusts a bully’s attitude, not turning the other cheek!

I have found over the years that those who are constantly urging you to be “the bigger person,” are usually the first ones to go ballistic when they are the ones being bullying, lied about, or harassed. They give cliché advice when it is your reputation or life on the line, but when it is theirs, you better believe they fight back with everything they’ve got. All of a sudden, the “be the bigger person” line is quickly forgotten.

The reason for this is that, “Be the bigger person” is bulls**t advice. My character is not determined by my capacity to put up with bullying, lies, and personal attacks without fighting back. You hit me, you WILL get hit back twice as hard! And I can promise you, it doesn’t make me less of a man or a smaller person.

The bottom line is that the bully doesn’t care about whether you consider yourself the bigger person or not; if you don’t hit back, he will continue to hit you until you man up. That is just how bullies work.

You may convince yourself that not defending yourself makes you a bigger person, if that enables you to live with your cowardice, but in reality, it doesn’t make you the bigger person. Not bullying people makes you a bigger person than the bully. Being a door mat only makes you, well, a door mat.

Does this mean that you should go ballistic on someone anytime they cut you down or they are rude to you? Of course not. There is a time and a place for everything. There is a time to walk away from a possible volatile situation; and there is a time to man up and take care of business. You must learn when to fight and when not to fight.

I will never get physical with someone if I don’t absolutely think that I have to. Walking away from a fight or an insult, when you know that you could destroy the misguided fool who is insulting you, is the way of the warrior. It is an act of honor and courage. Many times it takes more courage to walk away than it does to throw a punch.

But not fighting back because you are scared is not an act of honor; it is simply cowardice. It does not make you a bigger person and it does not make you morally superior.

Likewise, not fighting back against constant bullying, lies, and personal attacks does not make you the bigger person; it simply makes you an easy target. As Francesco Guicciardini taught, “Revenge does not always stem from hate or from an evil nature. Sometimes it is necessary so that people will learn not to attack you.” This wisdom flies in the face of the overused cliché, “The best revenge is no revenge.”

People love to throw clichés around like sage advice. You can see it ad nauseam on social media. I can’t tell you how many times people respond to my writings on social media with the cliché, “That’s easier said than done.” Well, guess what, Einstein, so is putting on your socks. Almost everything in this world is easier said than done; that is a meaningless cliché.

Yes, standing up to the bullies and thugs is easier said than done. It takes courage, character and a sense of honor to stand up against bullies or those in power. Whereas, any coward can claim to be “the bigger man” and let the bullies run all over them. Quit using simple-minded clichés to excuse your cowardice. Warrior the hell up!

You can conduct your life as you see fit, but, as for me, if you hit me, I hit back. If that offends your delicate sensibilities, then go cry about it in your safe space while drawing with your crayons. I was raised to be a man, not some snowflake who uses clichés to make himself feel better about his lack of courage.

Don’t ever let some armchair philosopher convince you that not defending yourself makes you a bigger person or that defending yourself lowers you to your attacker’s level; it doesn’t. Walking away when it is time to walk away, and standing strong when courage is called for, is what makes you the bigger person. As Sun Tzu taught, “He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.” Warrior up, people! Bohdi Sanders ~ Bestselling author of MODERN BUSHIDO, MEN of the CODE, DEFENSIVE LIVING, and BUSHIDO: The Way of the Warrior, all available on Amazon or from The Wisdom Warrior. com.