The Tactical Mindset
The tactical mindset is a way of being that optimally prepares you for any dangerous or crisis situation through tradecraft logic and survival adaptation.
A tactical mindset, or warrior mindset, is crucial in combat, urban survival or any critical situation.
This mindset is about constantly pushing yourself and continuing to train your body and mind to be prepared and adapt. Knowing how to engage conflicts and be aware of issues before they become a problem.
A mindset isn’t just a motto or decree, it’s how you live your day-to-day life and apply it to your profession.
Perception Consciousness
Awareness is one of the biggest components of survival. If you’re not aware of every single aspect of your surroundings, you’re suboptimal or at risk.
That means so much more than just knowing what’s around you. It’s taking those surroundings and dynamically calculating what could happen.
If you know an alleyway is coming up on your left, could someone jump out of it and attack you? If you see a fire escape on the apartment building to your right, could someone throw something down at you?
Understanding your surroundings at every single angle is crucial. You should feel like your body is on a swivel, and you can see things from a 540-degree perspective so you’re ready for anything.
Keeping an Edge
In addition to being aware of your immediate surroundings, you also have to be aware of your positioning. Are you always in the ideal position to respond to a situation and take action?
If you’re out in the open, something could happen to you from behind, or on either side, and would you be in a position to defend yourself or get out of the way?
Making the smallest adjustments to your position, even a step or two, can make a difference in your defensive or engagement capacity.
Obviously, you want to be as vigilant as possible. No one wants to get into a confrontation, and a true tactical mindset will always try to avoid a fight.
But, if it’s unavoidable, have an edge by making sure you have the better position whenever possible.
Ferocity When Necessary
Although vigilance is important, there is a time for fighting. Aggression. Offense. Combat. Kill.
If you’re being attacked, you can’t hold anything back.
A tactical mindset should give you the confidence and capability to counter that attack with ferocity. That means more than just trying to defend yourself.
If your life is on the line, you need to be willing to do whatever it takes to stay alive and get out of the situation. Obviously, if you have a weapon on you it becomes easier, and you should fight your way out of a grasp or lock as much as possible to reach it.
This mindset means knowing the proper time and scenario to injure or kill, engage or disengage.
If you’re unarmed, everything from kicking and punching to gouging your thumbs into your attacker’s eye can mean the difference between life and death.
Unarmed self-defense is an important skill, and even just learning a few basic moves with all the intensity you have will help you to feel confident and capable even when you’re not carrying a weapon.
Anticipate a Situation as it Unfolds
A tactical mindset allows you to constantly think ahead when you’re in a dangerous situation.
You should be able to visualize how that situation might unfold, so you can be a step or two ahead of an attacker or a crisis to engage it optimally.
For example, if someone is coming at you with a knife, how close will you let them get before you take action? If you’re in the middle of a crisis situation, what will be the final “trigger” before you decide to leave?
By playing out the evolution of a situation as much as possible, you’re more likely to make better, smarter choices. Not thinking ahead doesn’t give you time to make thorough choices at all. Instead, you’ll be forced to rely on your “fight or flight” senses, and that could land you in some serious danger.
So, while you might not be able to predict the future, it’s important to think about how a scenario might go, so you can be as prepared for almost any outcome.
In addition to understanding your triggers, you also have to find peace with what you’re willing to do under extreme circumstances. If it comes down to your life or someone else’s in an attack, are you willing to seriously injure them or even take their life?
These are things you need to settle within your own mind as soon as possible. You cannot hesitate in a crisis situation, especially when your life is in danger. Your personal beliefs and your actions need to align for your strategy to be effective.
Get Comfortable With Discomfort
Perhaps the most important aspect of having a tactical mindset is constant, consistent training.
Whether you train with others as a group, take tactical / combat classes, or work on your own physical and mental strength, it’s crucial that you never become too comfortable or complacent.
When you do, you’re more likely to slip up.
Continuous training will not only cement the tactical mindset into who you are, but it will make the components of that mindset second nature.
After a while, you won’t need to think about the different aspects of this mindset, because it will be integrated into you. It takes constant work.
That discomfort should be encouraging. It lets you know that you’re experiencing tactical growth.
![“Survival in any form for any environment is an act of prevention and or recovery, best enacted by preparation.” -Det V Cader The problem with survival prepping is the assumption that you’ll be home when the SHTF, if not then it was all for nothing. This is the solution: Standard “prepping” is the practice of stockpiling pertinent supplies and the training of survival techniques to be used for a possible lifestyle altering, large-scale catastrophe or SHTF event. The typical process is simple; slowly but consistently acquire food, water, weapons and other relevant equipment and store them in a singular central location such as a home or private “bomb” shelter. Just as important but far less utilized is the ongoing learning and practice of survival, defense and use of the prepped equipment. Having everything in one location has one fatal flaw, however. It assumes that you will be at that very location at all times or it will always be easily accessible and nearby to your present location. There’s no way of knowing when or where an “event” will take place. Meaning getting to your home base where all your survival prepping is stored may be impossible due to the nature of an “event”; mass gridlock traffic, land / infrastructure destruction, social panic and violence, restrictive martial law, vicinity containment, active combat / hot zones and public transportation collapse. The average person commutes to work or school 5 days a week far enough that they need to take motorized transportation, public or private. Then there’s leisure, recreation and errands time at other homes and facilities as well as being away on vacation. So all that survival prepping, across town or half way around the world can be lost or seized by another. For more than a decade I’ve been doing the “vagabond survival prepping method” of which evolved from stashing small city-specific go-bags around the world as part of my former operative profession. It wasn’t about survival back then but about professional utility and function. Equipment that wasn’t ideal to equip on my person at all times because of unnecessary baggage or non-permissive locales. As time went by and the more I returned to some of these “prepped cities”, the go-bags that were already stashed became better equipped and for more dynamic use such as urban / wilderness survival. To this day, I manage these hidden go-bags whenever I happen to be in their respective countries. That’s my way of survival prepping while vagabonding. These are located in a growing number of the cities I frequently visit in secure but relatively easily accessible spots such as; under a boulder access in New York’s Central Park, inside a tree stump in the Amazon Jungle and a derelict manhole in Bangkok – all of which have been my active stash spots for years. Unlike typical at-home-preppers, I don’t have the luxury of a long term address so I can’t hand pick the exact items I want off the internet to ship to. But this works out for me just fine as I build / upgrade my kits with readily available materials from the city I’m in. So if an “event” does take place (which will often affect major cities first and most), I’ll have my prep kit close by no matter where I am in the world. Instead of having to rely on a singular base a continent away. Due to the limited opportunity but unlimited variety of goods available while constantly traveling, each go-bag is completely different. Some by design and others by necessity. All are sealed to protect from the elements and hidden but easily “accessible”. Various Kit Items List: Backpack, Duffle Bag or Dry Bag MRE’s, Canned Foods and Vitamins Bottled Water and Energy Shot Water Treatment Tablets Prescription Contact Lenses Kevlar Vest or Shield Climbing Rope and Gear Euros and US Dollars Gold and Platinum Bullion Urban / SERE Kit Wilderness Kit First Aid / Trauma Kit SD Card w/ Data Smartphone Gas Mask Knife, Machete and other Weapons CB and Two-Way Radio Full Change of Clothes Multi Tool and Pry Bar Flashlight and Chemlights Sleeping Bag or Parka Solar Charger Some may consider renting a locker in a facility like train stations or self storage units. It’s not easy to maintain them for years at a time when you’re not even in the country for years at a time. Also, when considering an “event”, it’s logical to expect the loss of power grid and the mayhem in busy public areas. It’s best to stash them where no one will look in an area that won’t be too hectic but not where it will be too difficult to reach with limited transportation options. The vagabond survival prepping method isn’t limited to location independents and nomads, however. Consider your travel requirements of daily life and stash a go-bag in strategic spots accordingly; in your car, near your job, somewhere between your home and work, a friend’s place and near a hangout you frequent. Survival prepping doesn’t end with the acquisition of supplies and equipment, it only begins there and continues on with honing skills to survive and thrive. [OPTICS : Triple Aught Design Pack]](https://trdcrft.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Vagabond-Survival-Prepping-FAST-Pack-Litespeed-1-490x550.jpeg)
