The Unique, The Average and The Outcast.

‘Be a voice, not an echo’ - Albert Einstein.


In this world, we all play our parts, we all have our purpose, even those that think they don’t have one, do have a purpose, it’s just a matter of time. There are different people with different mindsets and different goals. There are those who stand alone, then there are those who follow, but there exist a few who lead.

I prefer to categorize these three types of individuals as;
-Outcast.
-Average.
-Unique.

The ‘Outcasts’ are usually the ones who don’t follow social norms, the law breakers, the ones who don’t fit in anywhere in groups, either ostracized due to their thinking or are isolated by their own choice. These are the ones who are removed from the society, even though not all of the ‘Outcasts‘ are criminals, they are still viewed by the society as “odd” and “weird“. They have the potential to be great, to be ‘Unique’, but they squander that potential by not acting on it, acting upon their ideas, some willingly don‘t and some just don‘t have the means to bring their ideas to fruition, and ideas without action are just dreams and fantasies.

The ‘Average’ are the ones who just follow one another, they lack the capability to create their own paths, so they follow a path that’s made by others, they follow each other or someone they see as superior to them, they follow the set rules about things, like get an education that everyone is getting, get a job that everyone gets, get married like everyone does, have kids like everyone has, so on and so on. Average individuals are content in their lives where they don’t want to or have to achieve something more than they have. They need security in their lives and taking risks is never on their agenda.

Then finally, there are the few rare individuals, The ‘Unique’ ones, these are the ones that change the world with their actions, these are the ones who always aim for something high and make an impact on everyone, an impact that leaves their mark on the society, no matter how big or small, their actions influence people, their actions inspire people, it doesn‘t matter how many people they inspire, the impact can be as huge as global or it can be as small as just in their own society, it doesn’t matter, what matters is that the impact is positive, which enables others to achieve their goals and possibly be unique themselves. The ‘Unique’ individuals also have the similar traits to the ‘Outcasts’, they don’t follow social norms, they don’t blindly follow others, no, the ‘Unique’ individuals are leaders, they lead, they create, they inspire. They don’t just dream, they don‘t just have ideas, they act on them too, which makes those ideas into a reality. Unique individuals not only take risks, but they make smart choices while taking those risks. The risks they take brings them face-to-face with failure often more than once, but through their persistence, they move forward and lead.

But like I said in the beginning of this article, we all play our parts in life and the types of individuals above need to exist for our society to function. If everyone was an Outcast, no one would be, if everyone was Unique, no one would be and if everyone was average, then there would be no inspiration in our society to do something to take us to another level, all of the individuals who were and are Unique, who make a difference, without their existence, without their innovative thinking, we might still be in the dark ages of our history. Even the Outcasts teach us what not to do in life, we can learn so much from their mistakes, so even their existence is crucial for others to understand their own purpose in life and their own place in the society.

Whatever you’ll be, will be due to the choices you make and the thoughts you think.
I’m doing my best and then some to be Unique, to make a positive impact on this world, what about you? Ask yourself, which one are you? Do you lead, follow or just stay put?

That’s it. Thank you for reading.

Being a successful student.

This is a kind of part two of my post “Are you teaching or running a business?”.

As I mentioned before, a good instructor is always a student first, so does that mean that every student can just become a teacher and start teaching? Well, no. Not every student has what it takes to become a teacher, and most of all, not every student wants to be a teacher.

People start their training and learning for different reasons, personal development, learning and gaining new skills, increase their physical capabilities or simply to test their limits and push them further.

But not everyone who starts out on their journey of learning, successfully finish it and by finish i mean transition from learning to also teaching while learning, learning is a never ending journey, always keep that in mind. Only a handful out of many do continue on the path they set out on since the first day they made the decision.

So, let’s start with, What makes someone a successful student? Let’s explore the different aspects of an individual’s character that would make them a successful student, shall we?

1- The main thing needed in anyone who wants to learn new things is their Willingness to learn, without them actually igniting the idea of wanting to know and learn something new, they‘ll never take the first step towards a new source of knowledge that‘s waiting to be explored.

2- This comes after the idea has been ignited and the individual proceeds to take their first step in learning. The next thing is to Have a goal in mind and the surety of that goal. What does the student want to learn? Why does he/she want to learn that? What do they aim to achieve? How much hard work are they willing to put in? These are the kinds of questions that would give a student the direction they want to move forward in.

3- Lack of ego. The enemy of education is ego. The more you think you know about things, the lesser you actually do. Remember, there’s always someone better out there, always someone who knows more about things than you do. Learning from them, especially when they’re offering to teach, will just add to your existing acquired knowledge and experience. That’s how you become better at doing things. If you think you know everything, you’ll never learn anything, especially nothing new.

4- Respect for not only your teacher but your peers and the teachings that you receive. This statement shouldn’t even need an explanation. The most essential thing in learning is respecting your teacher, if you don’t have any respect for your teacher, you won’t respect their teachings either, you will always criticize their teachings without having any depth of knowledge yourself, resulting in  not learning anything at all. Remember, we can learn from just about anything and anyone, even the “bad/wrong” things, they teach us what not to do. Finally, respecting your peers is equally important, as they have traveled a different path than us, but they have reached a similar destination as us, and they got here by putting in hard work which deserves respect, not to mention that there might be something they learned along the way that you couldn’t or didn’t, which they could share with you, and something you learned that they didn’t which you could share with them, it would be mutually beneficial to both, increasing yours and their knowledge base in the process.

5- Open-mindedness.  Continuation from having no ego, Open-mindedness is essential in learning new things.  Too many non-essential thoughts cloud our thinking and judgments, so just think about the saying “Empty your cup”, along with “Take what‘s useful, discard what‘s not and add what‘s uniquely your own”  ~ Bruce Lee. It’s only after you’ve discarded the non-essential thoughts and data, you can take what is useful and effective for you, over time with enough good quality data acquired by you, you can then start to add from your own experiences, what’s uniquely your own. For all that, you need to open your mind to new things, to everything, being a skeptic isn’t always helpful, being cautious is. You should be cautious of the knowledge you aren‘t sure is for you, but still be open to it, for you might find something useful in it. As I said in my previous point, you can learn from just about anything and anyone.

6- Dedication and persistence. Nothing worth having comes easy. It takes hard work and perseverance to achieve success in life. You have to wake up with the same amount of enthusiasm that you had on your first day of learning. Only then will you be able to walk the talk and continue your journey towards gaining more and new kinds knowledge and experiences everyday of your life. Which would then be counted as your overall life experience that would help and guide you in your life's journey towards your goals.

7- Finally, You need Patience. Not many have this particular ability. Everyone is in too much of a hurry to get everything really fast. Here's the thing though, Rome wasn’t built in a day and you’re not gonna become a Rhode scholar in a day either. As mentioned in the previous point, it takes dedication and persistence to gain knowledge. It’s a life-long journey and a difficult path. But worth it for all the things you find out and all kinds of people you get to know along the way. Accumulating all sorts of knowledge along the way. Over the years, the only thing that should decrease, is the fog of illiteracy in you, everything else, (as mentioned in my previous point) should be as fresh and as plenty as it was on day one.

These are the things that make a difference between a successful student who could also become a teacher and a leader(which a teacher is in many ways, but that's for another post)if they wish to, who is as enthusiastic about learning as a five year old going to an amusement park with two lollipops in their hand, and an average student who just does it because the society or someone or something else forces them to learn and then gives up at the first opportunity and/or at the first sign of difficulty, going nowhere.

Decide which one you are.

That’s it. Hope you liked my post. Comments are always welcome. Thank you for reading.

Are you teaching? Or Running a business?

When we first start our Martial Arts training or when we attend our first self-defense session, those who are dedicated to the training, start with a particular goal in mind, whether it’s self-improvement or to learn more about the art or the subject they’re training in, or to achieve a certain set of physical and psychological skills, not many start out with the idea of wanting to become a teacher or an instructor in what they train in, but overtime as their dedication to their training grows stronger and the deeper they understand what they’re taught, some develop a desire to share what they learned over the course of their training.

So begins the journey of a student, as a teacher. The instructor now start to guide those who are new and are looking for someone to help them achieve their goals. When a student chooses to train under someone, they put their trust in the instructor to help them train in the most effective way to accomplish what they aim to.

A new instructor starts out with a desire to share what they learned over the years, to spread the knowledge and make a positive difference in the lives of people they teach. They offer the best quality of knowledge and they make sure that the student grasps what they’ve been taught not just in width, but in depth. In short, they care about getting results they promise.

Now, while there are many instructors who maintain that kind of great and effective quality of training, some lose the sight of what it means to be a teacher. They forget what they set out to do, their principles are corrupted and are clouded by greed for money and fame.

Many define their success by how many students they have and how much money they make in an hour, but the true success of a teacher isn’t measured by those things, it’s measured by their teachings, it’s measured by how positive of a difference they make in their student’s lives.

You can have one student and guide them in the proper direction and put all your heart and soul into their training and see the visible results in them or you can have thousands of clients all over the world who pay you millions for ineffective low quality material packaged in an attractive box, without any positive difference.
The more successful teacher out of the two, for me would be the former. The latter is just a more successful businessman. You can teach a handful of people in a public park and still help them achieve their goals, as long as you’re honest towards yourself, your students and in your training. That, for me, is true success.

On a side note, an important thing to remember for anyone who wants to teach. An instructor should always be a student first. Without always evolving and learning new things yourself, you won’t be able to help anyone else either.

That’s it. Thank you for reading.

Be-lie-f - The ultimate flaw within ourselves.

What I'm about to write will offend a lot of people, so if you're one of those, please do not read any further.
I have never written a post that goes off-topic from self-protection and fitness, but today, something just sparked inside me after reading some books and researching some events and incidents. I started typing my analysis and thoughts in wordpad and this is what came out.
The things in this article are exceptionally harsh. Please, do not read further if you don't prefer reading harsh realities of human nature.

You see, I've noticed that the fundamental flaw in mankind is our inability to accept the differences between others and oneself. The lack of open judgement and the problem of being egocentric. We force and demand, we indoctrinate and invade, just to practice what we believe is right. Somewhere along the lines, we've deformed ourselves into something much sinister: A self-worshiping species who thinks what we are doing what is right. When we force someone to change, they might submit or they might not. They'll hate us for trying to change them and we'll hate them for trying to change us.

That is the fundamental flaw, that is the root of all conflicts between mankind. The human ability that is called "belief" has been around for thousands of years. It allows us to practice what we believe is correct and for us to have our boundaries to what is right and what is wrong. We pursue what we desire and what we feel is right. But through it all, overtime, we've misused our beliefs.
We started to strive to force what we insist is correct on others by indoctrination, war, murder, and other perverse methods in the name of our beliefs. But humans will be humans as we are all obdurate creatures who want to change others, but refuse to change ourselves.

We refuse to accept that 1+1=2 is correct, and that 10-8=2 is also correct just because your mum or dad or friend or teacher said so, and that they each have adopted the very same belief they are propagating from somewhere else. We refuse to believe that anything that is out of the ordinary is wrong, and that everyone else is non-deserving except ourselves while indulging in hypocrisy. This flaw is global in mankind, it applies to all religions, all races, all cultures even and not just one in particular. This flaw may manifest as a positive intention, but in reality, we are all unaware that we are just wolves in sheep's clothing.

We are just all self-conceited, narcissistic creatures who believe we are the most deserving, holy, proper beings without realizing the sad truth that is we are the exact opposite of that.
We all grew up being taught that to be a good person, you have to practice a certain set of things. We were taught that our belief is the one true belief that follows the one true law and order, and then we try to make another person practice our beliefs to "save" them, and they will think that their belief is the one true belief and ours is a false belief and at the same time they will try to "save" us. We will hate them when they deny our beliefs, and they will hate us when we deny theirs.

We like to find excuses to force our doctrine on others using religion, politics, moral beliefs, culture and even love. We like to segregate ourselves from others because we feel uncomfortable around them, in that our beliefs are supreme and everything and anything else is inferior and incorrect, not knowing and/or acknowledging that they feel the exact same thing when they're around us.

You can try to "save" others from taking a step towards what is "wrong" by force, but don't forget, that for every step you make someone take into your world of right and wrong, you are moving a step forward towards theirs. They will hate you for it, and you will hate them for it. There is no right or wrong. No proper or improper way of living. No one true law that we all must follow because we each have our own beliefs.

You can say that all we have to do is be open-minded and be accepting to fix this problem in our world, but you cannot deny the fact that what you consider as open-minded and accepting may not be shared as a common thought with another person.
Beliefs are not based in logic or facts or rational thoughts or deductive reasoning, they're based in idealistic thinking, emotions and personal bias. The only truth that you find in one's beliefs, is the believer's own or what was ingrained into them from childhood.

It's universal, there is no solution to this. I am invading your beliefs if you disagree with my opinion because you have your own beliefs of what is right and wrong. And you are invading mine when you say this is "blasphemy" and abuse, because I have my own beliefs of what is right and wrong.

The world we call home, is in conflict because we have created impasses by ourselves with ourselves. Without this "belief", we will not be humans. And this-- Is the ultimate flaw of mankind. We are the flaw within ourselves.

Mind you, this article is mainly focused on those majority who try and force their beliefs on others, despite their unwillingness to accept them and not on the few who live and let live.

That is it.
I do Thank you for reading my rant. If you didn't, that's fine too.

Denial

In today's society most of us are living in fear, we are forced to live in fear, whether it's fear of a natural disaster or of terrorism or domestic crimes or even our own government.

But some of us don't like living in fear of those things, so rather than create helpful solutions and prevention measures for our protection, we make up our own little ideas of what society is like and idealistic thoughts of how we would like it to be. That little condition is called; Denial.

It is common for an average individual to live in denial, it helps them cope with the difficulties of life by not facing or acknowledging them at all. What most don't realize though is that fear is what helps you survive, fear is what helps you adapt, fear is what helps you evolve and protect yourself from the dangers around you. Fear is healthy (Read Gavin DeBecker's Gift of Fear).

The more you deny yourself to acknowledge the reality of things, the less your chances of creating solutions to prevent the problems from happening in the first place. Many individuals look for a cure after the damage has been done. This leads to nothing, no new solutions, no new ways to stop the damage from happening, it only leads to more fear, which leads to paranoia which leads to more failures in keeping our society safe, which leads to certain individuals capitalizing on the fear of the people and exploit that fear for their own profit, they claim to provide solutions, but in actuality they will just instill more fear into the people who buy what they sell.

The most important thing to do for us is to stop looking for ways to hide the reality of violence, stop trying to find ways to "fix" the damage, stop creating paranoia in people's minds, stop creating "solutions" to the problems that don't exist and start forming effective methods to prevent the damage from happening altogether, turn that fear into a true self-protective weapon, not into paranoia. Stop living in denial, step into the reality, look at the signs and prevent the violence from occurring.

So you think criminals lack social skills?

Well, you might wanna think twice about that.

Ever wonder why most victims of con men are so easily coerced into giving them all their money or why the victims of serial killers let themselves be lured to a secluded house to be murdered? Do the victims like it? or are the criminals just that good? (A hint: It's the second one ;)

If you asked this question earlier, you'd have known more about their MO's than you do now.

You see, these skills, no matter how much they fake it, these criminals do have them, even though they're not really your friends, they will make you think that they are and will not care how much they'll hurt you later on, individuals like that are just that good at having social skills. The terms for these kinds of individuals are Sociopaths or Psychopaths. (They're similar but still quite different and the terms are used as synonyms by many).

Individuals like them never base their actions on emotions, but rather they base them on logic and calculations. They analyze their marks to ensure that their goals will be achieved. They're cold, but they seem warm and welcoming to others, that ofcourse includes their possible victims.

Some are so good at faking emotions, because they actually can experience them at a very high level and they utilize that to their advantage.

Now when i say criminals, i don't mean a common thug or a mugger who will just threaten you and intimidate you to get your money, then probably stab you and run away, no, I'm talking about actual 'high profile' criminals, that includes rapists too, btw. They're really good at deceiving and isolating their victims.
Of course experienced muggers do know how to hide their emotions and body language quite well, that's how they ambush their victims, but most of the times, they can be caught, if you're trained, alert and aware enough to spot them.

Sociopaths have one of the best social skills you'll see, they'll manipulate you into giving away everything you have without a hint of remorse and by the time you realize what happened, they'll be long gone or you'd be long "gone", if you know what i mean.

This doesn't just apply to criminals, but everyday people too. There are sociopaths living among the society, you might see them everyday and even like them without knowing that you're being manipulated.
Never underestimate a sociopath's social skills, it's not the quiet guy you have to worry about, it's usually the overly charming ones that you gotta look-out for.

It takes a psychopath to know one, it takes a sociopath to know one.
But you can start by understanding their MO without being either, research a little on this subject, then see if you can identify the signs in others or even yourself, it save can save you a lot of trouble in the long run.

I know it will sound odd, but not all individuals appearing to be sociopaths, are sociopaths, some just lack the social skills to behave the way they're supposed to or some are actually really nice, but can be misunderstood for a sociopath due to their unusual amount of kindness by someone who's a bit of a cynic and a skeptic. That's why it's is a complicated subject and usually quite difficult to spot one, until it's too late.

Once again, Thanks for reading.

Logic and Emotions

Okay, so I'll start with a conversation, just read it and I'll explain what's going on here.


1- I hate that instructors are forcing people to learn self-defense and making them think that it's necessary to do so in order to be safe.

2- No one's forcing them to do anything, recommending a solution is not forcing them.

1- Yeah? Well, what about all those people who come on t.v. and news channels and promote sd as something that's compulsory then?

2- What? What are you talking about? No one's promoting it to be compulsory.

1- Yeah right!

2- Look, I don't know where you've been getting your "info", but no one's scaring anyone or forcing anyone or making it compulsory to learn sd.

1- Come on man! Wherever I see, there's all sorts of promotion for sd training, these greedy bastards are making money off of people's gullibility.

2- Alright, just slow down here, first of all, there are good instructors out there, who don't force anyone to train. second, only the ones who are more interested in business and taking people's  money are the ones doing the b.s. promotions, they're the ones who don't know jack about sd but still promote their "styles" or "systems" to be "street-effective". third, a good legit instructor doesn't scare his/her students, a legit instructor is there to help students to not be scared.
One other thing, people aren't gullible, they're straight up stupid. As if they don't know when they see b.s. They're just too brainwashed or too much in denial, to actually smell it.

1- Whatever. I just don't think people should learn sd, just so they can feel safe to walk on the street.

2- Here's the thing, they don't learn sd to 'feel' safe, they do it to 'be' safe by being prepared. Who ever does it to "feel" safe, is doing it for the wrong reason and is probably doing it with the wrong instructor.

1- So you think, it's okay for people to be paranoid and scared that they might be attacked anytime and so they have to learn sd and that's the only way to remain safe?

2- I don't think you understood what i wrote in my earlier messages. Criminals, look for a weak target and if you are, chances of you getting victimized increases, it's not that training will make you an immortal and invincible superhero, it will decrease your chances of being a victim by identifying the threat or if caught, survive it.

1- Oh i understood everything perfectly, you're one of those who thinks that being attacked is the victim's fault because they weren't "trained" for the attack.

2- Alright, you're really not making any sense right now. I never once said that it was the victim's fault. I'm just saying that it's every individual's right and responsibility to ensure their safety, those who don't, are the ones who usually end up victims. I wrote a similar reply on the thread too. No one is "victim blaming" here, all I'm saying is that it's better to be safe than sorry. It's like evolution, you have to adapt and evolve to survive the ever changing conditions of your environment, those who don't go extinct. Do you understand now?

1- So what you're saying is, it's my way of self defense or you get victimized.

2- No, what I'm saying and what i always say is this, "If you want to learn something or grow yourself or become a better version of yourself or evolve or all of the above, then you train, if you don't, and are satisfied with what you are right now, you don't have to do anything".
In other (more blunt) words, I live by one principle; If the world wants to burn, I'm not gonna burn myself trying to save something that doesn't want to be saved, who am i to save it? No one, that's who. Instead, I'm just gonna take a step back, sit down, relax and enjoy the fireworks and some barbecue, but those who need fire-extinguishers from me will get one, the rest are free to do as they please. But, you know what? I'm done, I don't think you're gonna understand what I'm saying here.

1- Wow. Whatever dude, you're a psycho. I don't even know why i wasted my time with you!

2- I'm just being logical here. But... okay...

1- What you are is a heartless psycho who just wants people to kill each other with your self defense. I hope you don't have any kids, i feel sorry for them, having to grow up scared and grow up with a psycho like you, they're sure to be serial killers. Learn some compassion and empathy or you are never going to be like a normal sane person and make any friends and die alone!

2-  I'd rather be heartless than headless. I don't have any kids, but in case i do and they do turn out to be criminals, I'll know sd and will be able to protect myself from them, can't say the same about you though.
Now stop messaging me idiot. I said I'm done already, didn't I...

1- F- you! A-hole!!


Well, so that "little convo" was between me and an individual with some "different" world views. I had to remove many of the profanities, that person cursed a lot. But that's how the conversation basically went.
It was over the internet, and it was about the topic on a thread that individual and i both had read and started discussing, it turned ugly real quick.

That individual is no. 1, and I'm no. 2 in this conversation.

That individual gave me such a headache, I almost cried tears of blood from the sheer stupidity of the replies.

But it gave me an idea to write this little post.


See, even though emotions and logic always contradict each other and are in conflict with each other, they're still mixed up by many. People have always confused a logical individual with a sociopath or a psychopath.

What they don't understand that logic is not logic if it has emotions in it. Logic is an antagonist to emotions and vice-versa and cannot co-exist when rational thinking is required.

Sure, logic will seem heartless and cold to many, but logic is what gets to the truth in the end, while emotions just cloud our judgement, our rational thinking and stops us from finding an effective solution and reaching a proper conclusion for a matter that requires difficult choices to be made.

Not to say that emotions are bad, they're helpful in many way for many things, but as far as personal safety and training for it goes, I just prefer using logic more than emotions. It will seem "cold" and "psychopathic" to some, but all it does is just removes all the filters and biases that we have due to our conditioning, our tribal mindset and our emotions and reveal the world to us as it really is and not as we want to see it. That doesn't make someone a cold heartless psychopath, it just makes them rational. Now, try and think about this topic without your personal bias, 'k?

That's it and Thanks for reading.

Misconceptions about Martial Arts and Self Defense

First, let me start off with this; What does the term 'Martial Arts' mean?
For those who aren't familiar, 'Martial' means 'War', the term 'Martial Art' means the 'Art of War'.
Martial Arts at one time, were meant to be used for violence, for combat, for wars, not for entertainment or enjoyment or hobbies. But with the invention of new weapons like firearms and other advanced weapons, Martial Arts have become obsolete as far as wars are concerned. Most of the soldiers in combat never even get into situations that require them to use H2H methods. But still many Martial Art schools promote their style/s as a "military method".

This particular subject is filled with so much confusion and twists, it's like a tangled up rubber-band ball stuck together with superglue.
With movies making people think that they can do impossible things and with mcdojo's and money hungry instructors capitalizing on the guilibility of the masses and selling "effective street programs", there is not much left that can be called Martial Arts. From "children's self defense" to "fitness for martial arts" and other recreational programs, there's not much of the "Martial" part left in Martial Arts today.

Now as far as self-defense is concerned, there's a whole mess of things that need to be addressed. One of them being that Street Fighting and Self Defense are not one and the same thing; Here's why.

Start questioning these things, research more on these subjects, then you'll see for yourself how you've been manipulated into believing the reality that doesn't exist.

Terms

In my past posts, I've used many terms to describe violence, and I've used them in a not so correct manner, but as time goes and i educate myself more, i tend to improve myself and my mistakes.

So, here's an article that clears up some things on proper 'terms'.

First, Violence is violence no matter what you call it.
It's the various situations that the violence is used in that differs from each other.

Usually, i don't like to have a big fuss over terms, but in this case (training for violence), terms can help determine how you will train and what you will train for, rather than just blindly training to punch and kick, you would learn and understand the dynamics of violence and be able to apply the principles as required.

Alright, here's a list of terms that clear up somethings as far as training for different types of violent situations is concerned;

Street Fighting and Fights; Street fighting is nothing more than what you see in those youtube videos, two people going at it, dancing around and punching each other while their friends cheer on. I'm sure many of you are familiar with 'worldstar'. That's what fighting is. It's not an attack on someone, all involved in a 'fight' are equally willing to hurt each other for fun or their status among peers.

Self Defense; It's a legal term used if you're able to prove that the force used by you on another person was the result of an unavoidable assault or attack on you by that person. Self-Defense is not something you "do", it's what you did when your life was in danger and were you justified in doing so, that's self-defense. It is also a part of a much larger area of study of violence called Conflict Management.

Self Protection or Personal Protection and Safety ; These terms are used as a synonym for self-defense by many, but actually they're just used to describe the measures taken by an individual or a group to protect themselves from threats before they occur. Avoidance, having situational and environmental awareness, being alert of suspicious individuals around you, trusting your intuition and instincts are all a part of self-protection measures. It is a bigger part of Conflict Management than self-defense.

Attack and Assault; An attack is the the use of aggression and violence (physical and/or verbal) on another individual, usually to get something from them or for self-gratification.
An assault is a legal term that has different meanings in different countries, so you would have to look up as to what constitutes as an assault in your own country. In common law, it's defined as; "The act of creating apprehension of an imminent harmful or offensive contact with a person".

Violence; This is an 'umbrella term' for the many different violent situations that take place. From asocial violence such as; muggings, home invasions, rapes, mob attacks, assaults, etc. to anti-social and social violence such as; ambush attacks by groups for their fun, street fights, bar fights, etc. There are various sub-categories of violence. (I'll also post on that subject soon).
Violence is used in self-defense situations, and it's used in sport fighting, it's used at home, it's used in the offices and even in nature, it exists everywhere in some form or the other and there are many different ways to describe violence, but that doesn't mean it changes what violence is, and that's; Violence; The act of using physical force - lethal or non-lethal - intended to bring bodily harm on it's victim. It has many forms, but the goal is always the same, to put it simply; Put your target down.



That's it. Thanks for reading.