Is the “Warrior Mindset” dangerous?

I recently signed up for the Survival Summit from an email I received from the American Preppers Network. The lineup up blew me away and seemed to have some great learning opportunities for the full spectrum of the prepping and survival community. I found this summit to be an absolutely fantastic idea and I have so far learned a great deal of information that will be of great use for my future prepping endeavors. The one issue I had with this summit had nothing to do with the hosting site but with what their star host had to say.

Let me preface this by saying I have been a longtime fan and have a massive amount of respect for this guy but Travis Haley really disappointed me with his presentation. This is not a shit talking session so save those comments for someone who likes that stuff. This is just my counter point to his proposed points of conversation on the promotional email. “Why the stereotypical ‘Warrior Mindset’ is a load of crap that can get you killed.” The quotation is a bullet point from his presentation that caught my eye and immediately brought on a feeling of immense disappointment; this is the same person who under his syllabus for all of his courses makes sure to have the words “Safety” and “Warrior Mindset” on the same line in the same sentence. I began to wonder what changed his philosophy from years of preaching the importance of having a Warrior Mindset. How is this mindset now a load of crap that could in fact get me killed? If he truly felt this way wouldn’t he have changed his class outlines and maybe reached out to the firearms community who holds him in the highest regard? I think it was just a poorly executed sales pitch.

The individual who has the Warrior Mindset will find a way to succeed in any scenario be it pushing physical limits during exercise or just keeping a reasonable level of situational awareness in their day to day routine. There is good reason Travis Haley makes it a point to reference Warrior Mindset next to Safety in his course outlines. If someone could clarify how having a warrior mindset could lead to my demise please inform me. I again have the utmost respect for Travis Haley but I cannot support his now changed view on the Warrior Mindset. Even someone of his stature in the firearms community is free to be questioned when it comes to something like this. Practice what you preach is a fitting phrase for his statement. Incorporating a Warrior Mindset into your DNA could be the difference of you being a victim or a survivor.

What is a “Warrior Mindset”? Why is it important to have a realistic grasp on instilling this into your

daily life? What inspired Travis Haley to state “Why the stereotypical ‘Warrior Mindset’ is a load of crap that can get you killed.”? Are people taking liberties with the true spirit of the words and twisting it into some mutation that no longer supports the true meaning? After speaking to my colleagues at some length on this subject we found that agreeing to an exact definition on this phrase was challenging but we all ended up at the same conclusion regarding implementation. A Warrior Mindset is just that, the frame of mind in which you go about your daily life. This is not a light switch that you turn on when you face an emergency, a mindset is constant. I incorporate Warrior Mindset implementation in a manner similar to the volume knob on a radio, keeping this at a reasonable volume for the noise in your area and adjusting the intensity of your radio depending on the events surrounding you. Be respectful of the individuals around you and follow your instincts. Lying on the couch picking your belly button or preparing for a disastrous event should not change your mindset; situational awareness is a great tool to help you recognize events prior to action. Harnessing your “ReptilianBrain “or Basal Ganglia is key to establishing immediate response to possible threats and getting your fight or flight reflex kicked into gear. This part of the brain is also what sparks the initiation of movement to your body. Having a Warrior Mindset doesn’t mean you are always on guard waiting for a fight, in the most simple of terms it is a method in which you mentally carry yourself. Situational awareness is the foundation of this mindset.

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