Hopefully, life will be relatively steady, lacking in situations that stress or threaten well beyond what is normally experienced. This is probably an accurate description of regular existence. The problem is that since there are no threats (whether internal or external), little thinking is given to possible situations that fall outside of “normal,” so there is no decision-making process quickly available to assess and deal with those situations. You are suddenly stuck and not sure what to do, ending up doing nothing.

What’s the worst things that could happen to you? List them – literally – write them down and then consider what you would do in those situations. There are almost endless possibilities, your home is on fire, you are attacked by another person or an animal, you are involved in a serious accident. Go all the way to things like your marriage falling apart. Face these (or whatever you came up with) figuratively right now and decide what your limits will be. A limit is how much you personally will accept before you go from passive to active. If you absolutely know in advance that when you are physically attacked, you will shoot or otherwise harm the attacker immediately, then you won’t have to decide what to do if it does happen.

Usually, once you reach your limit, there are just two options, assuming that you want out of the situation. Fight or run. Doing nothing means you either don’t have a limit, you will allow yourself to be abused, or you simply have given up. Defeat does not have to be an option unless you choose it. Instead, just think of fight or run. Running is not defeat, it is a viable thing to do and will get you away from the problem. I consider the “fight” option as the probable choice when attacked, otherwise fighting isn’t really useful for much else, as it only tends to escalate an already poor set of circumstances. Attacked not only means by another living being, it also means by a house fire, a vehicle accident, anything that is threatening. Sometimes one has to “attack” a vehicle to get out of it, or “attack” part of your home to escape, and then it’s likely that running away (to as safe distance as necessary) becomes the primary objective. Fight, then run. Or just run. Staying is a very poor option in any of these circumstances – with the caveat that vehicle accidents can make it physically impossible to move or react. At that point, it’s stay and watch the EMT or rescue people do the fighting to save you.

Whether a broken relationship, a dog trying to bite you or an attack resulting in a gunfight, if you have your limits set as to how much you will endure, then when that line is crossed, just think either fight or run. Something crossed your limit? Fight or run. Many times, that will get you out of the problem.