V – Do

Biblical Lessons to Learn De-Escalating Skills

You’ll always prevail against a threat if you’re able to avoid the threat. Proper execution of situational awareness positions you to be aware of warning signs in advance of perilous occurrences, which in turn allows you to maintain enough physical distance as much as possible to stay in control of the outcomes. In his ancient book, The Art of War, late 6th century BC Chinese general, military strategist, writer, and philosopher Sun Tzu wrote, “The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.”

[ Read SemperVerus articles on the topic of being Aware ]

Practicing situational awareness applies to the verbal confrontations you might face as much as to the physical surroundings you encounter every day. The oral skill-set required to keep a heated argument from becoming a deadly altercation is known as de-escalation. It involves knowing what to say and not say, when to say it, and how to say it. That means the coordinated use of our brains and tongues can be just as important in our self-defense strategy as performing defensive shooting drills at the range. An excellent article on the subject is “The Truth About De-Escalation” by John Bostain, president of Command Presence Training, published in Michigan Police Chiefs.

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The world’s most influential book, the Bible, has plenty to say about the words that come out of our mouths. Consider the following Scripture verses as a framework to help you in building your de-escalation mindset.

  ▶  Death and life are in the power of the tongue…. Proverbs 18:21

  ▶  Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. James 1:19

  ▶  Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him. Proverbs 29:20

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Gentle Response De-Escalation Training for Church Security Teams ]

  ▶  Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. Proverbs 17:27

  ▶  Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin. Proverbs 13:3

[ Read the SemperVerus article, on Concealed Carry Daily Prayer ]

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Stay On Mission

Stay on mission compass illustrationStaying on mission means you remain committed to your objective—no matter what temptation, disruption, or distraction you encounter—until you accomplish what you set out to do.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Secure Your Base (Your Soul) ]

For the SemperVerus Brotherhood, staying on mission means keeping your soul strong by adhering to the 5 core components of Prepare, Aware, Be, Know, Do, resulting in the strategic element of solidifying your Self-Defense.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, SemperVerus™ Brotherhood/Sisterhood Launches to Help People ‘Stay True’ ]

Staying true to your spiritual, mental, and physical purpose is the way to disallow mission drift and mission creep. It all comes down to intentional decision-making to stay true at every step of your life journey, every moment of every day. If you don’t, you’ll veer off course before you’re even aware of it. It happens one little decision at a time, where you go astray bit-by-bit. You need to build in measures to help you avoid suffering this outcome.

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3 Ways to Get More Done

In his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the late Stephen Covey said, to be productive, we need to schedule our priorities.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, The 7 Habits: Put First Things First ]

Podcast host Pat Flynn, in a Fast Company article, suggests 3 ways to to keep yourself on track to accomplish that:

  • Manage distractions by setting 5-6 alarms on your phone to sound at random during your workday. When they go off, ask yourself if what you’re doing at that moment is productive or unimportant.
  • Perform “just-in-time learning” where you only consume educational content that has to do with your current priority (not a future idea). It should be relevant (related to the next most important milestone along your prioritized project’s path) and actionable (can be put into action in the next week or two). Otherwise, set the information aside to read at a later time.
  • Delegate 10% to 20% of your time per week to “scratch the itch” you have that’s a dream idea or brainstorm, but not yet a priority. That 20% is your reward for being focused and productive the rest of the week.

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Be Like Ernest Shackleton

Leadership Lessons from Ernest ShackletonIn August 1914 Ernest Shackleton sailed with 27 men from England to the Antarctic continent with the goal of being the first to cross Antarctica—the land with the coldest temperature ever recorded on earth: minus 128.6 degrees—via the South Pole. Early in 1915 their ship, Endurance, became trapped in pack ice, and ten months later was crushed and sank. Shackleton’s crew had already abandoned the ship to live on floating ice in the most hostile place in the world.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, A Navy SEAL Reveals 8 Secrets To Grit And Resilience ]

In April 1916 they set off in three cramped leaky open lifeboats for a 17-day, 800-mile journey in stormy seas, eventually reaching a jutting rock called Elephant Island. Taking five crew members, Shackleton went to find help. Again in a small open boat, the six men spent 16 days crossing another 800 miles of swirling frigid ocean to reach South Georgia island and then, with a pocket compass, trekked across two snowfields, four glaciers, and three mountain ranges to a remote whaling station. The remaining men from the Endurance were rescued in August 1916. Not one member of the expedition died, a two-year feat of magnificent unparalleled leadership.

[ Read the SemperVerus article, SemperVerus and the Noble Foundation of Scouting ]

Buy the book Endurance through this affiliate link with AmazonIn his memoir, Endurance, Frank Worsley, the captain of the Endurance, wrote this about his leader:

He was not only a great explorer; he was also a great man….And what of him as a man? I recalled the way in which he had led his party across the ice-floes after the Endurance had been lost; how, by his genius for leadership he had kept us all in health; how, by the sheer force of his personality, he had kept our spirits up; and how, by his magnificent example, he had enabled us to win through when the dice of the elements were loaded most heavily against us.

Buy the book Summoned to Lead through this affiliate link with AmazonAccording to the book Summoned to Lead by Leonard Sweet,

“The story of the Endurance expedition has a postmodern feel. Shackleton was a man clearly of his time, but a man also clearly living before his time. He combined the prophetic and priestly functions of leadership. He reached out to where his crew was (priest) and reached out to where his crew was not but needed to go (prophetic). He could ‘tell it like it is,’ but was willing to tell it like it is not but ought to be. Reaching people where they are is how leaders form relationships. But reaching people where they are not is how leaders form hope for ‘what you can be’ and help construct an imaginary future toward which people can direct their steps.”

[ Read the SemperVerus article, Questions to Ask Yourself ]

The SemperVerus Brotherhood / Sisterhood seeks to model the accomplished leadership virtues of Ernest Shackleton who remained positive even in supreme strife amid heaving waters.

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