Personal Autopilot

A friend asked me a why am I why do I question today. It had to do with how can I make decisions in a split second that most people would worry about for a week before making. I knew the answer, it has become part of my personality. It occurred to me that the answer may be of use to people other than myself or those I train/have trained for specific tasks.

The answer is that I don't really make those decisions in that split second. A good deal of what I do is go through life on autopilot. It doesn't mean I don't think but rather that I have thought things through before they happened.

While a soldier I developed a number of "conditioned reflexes". Things which you get trained to do that at first may seem to be against so called common sense. For example if shoot at you run towards the bullets not away. It is a combat skill. Running away puts your back to the shots and lets the shooter or shooters take their time and get off aimed shots. Attacking and firing yourself takes away that advantage from them and can reverse the element of surprise which they thought they had. This is a single example of something you do which you have thought about ahead of time and decided how you would act. First Aid training is another example of this type of thing. You act despite the fact the situation is usually gross, dire and sometimes dangerous. You have thought out the what to do before hand.

All of us do this many times a day in whatever our jobs are.

I find that I have expanded this to cover almost every aspect of my life. Things I have thought out ahead of time I act on without thinking. In some cases it is very specific things. In other things more general, for example I am comfortable with my personal moral code to trust my first reaction.

For example I sometimes step in if I witness violence. The police advise against this because of risking my own safety. I look at as I would rather call for Police than for an ambulance for someone or worse a hearse. Plus I have the training to take care of myself in such situations most of the time. It even applies if there is no emergency but for everyday things. Do you help someone or ignore a situation? It depends on what is happening but if you have thought about such things ahead of time you will most likely do what you had decided you would do if the situation ever came up. Even simple things. Has someone in front of you in line forgot their purse or wallet for example. You normally have to think how well do know them if at all. Can I afford to pay for what they meant to get. Do I have the money on me if I can and know them well enough to risk lending the amount or maybe not even care if you are paid back. I tend to think that the old saying what goes around comes around applies. Some call it Karma. My Grandparents put it as " the people you meet on the way up are the same ones you meet on the way down ". Or that deeds both good and bad are remembered.

My Grandfather had another saying. PPPPPP six P's or prior planning prevents piss poor performance. When I got older I found out where he had picked it up. It is a warning given to those learning to become instructors in the military. If you are ready for something because you have thought it out before hand you are less likely to do a poor job of whatever it is.

It is also one of the advantages of getting older. Not an advantage of age but one of experience and planning.

I can trust my personal autopilot program because I am the one who wrote it and keeps it up to date. What it does is what I have programmed it to do ahead of time. As life changes things I have to update the program. We can't anticipate everything. However it is far better to have planned for as much as possible than to not plan for anything and "freeze" when an action could have been "pre-programmed"

Duct tape and Sanitary Napkins.

Looking at the title of this article you may wonder what those two items could possibly have to do with each other.

They both happen to be among the items I carry with me at all times and have larger amounts of in survival and first aid kits.

I also always have a high quality folding single blade locking pocket knife and a multi tool and a lighter on me.

Duct tape really has no need to explain. It is a modern version of Baden-Powell's ( the founder of Scouting ) always carry a shoelace. With Duct tape you can repair almost anything but the common cold or a broken heart. Give him time Red Green may figure out how to do that with duct tape. I don't carry a roll of Duct tape exactly. I take a piece of heavy plastic cut it to inches by 3 inches and transfer a roll of duct tape from the cardboard spool it comes on to this. This way it fits easily in a pocket and you do have a full roll.

Sanitary napkins require a bit more explanation. I use them as field dressings. Band aids are only good for very small injuries ( I do carry a couple bandaids in my wallet). Sanitary napkins are big enough to be useful for slightly larger cuts and in a first aid kit you should have a variety of sizes for a variety of sizes of injuries. Price wise they are close to as good as field dressings in quality at a tiny fraction of the cost. My first aid kits ( I have several varying from I'm leaving the house to weekend camp, to camping with my brother's ( someone is going to do something stupid and really need first aid. ) to my home keep someone alive till the ambulance arrives size. The sanitary napkins go from panty liners to maternity pads. ( try explaining to the pharmacist why a single male wants maternity pads and odds are he will end up ordering himself some for his first aid kit. My Doctor did. )

The Knife and multi tool. Make sure any blade you use locks. If you don't you may find yourself needing the sanitary napkins to stop the bleeding. As for the multi tool if you can afford it get one all the tools lock into position on. If not never use the knife blade or even break it off. If you have the tools and skill you may want to make it into some other type of tool by replacing it or cutting it down.

As for the lighter. I am old fashioned and will still light a ladies cigarette even though I don't approve of the habit and don't smoke myself. However carrying lighters once saved my life by letting me start a fire with very wet wood.

That is for a another time as the story is a good one.