The most important skill for self-defense is situational awareness. In an ever-changing world, detecting threats before an event occurs is essential for an effective response.
co-authored the book Left of Bang more than a decade ago to provide insights from the Marine Corps Combat Hunter program that trained warfighters to have a proactive mindset and recognize anomalies in any environment. “Bang,” as Pat explains in our conversation, is any event a person or organization wants to be prepared for before it occurs. The extraordinary success of his book has caused the concept of “left of bang” to evolve in its applicability to preparedness across life domains.The invaluable knowledge in his book and Substack account, The CP Journal, can prepare anyone for uncertain events.
Today, we discussed the history of the Marine Corps Combat Hunter Program; situational awareness as the most important skill in preparedness; defining “bang” across domains; threats vs anomalies; pre-event indicators; evolution of “left of bang;” being reactive vs responsive vs proactive; understanding baselines to detect mismatches; conceptual vs technique-based teaching; benefits of pre and post-meditation; application of his work to personal resilience; the online training he created for organizations and/or people available on his paid tier; and much more.
The concepts he teaches apply across time and space. Regardless of your circumstance, the skill of situational and self-awareness can be trained to encourage thriving despite adversity.
We cannot solve problems we are unaware of. Left of Bang teaches you how to either plan for or detect problems before they occur.
Proactive contemplation and training establish readiness.
I cannot recommend Pat’s work enough. It can optimize your response to any form of adversity and literally save your life.
Some of my favorite articles from The CP Journal:
