The definition in and of itself means you win. You win in that scenario. If you can avoid almost the inevitable, if you see a conflict about to arise, if you are in the middle of a verbal or a mental altercation. When I say mental altercation it could be a stare-down at a night club. It could be somebody eying you in traffic, kind of going back and forth in front of you, maybe a road rage situation about to occur. By avoiding this, you are winning a fight. Make no mistake. You don’t have to step into a ring. You don’t have to win a belt. You don’t have to win a gold trophy. The outcome is exactly the same if you rip somebody’s head off and kick it down the street or if you run when someone attempts to rob you at an ATM. The outcome is the same – you win.
Now there is always a time to fight. Our COBRA Self Defense Program prepares people to fight in any situation and to win at all cost. And it also teaches conflict avoidance. This is super important. If somebody pulls out a knife, you are at an ATM, and they have about six feet on you, which means they are about six feet away. Now with a knife, obviously the are not going to throw it at you. So this is something we might not have to worry about unless you face a circus performer who can throw a knife and hit you on the fly. That is highly unlikely. Can it happen? Absolutely. Anything can happen. But let’s talk about real life.
Somebody has six feet of distance between you and themselves and they have an edged weapon, the only way that they are going to hurt you is by closing the distance. If somebody pulls out a knife and says I want your wallet, and I want it now, you have a couple of options. You can stand there, reach for your wallet, and present it to them. Or you can just run. You can run the other way. That is conflict avoidance. Inevitably this criminal does not want to get caught either, and when you take off, why chase after you? He has to run you down with a knife in his hand, catch you, just to threaten you again to try to take your wallet again. He is going to wait for the next sucker to come up to the ATM and take his wallet. So it is really important to understand that space in that situation creates conflict avoidance. The entire situation will change in a heartbeat if he walks up to you and it is more intimate now where he grabs you, puts the knife on your throat, and asks you for your wallet. Everything has changed at this point. Understand the difference.
If you can avoid, you absolutely must avoid at all cost.
