Setting Goals for Training

Over the last 20 plus years, I've got the opportunity to train different types of people. Whether it's military professionals, law enforcement professionals, and civilians, both armed and unarmed. And what I've noticed myself over the last decade of training in the private sector is that goals change over time. So when you start training or when you make the decision that you want to learn how to develop skills to protect yourself or your family, you'll start to develop goals, right? So first it's the goal of it may be getting a handgun, it may be taking a martial arts class. And as you progress through time, your goals will change. And what I want to talk to you about today is how you should place a high priority on the goals of your training. The goals that you set for yourself as they apply to their training will dictate a lot as you start experiencing different things. So the guns that you choose will apply to your goals. The training that you involve yourself in will apply to your goals, and also what you need to focus on as you're doing training on your own. It's important to sit down and write out these goals. And I think that most people don't think about this in that context, right? Just as we set goals for our professional life, just as we set goals for our personal lives, we should also set goals for our training. So let's look at gun selection. Before attending my classes, a lot of students ask, "What gun should I choose?" And my question to them is, "What is your goal?" Is your goal to use a gun for home defense, or is it to be able to carry a gun in public and use it for personal defense in the public context for concealed carry, or as we've seen lately, a lot of popularity and open carry? Well, once you determine, okay, I'm using my gun for home defense, well that's going to help you narrow down the exact personal defense firearm that you want to get. So once you determine your goals, and let's say you want to buy a handgun for home defense, now that should set up what it is you need to train, what type of firearm you wanna buy, and the other things that work around that. So such as storage devices, like a safe, should you get a large or small, safe? Is the safe gonna be for storing a gun for long-term storage? Or is that safe gonna be for staging the gun in case you need it? What you also need to think about is not just the training you need to get, but maybe there's some training that needs to be done for family members. So for the example of a home defense handgun, with the storage, the staging, ensuring that it's only accessed by authorized persons, which means an adult. You know, you can check your laws in your area and figure out what that is. What type of safety training you would need? So if you're getting a handgun for the home, you may want to get the family involved in some firearms safety training as a family. Also, we have to look at, if you decide to carry that, if your home defense handgun is also gonna be your concealed carry handgun. So now we're taking that handgun into a different context. So now your training is gonna have to expand and your goals may expand. So if I'm gonna use a handgun for home defense and I'm also gonna use it for concealed carry, I'm gonna need some home defense training, I'm gonna need some safety training for the family, and then now I'm gonna need some concealed carry training. And also when we look at the storage options and the staging options for a handgun in the public space, because there's places that you are not allowed to carry your concealed handgun. So now you need to look at, well how am I gonna store and stage my hand gun in my vehicle? So going back to the beginning, what are your goals? What are you truly trying to accomplish? And how do those goals affect what you need to train, who you need to train with, the amount of money you need to invest in training. And there may be other tools and other training outside of that. At the end of the day, when you look at all the options, what you could do, and then you look back at what you know you need to do, and there are things that you know you should do, by writing out these goals and having them in front of you and thinking about them constantly and as your life moves on throughout the years, as your circumstances change, your goals will change. At the end of the day, just look at what your goals are, how you're gonna accomplish them, and I think you'll have an easier time and a more cost-effective time at determining what you should train, what tools you you should have, and those other ideas.