In line with this rousing motivational speech from the Patron Saint of Ruthlessness and Aggression himself, Sensei John Kreese, I'm going to keep this short and sweet today:

Principle # 3 of John Kary's "6 Principles of Combat" is the one that, in my opinion, has the greatest effect on the outcome of any self-defense of personal protection encounter:

Attack With RUTHLESSNESS and AGGRESSION

If you are forced to protect yourself against an attacker, you must attack him with complete viciousness, ruthlessness and unbridled aggression. Period. End of story.

Your mentality must instantly switch from one of “oh, God, please don’t hurt me” to one of “how f**king DARE you attack me?!!” and just as importantly your actions must correspond to that way of thinking.

Find whatever motivation you have to. It could be not seeing your children or family again, righteous indignation at someone invading your space, it doesn’t matter. Use whatever vehicle you have to in order to plug into the dark side of your nature, and direct those bad intentions on him because I guarantee that’s what this sick bastard was planning on doing to you.

The original Karate Kid remains my favorite film of all-time, and the more I get older the more I appreciate Cobra Kai sensei John Kreese's approach to fighting when viewed through the lens of no-bullshit self-defense. I loved this clip growing up, and now that I focus solely on self-defense as the cornerstone of my training, I appreciate it on an entirely different level:

There's not much else that can be said on this. Bad things happen to decent people very day; that's just the way shit is. We train so that we do not need to fight but the way I see it, if someone attacks me, they have just forfeited their right to life, liberty and whatever else comes next. 

Train Smart, Stay Safe

Sifu Bobby