Vital Pyramid
The Vital Pyramid is a concept of self defense and combatives originally conceived by John “Lofty” Wiseman, a former member of the British Special Forces.
I also feel that it can be a good model to follow for life in general, and particularly in business.
The four components of the Vital Pyramid include Mindset, Tactics, Skills and Kit.
Mindset
Most instructors in combatives will tell you that success in any combative situation is 90% mental and 10% skill. In order to survive a life threatening assault, an individual MUST have the willingness to WIN, and not just survive.
Therefore, during any life threatening assault, you must have the mentality of win at all costs.
Mindset is therefore the foundation of the Vital Pyramid. Without the proper mindset, no matter how skilled you may be, you may not prevail if your opponent is willing to do anything at all to destroy you.
Mindset also includes walking about in public alert and aware. If you are alert to your surroundings, you will have a better opportunity to avoid most unwanted situations.
If you want to be successful in your career, you must also have the mindset to do what you need to achieve your goals.
Most people who seem to achieve the most success are definitely those who exude a positive attitude most of the time, and are willing to work hard.
Tactics
Tactics are the daily gameplan you should employ.
Whenever we leave our homes, it’s time to switch on our antenna and become alert to our surroundings. If something unusual or suspicious catches our eye, we watch and observe that activity.
We then assess whether or not the person or activity is a threat to us, and we then react by considering an appropriate course of action. Once we’ve developed our plan of action, we execute.
For example, if we are walking down the street and we notice an individual hanging out who appears to be quite observant themselves, potentially looking for prey, we may simply react by considering it best to cross the street and walk away from the individual, and then do just that.
Tactics also play a role in other aspects of our lives.
For instance, lifting weights is a tactic we may use to get strong. Jogging and running are tactics we can employ to improve our conditioning and cardiovascular health.
Writing a blog post is a tactic we can use to attract attention to our business.
Skills
In regard to self protection, our skillset is effectively our toolbox of physical skills that will allow us to prevail during an altercation.
These can include both soft skills that allow us to avoid, or de-escalate a situation, and our hard skills, or fighting skills.
Soft skills involve our ability to spot potential danger when we are out and about.
Hard skills are what we need to escape a violent altercation.
Hard skills are the primary focus at any martial arts school or self defense training school.
When it comes to improving our power to deliver a strike to an opponent, there is skill involved.
The barbell squat is probably the one exercise that provides the biggest bang for our buck for building strength.
However, it is a somewhat complex movement pattern, and it takes skill to develop the ability to lift heavy weight with this exercise.
To achieve success in business and in life, we need to develop good communication skills, i.e., the ability to communicate with clients, colleagues, friends and family.
Kit
Last of all is our kit, aka, tools.
In the world of self-defense, many people focus on tools alone particularly hear in the U.S.
This is because the primary tool many people choose for their self protection is a firearm.
Unfortunately, most people don’t train enough to be effective with the tools they choose.
Kit can also refer to any equipment you train with. This includes heavy bags, boxing gloves, barbells, etc.
Anything that helps you become more able to defend yourself is part of your kit, or toolbox.
In life, we have many tools at our disposal to help us succeed… computers, Ipads, smartphones, software, etc.
Ultimately, our tools contribute the least to our overall success.
You can have the best tools available, but if you don’t have the proper mindset, good tactics, and skills to deploy them, your tools will be ineffective.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, whether you are dealing with your own self-protection, business, or relationships, the Vital Pyramid is an excellent model to follow.
We’ll continue to touch on this topic quite a bit going forward.
