Within survival doctrine throughout the world you will find the ‘Rule of 3s’. In essence, this principle tells us that, in any extreme situation, we can’t survive for more than:
• 3 minutes: The period you’ll last without effective first aid (Blood loss, etc) or clean air;
• 3 hours: The period you’ll last without protection from the effects of the environment (wind, cold, heat, wet, etc.);
• 3 days: The period you’ll last without water; and
• 3 weeks: The period you’ll last without food.
And here’s another one:
• 3 seconds: The time you’ll last if you don’t have the will to survive!
While I exaggerate a bit on the ‘3 seconds’, the point is that ‘the will to live’ (which sounds a lot better in German: ‘Wille zum leben’) is important. It’s the psychological force to fight for self-preservation. This force is regarded in psychology circles as an active process of conscious and unconscious reasoning.
Anyone, at any time, could face a ‘survival’ situation. A survival situation could snatch you out of your comfort zone, whether you’re: in an aircraft accident, you’re abducted, you’re stranded in the bush; or your lack of situational or cultural awareness finds you surrounded by an angry mob wielding machetes because you accidentally said the wrong thing.
It’s moments like these, when faced with unexpected life-threatening circumstances, that we discover whether we have the skills, knowledge and attitude of a ‘SURVIVOR’. Alternatively, we may find that we’re not as tough as we thought: realising that we’re mentally and physically unable to deal with the situation. At this point, we fall into the category of ‘Existor’ rather than ‘Survivor’ and our odds of pulling-through plummet accordingly.
So how do we keep ourselves on the winning side of the equation?
One of the most important psychological requirements for survival is the ability to quickly accept the reality of the situation and react swiftly and appropriately to meet it. Knowledge of the survival stressors and of the survival techniques to be applied, will serve to minimise fear and therefore prevent panic. Survival situations, especially for those travelling solo, can induce feelings of loneliness and of isolation, which attack an individual's confidence in the probability of eventual rescue. A survivor must keep faith in the search and rescue (SAR) organisation for their eventual rescue.
Regardless of our capability, the environmental conditions that we’re facing, and the efficiency of SAR organisations, our 'will to survive' needs to remain firm if we’re to maximise our chances of survival.
To be a Survivor in an emergency situation, we need to have conditioned ourselves for survival and resilience in our day-to-day life. The concept of conditioning is based on the idea that human behaviour is learned via associations and responses in the environment. Simply put: if a particular form of behaviour is reinforced/rewarded, then we’re more likely to repeat that behaviour again.
So, if we’ve developed habits of ‘learned helplessness’ in our ordinary lives, then we’re likely to default to the same behaviours when the going gets tough. And, in a survival situation, this can be fatal. Research around the concept of ‘learned helplessness’ indicates that, when people feel like they have no control over what happens, they tend to simply give up and accept their fate. And if we behave in a helpless manner in a survival situation, we’re likely to overlook opportunities for relief or change.
For many people living suburban lifestyles in metropolitan centres, the opportunity to generate resilience through problem solving, decisiveness, dealing with adversity and challenging oneself may be few and far between. Indeed, modern life seems hell-bent on making things as easy-peasy as possible. We’ve got automatic transmissions, escalators, microwaves, GPS directions and watermelon slicers. We win medals for participation rather than genuine effort, and we’re told to love ourselves despite our society’s increasing weight and deteriorating health. Whether through the intervention of information technology, automation, globalisation, or political correctness, struggle is minimised – leisure is maximised - and the opportunity to challenge ourselves, in even small ways, can be sidelined in favour of convenience.
But, at what cost? Is all this easy living doing us more harm than good?
JFK famously said – “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too.”
So, next time you have the chance to put yourself under pressure, take it. When you get the opportunity to face-off a crisis and solve it, do so. And when someone asks you to do something that frightens you, stand-up and take the challenge. Take a risk. Learn your strengths and build them stronger. Learn your weaknesses and do something about them.
Only then will you develop a greater Will to Live.
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