When we talk about the environment, most people associate it automatically to the physical environment / situation that you face during a conflict. For example, are you fighting over slippery surface? is the ground flat? are there obstacles or hazards around? are there by-standers? Is time on your side? Are there multiple adversaries? etc. All those questions are relevant and why they are important is obvious.
There is an another angle of looking at “the environment” which I call “the internal environment”. By the term “internal”, I choose to use it in a very loose context to mean anything that make up “you”. While your physical attributes may be obvious, there are many aspects of you which may not be entirely obvious – your thoughts, emotions, the state of your physical body, your weakness, your confidence level, your favorite skill, etc.
What you may realize now is that the internal environment is far from being static. For example, a lot of people find that their emotional responses change facing different people – some are polite to customers but harsh/impatient with spouse. Furthermore, your confidence level changes depend on the number of opponent, your physical readiness, the relative size/speed/power of your opponent.
Sun Tzu’s Art of War states:
So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be put at risk even in a hundred battles.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.
故曰：知彼知己，百戰不殆；不知彼而知己，一勝一負；不知彼，不知己，每戰必殆。
Give the “external” and the “internal” environment, it is the interaction of the two which makes real world scenarios less than predictable.
When there is a crisis, you need to use what is readily available and not what is ‘theoretically’ correct.
‘Knowing’ is different from ‘training’. ‘Knowing’ is simply who/what you are today. ‘Training’ is about making choices and taking positive actions to cause changes. Always remember that you can be more than who you are genetically or what the environment fosters.
Exercise
How do you PRACTICE to cause changes and not just talk about the mental aspects of martial arts?
How do you eliminate some of the environmental factors?