As you know, I live in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, where the schools are great, those homes are nice, and the crime rate is low. So, I was at the gym the other day, and I noticed commotion over at the basketball court.
I don't usually pay too much attention because there's always a commotion on the basketball court. But I was about to do my last bench press set, and I looked over, and these two grown men were having a fistfight. Right there in the middle of the basketball court, a physical altercation erupted! It gets broken up, and these two guys get escorted out.
About 10 minutes later, I finished my workout and walked outside. Fifteen cop cars are in the parking lot! Apparently, a couple people wanted to get into a good old-fashioned shootout. This was suburbia at 3:00 p.m.!. This got me thinking about how I'm a lover and not a fighter and how fighting is
foolishness.
I bet most of you guys can remember getting into a fight when you were little. You were like little men, meeting at the monkey bars at noon on the playground to duke it out. He may have gotten in one little slap before your teacher broke up the fight. Five minutes later, you and the dude are best buds again.
Times have changed now that we're into adulthood. The consequences of fighting are much, much worse. Perhaps somebody pulls out a gun, or maybe somebody has a knife. Perhaps somebody falls down, hits their head on the ground, and ends up in a coma. People go to jail for stuff like this.
There are about a handful of reasons why somebody would get into a physical altercation or fight. Fights happen because bullies walk around looking to pick battles and start stuff. If you're a guy that picks fights with people, you need to stop. You're going to gain nothing except looking like a big idiot.
Another reason why people get into fights is that they're hanging out with a bunch of jerk-offs. Time and time again, when guys are young, testosterone fuels aggression. Someone will instigate something, and then they'll jump in because they're with their buddies. It's gang mentality, following one of the alpha males in the group. If you're hanging out with these jack-offs,
you need to find different friends. Physical altercations also start because of the fear of looking like a wimp. You're with a bunch of friends when a fight erupts, and because of peer pressure, you join in.
Too much alcohol is another reason fights start. This environment breeds insecurity where you may see some guy getting upset simply because someone looked at his girl. Altercations also erupt because of defending someone's honor. And even this is not a
reason.
I have never been in a fight. Now, I've been in a few situations that have gotten pretty heated, and people have gotten really pissed off. But I have never let a situation escalate to physical violence. I've always kept my head about me and talked my way out of a situation. Keep in mind even self-defense is not considered violence, "Self-defense is defined as the right to prevent
suffering force or violence through the use of a sufficient level of counteracting force or violence."
You have to learn how to use your most powerful muscle, your brain. If you find yourself in a bad situation, get yourself out of that situation using your head, not your hands! If you're hanging out with guys who are always looking for trouble or seem like trouble always finds them, it is time to make new friends.
Staying out of physical altercations about impulse control. You can easily stoke the fire or not. You can allow your emotions to go wild or not. I am proud and embrace the fact that I've never let my feelings run wild and rampant to the point of getting into a physical fight. Nothing good comes out of fighting. It's a choice.
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