How to Avoid Making Yourself a Target

Paying attention to what your body language says about you is one of the main concepts that we take for granted. It's one of the key concepts to ending a conflict or escaping one before it even begins.

Before we can even discuss body language, we need to talk about the Predator Mentality. Encompassed within the title of predator is your average bully/thug/criminal. The predator mentality is how predators pick their next target. A predator doesn't want to go to alot of effort to get what he wants. Ergo he's not going to pick the 250 pound body builder. That would be foolish and most likely the sign that you're dealing not with a predator but with a mentally ill individual. Your average predator picks his target based on who he perceives is going to put up the least amount of resistance. That's why people perceived as "nerds" and "geeks" are picked on the most, because they are perceived as the least amount of threat to them.

It's important to be mindful of how you present yourself to the rest of the world. Predators are mindful to pick targets that lack  two key traits and that's confidence and your level of alertness. We change those things through the following, since these are primarily what predators look for:

-Your arms and your hands. Are they in your pockets? This tells a criminal/bully that you don't have quick access to your hands, if they were to assault you right then and there. Plus it screams insecurity and a lack of confidence, to predators if your hands are in your pockets. How your arms sway as you walk tell alot too. Do they rock back and forth as you walk, exuding a confident person, or are they at your side most of the time?

-Headphones/Sunglasses/Hoodies. If you are wearing any or all of these in public, you are cutting off your greatest assets, your senses. Your headphones cut off your hearing, making it difficult to tell if someones approaching you from behind. Sunglasses not only darken your vision, but they provide mystery to where your eyes are on. You no longer look alert and watchful, but for all your attacker knows, you could be asleep under those sunglasses. And finally hoodies cut off your peripheral vision. All of these things, are what bully's look for when picking a target.

-Your posture. Are you walking hunched over, looking down, are you walking with your chest puffed out, looking straight ahead? Nothing will set a criminals eyes on you faster than someone slouched over, hands in their pocket, looking down. Walk confidently, back straight, eyes forward at all times. 

-Alertness. Are you texting on your phone/reading a newspaper, with blaring headphones to where you are completely shut out from the world around you? Or are you being mindful of everyone that is around you, keeping tabs on everyone who enters and leaves a building, keeping track of who's behind you, etc..? Criminals aren't likely to pick a target that knows that they are already there. They want the element of surprise on their side, and if your watching them the whole time, this kills it, and the predator will most likely move on to another target.

Back to the subject of eyes. Your eyes are some of your greatest assets. Unlike us, animals like elk are capable of spotting trouble before they even lay eyes on it. They can smell it, hear it, sense it. While we still carry those senses, they're not nearly as heightened as some prey. This will be more discussed in the part two, of this article. Let's turn back to humans. For us, our eyes spot trouble before any of our other senses do. Use your eyes to your advantage. Scan an area before you start walking into it. Ask yourself a few questions: Is it well lit? Where are the immediate exists? Are there people around? Get to know the environment. If you are in coffee shop, pay attention to everyone that comes and go's. Profile anyone that looks suspicious to you and be aware of their relative position to yours. By asking yourself all these questions and following these exercises, you're putting your brain into active and alert mode. This grants you the ability to act and move at a moments notice. If you hadn't been paying attention, and an event occurred, you would have been thrown off guard, and likely frozen in place.

So these are just a few tips on how to be mindful of how you present yourself to the world, and how exactly a predator thinks. If you can follow some of these concepts and rules, you can end a conflict before it even starts.