Understanding Your Opponents Primary Motivation

Understanding Your Opponents Primary Motivations

We’ll start with motivation for truly that is the basis for any conflict in the first place.

An essential component of effective Mental Combat is to understand your opponent’s
motivation. This simply means, you seek to know and understand WHY he does what he
does or is contemplating doing.

You first have to just understand that there is always a reason for a person’s action, always.
There are no purposeless moves, actions, decisions, gestures, postures or words. If you
can determine the motive, purpose or reasons then you can formulate a plan to control
another person’s actions.

This can be a very important skill that can literally save your life just as it has saved mine on
more than one occasion.

Just accept the fact that for every action taken there is always a choice and something that
motivates that choice.

Mind Reading

Can we really read a persons mind? Consider this:

You observe a person approach an ATM machine. They appear to be putting their
pass code in several times. From the rear view you see them shaking their head,
every now and then they mutter something and sound a bit peeved. Finally they take
their card from the machine, snatch the receipt out violently, look at it then walk
away shaking their head. What do you think just happened? What are they thinking?

We can’t read their mind but it is a safe bet that they went to the machine to get
some cash. It is also a safe bet that they were unable to do so due to some
problem with their account. Perhaps they are overdrawn, perhaps they just learned
that there was less money in the account than they had thought. Their available
balance is zero. This came as a surprise to them and they really did need the
money. They probably have very little if any money in their pocket.

We see a person walking alongside a road holding an empty one gallon milk
jug. Every time they hear a car approaching, they turn to face it and
extend their right hand with their thumb extended and pointing in the direction
they are traveling.

It is a safe bet that this person that we see is the driver of the car that is
stranded a little further down the road.

It is a safe bet that this person has run out of gas and wants a ride to the next
gas station so that he may get more gas. It is a safe bet that this and little
else is on his mind right now.

We see a person looking all around them as if they are a bit confused and lost.
They have a sheet of paper in their hand and repeatedly look down at the paper
and then back at their surroundings.

Periodically, they scratch their head, fling their hand holding the paper as if to say
“shucks!” then they shake their head as if in disgust. Periodically they may also look
at their watch and shake their head. Their movements are erratic.


It is a safe bet that this person is frustrated. It is a safe bet that they are
trying to find something and that the directions or the address are written on
the paper. It is a safe bet that something is not adding up and that they just can’t
figure it out. It is also a safe bet that there is a time element and that either
they are late or that they have something else to do and need to find this place in
a hurry. It is a safe bet that they need help and may now approach someone a
and ask for directions.

There is nothing special about these scenarios and you have probably l
earned absolutely nothing here. Each of us see these and similar scenarios which
are observed by us every day and we subconsciously make these or similar
assumptions about what a person is doing and why they are doing it. Most
people observing the same things will make the same assumptions. These
assumptions are usually based upon what we know about human behavior
and our own behavior.

These assumptions are usually accurate.

The purpose of bringing this up is to point out that people often use the fact that we
will read their actions a certain way. We can accurately figure out what is on a
person’s mind based upon their actions but we must also realize that people often
use the fact that we will read their actions a certain way in order to set us up.

This happens far more than most of us think about.

Often times, this is just phase three or four of the typical C.R.A.S.H. scenario, the
Approach or the Set-up. (More on that later in chapter VIII entitled Patterns of an Assault).

You can’t really read another person’s mind, but what you can do is accurately observe
and analyze their behavior. The behavior can give you a clue to their thoughts.

What they are thinking is a mystery, but what they do is something that you can absolutely
judge. Rather than attempt to read their mind you can just observe their actions and then
determine what the primary motivation for their actions are.

You see a man or a woman standing on a corner. It is impossible to read their mind or
to know what they are thinking or to know why they are there. If they just happen to
be standing at a bus stop and appear to be waiting or watching for something then
it’s a safe assumption that they are waiting for a bus. The bus driver will make
this same assumption and will stop to pick them up. The driver assumes that the
person’s motive or reason for standing there was to catch the next bus. No words
are necessary. He accurately read their mind based upon their body language and
positioning.

When we talking are talking about determining a person’s motivation we are referring to the
thing that most influences them or causes them to act. We’re trying to determine their agenda,
their primary source of influence.

Motivation can be best summed up in the answer to these essential questions:

What does he want?
What is he doing?
Why is he doing it?
What are the primary factors influencing
his behavior?

When you can answer these questions quickly and accurately then you can often
come up with effective strategy that can get you out of even life threatening situations.

Other words that illustrate motivation may be the reason, purpose, goal, provocation etc.
Call it that or call it motivation but a primary question has to be WHY, WHY, WHY?
Understand this and you can then go to the next phase easily.

People do things for a reason; the reason is what motivates behavior, always. If they
did not have a reason then they would do what they do. If you could remove or
discourage the reason or motivation for their behavior then they would no longer be
compelled to continue in the behavior that they have begun.

The person at the bus stop is there to wait for the bus, that is the reason that they are
there. Remove the potential or the expectation that a bus will eventually arrive
to pick them up and you have thereby removed their very reason or motivation for
being there in the first place and they will leave. So motivation is simply the reason
that people do whatever it is that they do.

Just understand that there is always a reason for any and everything a person
does or contemplates doing.

Police officers, criminologists, detectives, the FBI etc. all understand
the concept of motive. When trying to solve a crime, one of the primary things
they will look for is motive. They do this because they understand that
where there is a crime there is always a motive. If they can figure out the
motive then that is an important step in solving the crime. This concept of
motive is so ingrained in truth that when a crime occurs, if you have an
obvious motive then you may be considered as a potential suspect.