Keep Being Awesome and Brave

How coaching a new shooter inspired me today...

I have no cool photos to commemorate this incredible day, but I am so grateful that God equips me each and every day to go out in the world and do good. He also brings unbelievably inspiring people into my life on the regular.

Recently I worked with a person who was incredibly overwhelmed (to tears and trepidation) during a recent Handgun Fundamentals class (and we were still dry and hadn’t even loaded a gun yet.) Instead of trying to push her through it with any kind of "suck it up" mentality, I kindly gave her an out. I could tell this girl was overstimulated and not able to stay mentally present in a group environment. 

So I offered to come to her house at a later date and work with her one on one so there were fewer distractions and so that I could focus all of my attention on her needs.

Fast forward... Today I encountered a scared but brave soul. As I briefed her on what to expect for the shooting lesson, I asked two questions. 1) Why do you want to do this? and 2) What are you most afraid of? 

After hearing those answers I asked her to make me one promise: If she felt overwhelmed, tired, unsure or just plain scared to PLEASE tell me. 

The reason I asked her to do this is because she was incredibly stoic the last time I worked with her and did not readily show emotion until the tears just start flowing. And even then, I wasn't sure if her eyes were irritated or if she was really crying. She was REALLY holding it back. So now, I did not want her to hold anything back and tried to create an environment where she felt safe to do that.

So I asked her to please don't try to be a hero today. Let's work at YOUR pace today and please help me understand what you're feeling as we go. She agreed.

We proceeded slowly and thoughtfully. She was fully present. She was doing everything with a dry gun just the right way. I could tell it was was time to load and make ready for the first time. 

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Encouraging her to breathe and stay with me, she broke the shot in what I call a "panic pull." It was ok. We were ok. But I noticed she completely disassociated through the press. 

She took a short mental break and tried again. I reminded her to breathe and try to stay present this time. I told her this time I wanted her to have faith in herself that the gun was not going to fly out of her hands.

Most importantly I told her that if she could stay in the slightly uncomfortable holding pattern throughout the press while continuing to breathe and stay present, she would accomplish her goal. 

She painstakingly pressed while staying at a level of presence and focus I was honored to witness. This brave soul did exactly what I said and broke the shot again, this time hitting dead center on the target. 

She had proven to herself that if she could resist the temptation to "just get it over with" and instead live in that uncomfortable space [the press] for a short time, she could achieve her desired outcome. And oh boy did she ever! 

I saw a weight lift off of her and light come to her eyes. I was SO inspired to watch this girl conquer her fear. She is SO competent and SO brave. I am inspired to know her. 

Later I sent her this text:

"Hey you. You flipping rock. I'm so stinking proud of you I could just squeal. Keep being awesome and brave."

And I meant it.

I didn't know after today if this would be our first AND last lesson.

And frankly, if shooting is not for her, it's not for her and I respect that.

But instead, she agreed that we should keep going (YAY)... so I look forward to working with her again to keep building on what we started. 

What a beautiful, inspiring day. ◊

Learn more about Lora (as an instructor) and see the Defenders USA class schedule.