Trust Your Radar Slackers' Edition

By CB Brooks MD

Trust Your Radar: Honest Advice for Teens and Young Adults from a Surgeon, Firefighter, Police Officer, Scuba Divemaster, Golfer, and Amateur Comedian, shows readers how to avoid the major sand traps of life that snag every generation.

The Trust Your Radar Slackers’ Edition is a short, streamlined version of the original work aimed at those who lack the motivation to get through a full sized book. It contains the same ideas: identify your brain radar, train it in key areas, and deal with the Radar Jammers of modern life.

Target audience: Ages 14–40, especially teens, college students, and concerned parents.

Perfect gift for the slackers you care about.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CB Brooks MD
• Release date: Feb 22, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301034215

CB Brooks MD

Physician specializing in Orthopedic Surgery, Microsurgery of the Hand, Wrist and Upper Extremity. Has been known to reattach amputated body parts, if requested. Firefighter who went from volunteer to certified firefighter, driver-engineer, lieutenant, captain, assistant chief, dive rescue team leader, safety officer, fire instructor, and three time president of fire-rescue volunteer associations. Police Officer who actually liked road patrol, bicycle and marine units, capturing aggressive drivers, and teaching young people about conflict resolution, anti-bullying, personal safety, alcohol and drug strategies, and decision making skills. Scuba Divemaster and founder of fire-rescue dive team. Always amazed at the undersea world and its creatures – especially the big ones – whale sharks, great whites, manta rays, schooling hammerheads, whales and dolphins of all types are personal favorites. Has dived the Caribbean, South Africa, Australia's Great Barrier Reef, South America's Galapagos Islands, Micronesia, Hawaii, and lovely dark water accident and crime scenes. Golfer on an elusive quest to "just get consistently decent" at this loopy game. Likes the scenery, nature, walking with interesting people. Has had two holes-in-one so far, anticipates more. Started as a caddie, became a part-time greenskeeper later in life. Teed it up in Scotland, England, and Ireland. Has strongly advocated that the hole be doubled in size; hasn't heard back yet on this from the USGA, or the Royal and Ancient. Comedian, amateur, has never been paid. Standup, skits, event emcee, charity auctioneer, valedictorian – no weddings or birthday parties please. Miscellaneous bonus careers: Fancy doorman, gas station attendant, drummer in a bagpipe band (awesome!), lifeguard, janitor, mechanic's helper, airport limo driver, nocturnal office cleaner, others I can't remember.

Book preview

Section I

Here’s the Idea

Chapter 1

Let’s Get Going

I know, you’ve got stuff to do.

You don’t have time for the full book Trust Your Radar: Honest Advice for Teens and Young Adults from a Surgeon, Firefighter, Police Officer, Scuba Divemaster, Golfer, and Amateur Comedian.

But you’re in the higher percentiles of slackers – you do want to improve your life – but just quickly. No problem; Uncle C.B. has your back.

Here’s the boiled down, bare bones advice you need. You won’t get the highly entertaining stories from my array of awesome careers, but if you ever get the urge, you have an open invitation to check out the full book.

Let’s get going. We have a mission to accomplish.

(Full book stories you missed: Superhero secrets, Captain Sully.)

Chapter 2

What’s a Radar

Your new approach to life and decision making starts with your inner radar.

Picture yourself inside your own brain. Your brain is the command center for your entire body. Your brain is where you experience the world. It’s your radar.

This collection of about 100 billion nerve cells combines to produce consciousness, intelligence, self-doubt, self-control, personality, language, the soul, creativity, imagination, emotions, empathy, morality, opinions, and beliefs. It is where the action is.

Our radar takes in sensory information from our surroundings; processes it based on subtle cues and nuances; compares the scene to past experiences and outcomes stored in our memory banks; produces a conclusion, and decides on a response. Our brains make predictions based upon what we have experienced in the natural world through networks of pattern associators. This is the memory bank our command center consults when faced with a situation.

Even though our brains are remarkable, they are not perfect. Now we can begin to see why. If it’s an unusual event, something we haven’t dealt with before – like a crime, a fire, opening your first investment account, or reading an entire book (sorry!) – our memory banks may not have any comparable history information to reference, or our pattern associators may pick the wrong scene to compare it to. This can lead to jumping to a wrong conclusion and bad decisions.

Throughout this book, we will be loading new information into your brain memory bank. Information about scenes you will soon encounter in adolescence and adulthood. You or your peers may have already experienced some and handled them badly. It’s a big reason why your phase of life is so tumultuous; no one’s given your memory banks the straightforward, clear information you need to reference, and your pattern associators are jumping to the wrong conclusions. It’s like every generation repeating the same mistakes; hitting into the same big golf sand traps of life.

Let’s try to remedy this. Just by reading the information in the upcoming chapters, you’ll be stocking your command center’s memory bank and giving your pattern associators a fighting chance of choosing a good path.

Please note – this is important – your radar is not a vague intuition or nebulous sixth sense many people like to babble about. It may feel like that sometimes, but now we know it’s our brain functioning. Your radar gives you these thoughts based on the sum total of cues, conscious and unconscious, that it’s picking up in your environment.

Chapter 3

On-Off Switch

The wild thing about our human radar system is it has a volume control and an on-off switch.

Let’s repeat that, out loud: "The wild thing about our human radar system is it has a volume control and an on-off switch."

I know you’re busy, but this is a key concept.

Most people, including you, may temporarily turn their radars down or completely off through alcohol, drugs, or some other surprising ways we’ll explore later in Section III. While radar is off, many stupid human tricks can occur, resulting in truckloads of regret, embarrassment, accidents, misery, and sometimes life altering disasters. This doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy yourself and temporarily turn your radar down, but it will be with the new awareness you’ll develop from this book. You can choose when, where, and most importantly with whom you turn your radar down and by how much.

Recognition of this volume feature and some basic precautions can remarkably improve your life’s journey.

(Electrifying story: TASER time.)

Chapter 4

Learning To Trust Your Radar

Trusting your radar comes first from identifying it. So far so good.

Second, it’s developing a situational awareness of your surroundings and interactions. Start to actively notice your environment, people, traffic, dogs, a pothole in your path, a piano hanging from a rope above your head. Notice subtle cues people are giving off – is it a well-dressed older woman with a cane blocking your way, or of group of teenagers wearing gang colors? A friendly wiener dog on a leash, or a pit bull with eyes locked on yours and emitting a low growl? These are clear, but now consider the vast spectrum of in between signals we can pick up in our everyday lives. When recognized, they all add up to forming our size up of a situation. Start to recognize that inner feeling you have – it’s your radar. Start to use it, test it, and trust it more.

(Stories: Police Academy, Mr. Lucky’s surgical adventures, Structure fire tunnel vision, Bleeding you could hear.)

Chapter 5

Decision Making

Humans are capable of wonderful acts to help each other, and routinely take advantage of and hurt one another. Our radar can assist us in telling the difference.

A decision making template will help us choose a good course of action in difficult circumstances. I’ll present two different styles. You can interchange, or pick the one you find easiest to use. The first is modified from the Aggressors, Victims, and Bystanders curriculum written by Dr. Ron Slaby, Ph.D. I learned this from part of the school course I taught as a policeman. Dr. Slaby developed this course to help students resolve conflicts, avoid violence, and make better decisions.

The decision making template is: First, size up the situation and stay cool. Second, how do I want this to go, what’s my goal. Third, identify some options. Fourth, pick the best one and act on it.

(Some slackers are probably groaning, That process is going to take forever. I don’t have all day.) At first it may take a while, but with repetition becomes almost automatic and fast. Situations that are similar go even faster because you’re more attuned to your goal, available options, and what’s worked before. It’s also time well spent because it helps avoid jumping at the first wrong reaction and then spending hours trying to correct your mistakes.

Our other decision making template comes from the underwater world of scuba diving. The Professional Association of Diving Instructors, Rescue Diver Manual, contains a great short saying to help us when we encounter trouble: Stop, breathe, think, act.

This is essentially the same decision making template as the first one, just an abbreviated form. Stop, breathe, think, act. Short, catchy, easy to remember, and with practice, effective.

This process doesn’t happen by itself in us actual human beings. It takes awareness of our radar, control of our panicky brain circuits, and repetition of our new decision template. Calm size up (stop); what’s my goal (breathe); how about some options (think); pick the best one and do it (act). After a while, check your progress; repeat if needed.

(Stories: Cardiac arrests – take your own pulse first, Bully attack, Human Poseidon missle, From murky dive to magical encounter, Firefighter moths to a flame, Emergency Room – calm in the face of chaos, Oops – hazmat.)

Section II

Applications: Key Information For Your Radar

These next chapters apply the trust your radar principle to some of life’s usual aspects. This is radar training. It can save you a massive amount of trial and error mistakes. No one is born with this information already pre-loaded into their brain computers. Now that you are in or approaching adulthood, the stakes are higher. By reading this, you are putting information in your memory bank. If you read it again (Hah!) or discuss it with friends, the memory circuits get stronger and are more easily pulled up by your radar as the situations present themselves in your life. The point of this section is to educate your radar to better approach these life events.

Chapter 6

Personal Safety

Almost every crime prevention lecture you’ll ever hear boils down to: Be aware of your surroundings. Now we know what that means: Keep your radar turned on. By filling your memory bank with the ideas we’ll discuss, you’ll be in a better position to spot trouble, and have ready plans to call upon should it arrive.

Police Insight – Here’s a piece of information you probably didn’t know. Most criminals, even the big scary strong ones, are total chickens. Yes, complete cowards. They go for the easiest targets because they absolutely don’t want to get caught and go to jail, especially for a repeat trip.

The majority of all crimes are property crimes, not violent crimes against people. Yes, there are some psycho bad apples out there who do want to hurt people (and we’ll discuss them later in this chapter), but for the most part, the average criminal is trying to stay under everyone’s radar, steal some property, and get away.

So, most criminals will go for an easy mark such as an unlocked car with shopping bags or a purse within view, open garage door, a dark house with newspapers piled in front, an unlocked apartment door, a passed out drunk person, etc. In the police world, these are called crimes of opportunity.

This trait also applies to violent crimes. Certain people are more muggable than others. Common characteristics of victims are: moving in an uncoordinated way, appearing introverted in their own world, and looking vulnerable. Men display similar judgments about choosing women as potential victims of sexual exploitation and advances.

Having your radar on makes you a tougher mark because you are aware of your surroundings, appear confident, walk confidently, alter course to avoid a questionable encounter, and look less vulnerable. Make yourself a tougher mark.

Make your car and place of residence tougher marks by locking doors and windows and using lights. Don’t open your door for every clown who knocks on it. Maybe even get a dog. If you have roommates bringing guests in, lock your bedroom door when sleeping. (If the door doesn’t have a lock, buy one; you can get a simple slide latch and screw it in.) Close your window drapes or blinds at night, especially when interior lights are on. Lock your car doors when you’re in it and when you park. If you work in a small office, implement similar steps and discuss safety with your coworkers. It’s no coincidence most psychiatrists have their chairs or desk between the patients and the door – it’s so they can bail out if their radar alerts them! By doing these things, you’ll discourage the vast majority of criminals.

Your radar can also help you avoid problem places. You’ll know because you will