Free Just 2 Seconds by Gavin de Becker, Thomas A. Taylor, Jeff Marquart

them. During our briefings with new clients, we explain:
"When you are in public, there is no such thing as a casual moment to your protectors. Staff members and assistants might view that time as a respite from work or as mere transit time, but your protectors are always engaged and busy whenever you are in public. You'll notice sometimes when you're in public that your protectors don't look at you when you speak to them. They might even seem unresponsive at times, though rest assured they are listening to you. Though they might not appear fully engaged in the conversation it's because they are fully engaged in their mission, which is what you want."
    (See Appendix 1 for a Letter to the Protectee that communicates this and other things protectees must know in order to be as safe as possible.)
    As the tasks and missions of others are completed all around you (the speech ends, dessert is served, the award is given, the curtain is lowered), it all makes little difference to you. But if something directly relevant to your mission occurs -- ZAP, you are part of it. If that something is an attack, then every millisecond you might spend trying to convince yourself "This isn't really happening" accrues to the benefit of your adversary. An assailant knows exactly what's happening, of course, and the longer it takes you to know it too, the greater his advantage.
    Being a protector who can tame all internal distractions and be totally immersed in the moment is a high calling, a contest in which we face our most perfectly matched opponent: Our own mind. The authors realize that there will be resistance to the idea of not thinking and not making judgments. This idea will be unwelcome to nearly all minds, which derive their very identity through thinking and judging. In effect, the mind resists the idea of resisting ideas. Preparing the mind is like taming any other powerful and resistant force: It's a process, a practice, as opposed to a switch you can just flip. It's not easy to stop the mind's habitual thinking, and accordingly, protective work at the highest levels is not for everyone. One strategy is to withdraw energy from the constant process of analyzing, assessing, and reassessing. The effort to do this is actually more important than so-called success, because effort is a real thing, whereas success is just an idea, a concept. We decide somewhat arbitrarily what will be called a success and what will be called a failure -- but an effort is a tangible thing. When trying to tame the mind, it's the effort that matters most.
    All people yearn at times to be free of the Mind, even if just for a moment, but as protectors, we are looking for much more than a moment. We know that a few successes at conquering internal distractions don't add up to a victory. The victory comes when we occupy the conquered territory. In effect, we must occupy the Mind to prevent it from occupying us.

Choosing the Best Seat on the Train
    In protective work, it's beneficial to occupy the mind with real events that are in your environment right now. Perceive the things that happen, then quickly discard them. Like being on a train, you see things pass, but you don't grab onto anything. You let each thing go, releasing it to make space for the next perception. The ideal place to be in protective work is the front of the train, from where you can see events approach and come into focus. Facing forward, everything you see is relevant, and evermore relevant because it's coming toward you. It is real. You experience each event directly, with curiosity instead of judgment -- and then you let it pass.
    You wouldn't want to be on the back of the train watching the past and contemplating each event as it recedes into irrelevance. What passes behind you in time quickly becomes unreal, a memory with all the edits and judgments of a memory -- and at that point, you are actually better off not watching it at all, for "it" is in your mind, not your reality.
    Being