Calling all S.T.A.R.S!

So, let me start with some important background information, Me (32, M) have the potential to better my life from the hell I had endured from getting involved with a woman who took me for everything, and most importantly my own hubris leaving me with debt and shame. Since I was 25, I have been working on myself, learning from the mistakes with my partners, apologizing to my family who I have been a dick towards, and overall developing myself into a decent man. However, I have never been a traditional man, I don’t want to do the same thing everyone in my situation has done, I wanted to develop myself into the type of man I know I could be which has always been against the grain.

I’ve broken this development down into three main parts (Professional\ Personal\ Warrior)

For Professional: I have been going back to school for my masters.

For Personal: I begun a spiritual journey of Stoicism and have been working 6 months (as of this entry) toward that goal.

For Warrior: I have kept this one simple, I don’t want to be John Wick, I just want to defend myself and my family confidently/ competently. Learning some fighting basics, medium/ small arms, bladed weapons and simple maintenance to keep them in proper use.

When developing these 3 parts I kept coming across some hurdles that needed to be addressed, first how can I unify all three under one name, so I am not explaining myself and boring everyone, it needed to have a snappy name!

Second, each part had to support or benefit from each step taken, this means any skills I learn for my personal goals should benefit my professional development and warriors’ development in some way. This applies to all parts.

Third, Physical Fitness and maintaining these abilities must be simple and realistic with trackable progress.

While all this developmental work was being done, I was watching/ and playing resident evil a lot! This is because resident evil is my absolute favorite franchise ever! After checking out many of the channels on YouTube about resident evil, the s.t.a.r.s members, and everything in between I noticed there isn’t any on what skills, abilities, and gear a s.t.a.r.s member would know and have. This led me to have an idea, what if I could combine what I think a s.t.a.r.s member would need to know and use this as the catalyst to take the next step in my development and shape my character.

Using the S.T.A.R.S name as a blanket term for this development,

First, I began with the Professional side. Learning many copings techniques, strategies for managing my mental health, addressing how I feel and what I need accurately and within a timely manner, healthy team building exercises, on top of counseling psychology skills that I can use in a professional setting. Some of the other skills I have learned that meet the criterion of this character development system include Recognizing Unethical Psychology (Deception or Deceit), Ego control through studying the book Verbal Judo, the difference between Validation\ Compassion\ & Sympathy, how to actively listen and given genuine empathy. Investigative Skills, Deductive abilities, Logic & Observation, and some rudimentary cyber security.

Second came the personal goals and wants that I always had an interest in as well as what I believed a S.T.A.R.S member would know. Basic bush crafting skills, First-Aid | AED | CPR, Leadership abilities, ASL, Navigation, Lock picking, Small and Large engine mechanics, Basic wood working, reasonable deduction.

Lastly, the Warrior part, so far, my training consists of my LTC (with experience in small and medium weapons so far), a green belt in Kung Fu San Soo, Boxing basics, some private lessons in Kali, Jeet Kune Do, some Marine CQC basics, SERE training, Situational Awareness, and training with Center Axis Relock system. I am training regularly and am not John Wick, but I feel confident in my ability to defend myself.

My Fitness routine is a three week circuit each day focusing on a different aspect, I must state I am not a fitness instructor the routines I have created are done so to the best of my knowledge, Primarily, I am focusing on caping my weight at 150 pounds while finishing the overall workout as quick as possible to maintain my strength and speed, while on my rest days doing yoga to keep my flexibility. Hopefully, this month I will be hearing back from my county’s search and rescue recruiter with an update on my application. I have also developed an EDC that is uniquely geared with my training in mind that I can get more into it if requested.

I have done my best to go out and put into practice the information I have read or studied about, I am an avid hiker and outdoors men, I never assume I know it all and know there is always someone who knows more, can do more, and I wish to learn.

Here is where I am stuck:

What do I do next?

What type of training should I look for?

Are there any free resources I can use? If so, where can I find these?

What advice would you offer in any part of this development?

Does anyone know of a better skilltree app?

What other skills do you think would be beneficial in any part of this development?

I will be willing to answer any inquiries, and provide as much information as I can to help this process. I would appreciate it if responses were serious only, as I want to build a community and not tear others down, this is not about superiority, this is about personal fulfillment.