Active Entry Procedural Exit Strategizing

There are 3 base types of physical “exit strategizing”; exiting a bordered area such as a country, exiting a situational confrontation such as with a person(s) and exiting a confined structure such as a building.

This is in regards to the latter.

When you enter any unfamiliar confined space, your mind automatically registers the entrance as the first if not only point of exit. That is exit strategizing.

In most cases that’s enough. But circumstances like time, safety and efficiency may demand more. This means remembering certain landmarks or points of interests within the structure to navigate you to the exit(s). This is active exit strategizing.

AEPES takes it further by adding linear mapping along with those points of interests. First, the mindset is that while in the structure, there is only “entry” and “exit”. Meaning that you are always in entry mode up to the moment you decide to exit. This creates a chronological mental map of the structure for a more accessible and effective exit strategy.

Think of it when you park your car in a massive parking lot where each section is grouped into letter/number designations so that the driver can find their way back. All you have to do is remember the l/n and your exit strategy is sound. With that l/n, you can find your car from anywhere within the structure.

While that l/n is a foolproof way to find your car, it’s the only thing it can find – and less efficiently without procedurally mapping your course from that specific spot to along your route within the structure.

With AEPES, the exact route or alternates back to the l/n without even remembering the l/n as well as multiple points of other exits is possible.

The key to this strategy is not just placing importance on points of interest but mentally mapping the actual linear route of your passage. The enactment of the exit may not always be reverse-linear, but this strategy opens up branches of routes for the initial exit and alternate exits in the process.

In training, I was instructed to think of myself tethered to a rope when entering a structure and being pulled back the way I came when an exit is necessary.

I much prefer the method of loci method of building “memory palaces” of the actual place I’m in.