I’ve been tweeting personal safety tips
for about a year now (@dougcummings3) and just followed those up with an
e-book, Escaping the O-Zone: Intuition,
Situational Awareness and Staying Safe which will be released Nov 1. The “O”
in O-Zone stands for “oblivious” . . . that happy, unaware place in the clouds
where a good portion of us put our minds while we’re not otherwise occupied.
It’s nearly impossible to react to a threat from the O-Zone. By the time we
hear our intuition sounding an alarm, that speeding car, angry dog, or armed
predator, is already upon us.
Staying out of the O-Zone takes work.
Here are five (plus one!) tactics I use to stay focused on my surroundings.
·
Approach
every new environment, whether it’s a restaurant, a bar, the lobby of a
building or a busy street, as though you’ve arranged to meet someone there. Keep
your head up and your eyes moving. Listen for sudden sounds that break the
pattern of ambient noise around you.
·
Look
for a way out the moment you walk in. Mark in your mind where the exits are in
every building and the fastest way to get to them. Outdoors, imagine where you could
reach quickly in case of an emergency.
·
Always
know your location. Whether you stop for gas, use a parking garage, duck into a
coffee shop or go bar hopping, note the address. If it’s not posted, ask.
·
In
your cellular phone’s address book, add ICE as a prefix to the names of
relatives or friends who you would want first responders to contact In Case of Emergency. If you lock your phone,
use an indelible pen to write the number of your closest contact on the case
(will also help recovery if your phone is lost).
·
Avoid
using headphones or texting while walking, running or biking. Eyes focused on a
screen aren’t watching your surroundings. Listening to music and/or audio books
places you in the O-Zone.
·
The
most basic tip of all: at home, in the office, in your car, in hotel/motel
rooms, lock your doors and latch your windows. That simple act may be enough to
keep out an intruder.
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