Situational Awareness

I realized I haven’t written about situational awareness in depth since back in 2012. I know from my day to day activities that surprisingly everyone in the world has not read that article and mastered it. In fact, a shit ton of people is still completely oblivious to their surroundings. They have no clue what’s going on around them. 

I have a hard time even imaging how people are so out of touch. I was born with a well-developed situational awareness. Guess it makes up for my complete lack of mathematical skills. 

So before we dig into it I guess I need to define it for those of you that don’t know what situational awareness is.

 

Situational awareness is the perception of environmental elements with respect to time and/or space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their status after some variable has changed, such as time.

 

It’s knowing where you are and what’s going on around you. 

Tred Carefully

I count watching where you walk and the space you move through as part of situational awareness. You have to be aware of the space you move through both on foot and when driving. I’m sure you all know a buddy that is like a bull in a china shop. That one guy that is always knocking things over. 

This is a lack of total situational awareness. You don’t know where your limbs are in relation to your environment. You absolutely need to know where you are going and what’s there. Watching your steps is so important to preventing injuries.

Don’t know how this is situational awareness? 85% of all snake bites are below the knee. Hrm, I wonder why that is? It is people not watching where they are stepping. They just assume that the ground is all level and free of dangers. 

The same applies for driving a car. If not even more importantly so. This is how my Uncle taught me to drive when I was a teenager. 

“James watch all these idiots on the road and stay away from them.”

That has served me to avoid being in a wreck so far. The road is full of idiots so give them room and be aware of what is going on.  

 

Be Aware Of  Your Environment

Please know what’s going on around you. Look around, listen and use all of your senses. If you choose to walk around with ear buds in your ears looking at your phone you are setting yourself up to be a victim. You are the one that’s going to trip, get mugged or bit by a snake.

Don’t forget the other senses besides sight either. I use my sense of smell a lot. It might be my strongest sense. Like wolverine from the x men or something. This has some drawbacks with strong smells making me nauseous. 

If you smell something out of place don’t ignore it. Find the cause of it. A big one is a natural gas leak. A sulfur smell is added to natural gas to detect it. That is a smell that is hard to ignore. But I would bet some lazy ass people have. 

Don’t Be Snuck Up On

This one really gets me. Do you know someone that is always surprised? That is always getting snuck up on? Serenity, I’m calling you out here. 

They are not aware of their environment and who’s in it. If you manage to sneak up on me you deserve a prize. If I don’t see you walking up I will hear your footsteps, or smell you. 

Not that It can never happen but with proper situational awareness being snuck up on will happen much less. With practice, you can get better. 

 

Feel The Mood 

No, I’m not going to get into airy fairy crap here. Having a clue what the environments mood is can be very helpful. The podcast we just did on how to survive a riot, hit on this. If you are out and you see and feel the mood change to violence get out of there. 

Clues for feeling the mood are listening to the tone of the people, observe their body language and your own gut. You can tell when someone is agitated. Their body language will reflect it. Often they will have a hard time remaining still. If you have a feeling that a crowd is going to riot just get out. I would rather see on the news I missed a riot instead of having to try to escape once it is happening. 

 

 

Trust Your Gut

I have mentioned a few time to trust your gut. There are times to not listen to it. But you have to be aware of it and make a decision. Trusting and being aware of your instincts is a powerful tool in your situational awareness toolbox. 

Instincts were developed by our ancestors to know when a lion was waiting in a bush to eat us. Now they usually just tell us not to go talk to a pretty girl. One has major consequences. They other has none. You have to be aware of the gut instincts and know when to listen and when to ignore them.

I like to base it on the outcome. What’s the worst that could happen if you ignore the instinct and what is most likely? If the worst outcome isn’t fatal then it might be better to ignore it. 

In Conclusion

No one is perfect and certainly not 100% of the time. With situational awareness I want you to practice and strive for better. Perfectionism of the killer of the good. Be more aware daily. If you notice that you are zoned out bring yourself back. 

If you hear noise look in that direction. In fact look around at times. Don’t dart your eyes around like a creeper but look around. 

Practice active listening. Hear footsteps, talking and odd noises. If you hear things look into them. Or act accordingly. If you hear shots you probably want to go the other way. If you hear falling stuff or crying you should check it out. 

 

 

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