I sat in on a presentation today about all types of safety techniques. You could sum up its message with the title of this post.
At the basic level, whenever you work in an inherently dangerous job, "Safety First" is always Rule Numero Uno. This is to make sure the worker can continue to perform his/her duties for a long period of time. Things get messy when safety isn't a consideration; injuries cause missing workers, less work gets done, and money is lost due to medical bills and less output.
We should be applying that same idea to our own lives. Now I'll be the first to admit that I never want you to live a "safe" life; it brings this vision of living in a bubble with no challenges or risks so that you can be comfortable. Being comfortable is overrated. However, when you do live that awesome lifestyle that you've always dreamed of, I want to stress the idea of avoiding unnecessary risks.
What do I mean by avoiding unnecessary risks in this context? Don't waste your time, energy, skills, or health on leaps that have nothing to do with what you want out of life.
If you don't want to skydive, don't throw yourself out of a plane. If you hate the idea of working in customer service, don't start a business.
It seems simple enough, but most people do these things anyway. The reason usually stems from an approval-seeking mindset; "I should be doing this" or "Everyone else seems to be doing it" are two responses you'll hear most often.
The key is to really decide what you want out of life, because in the end it's your decision. Nobody is going to care about what you are doing if it doesn't directly interfere with their own pursuits... We're all searching for what is best for us.
I adopt the "Screw it... I'll do it" mentality to push my comfort zone, because that is something that is truly important to me in my journey. But I also know that there are things I will never do if I can avoid them. I never want to go through the feeling of remorse due to the fact that something I didn't want to do ended up costing me the chance to pursue what I want to. Work on minimizing the risks that you can't avoid instead of wasting your time on the ones that you can.
