Be Aware of Your Surroundings to the Best of Your Ability

I've long been a proponent of living in "Condition Yellow." In other words, being aware of one's surroundings: Walking, driving, travelling, standing at a bus stop, fishing at the local lake, walking around the supermarket, and just about any other occasion when we are out in a public place, we need to be aware of our surroundings. Our radar is running in a 360 degree circle, actively looking for something or someone approaching us that might turn out to be a threat to our security. This what it means to be in Condition Yellow. When we are in Condition White, it means we are UNaware of what is happening around us, and therefore we may become the victim of something nasty because we didn't get the warning to deal with or avoid it in time.

Today I was reminded that while we should strive to be in Condition Yellow 100 percent of our waking hours, it is not humanly possible. I was standing outside my house, concentrating on retrieving an item from my vehicle when a voice right behind me said, "Hi, John!"

I confess, I really jumped. Fortunately, it was a friend.

Does this mean that my system of awareness is faulty? No, not at all. What it does mean is that while we should strive every day to be completely aware of our surroundings, there are times when we get absorbed in what we're doing and we get surprised by things we didn't detect earlier. Nobody can live in Condition Yellow all the time. But by striving to reach that goal, we can greatly reduce our exposure to surprises. In other words, living in Condition Yellow to the best of our ability will reduce the chances of being surprised by some nasty event, but we cannot expect to reduce the odds to zero.