Safety Third: Risk Smart
"Safety third" means doing exciting things that may be somewhat dangerous but doing them in a smart and safe way. If you really tried to live by "safety first", you'd be a hypochondriac living in a bubble.
What's first and second?
Up to you. What are your top priorities?
For example, a dissident who campaigns for the freedom of a whole nation may think it is worth it to put themself in danger of government repression.
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Courage is doing what scares you. All of us live with a myriad of fears of dangers both real and imagined. Perspective
—Photo by Rick Egan
"I stood in front of a sea of flaming coals fifty feet across, an inferno so hot it belched fire tornadoes. The crowd circled, a hundred thousand thronging faces aglow in firelight. Some of the revelers seperated from the orbiting masses and gathered at either end of the burn, looking intently into the flames. One by one they mustered the courage to to cross the hellish fires, braving what looked like deadly peril to emerge on the other side with an ecstatic, exhilirated sense of accomplishment in their faces. I felt drawn to crossing and the rush of adrenaline thrilled me until suddenly it happened: Just as I was about to brave the burning gauntlet, a man crossed with recklessly clumsy haste. He lurched halfway across before he tripped and pitched forwards into the flames, dissapearing into a shower of sparks. Firemen suited like astronauts leapt forwards to carry his melted body towards a medivac helicopter and I know not if he lived or died or which would be worse in his condition. Should this man's gruesome example dissuade me from trying it? Or was there an opposite lesson? I looked at the charred but unmelted shoes of those who had crossed already and realized that the heat however great was as nothing compared to the danger of painicking and making a rashly fatal misstep. Crossing was safe, fearing was deadly. I calmed myself, gave up the thrilling pleasure to be had in scaring myself, and walked calmly across. I ignored the alarm of my heat blasted skin and recrossed to return to where I stood, unharmed."
—Alex Peake
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"Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway."
—John Wayne
"A coward turns away, but a brave man's choice is danger."
—Euripides
"There's a lot of different things that we do during life that could personally harm us and I choose not to stop doing those things." "There are times when you devote yourself to a higher cause than personal safety. "A man can be destroyed but not defeated." —Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea |
Safety Third: Risk Smart
lxpk’s personal idea (something lxpk believes) posted by lxpk Sat, 2008-04-05 08:23Burning Man 2006. I stood in front of a sea of flaming coals fifty feet across, an inferno so hot it belched fire tornadoes. The crowd circled, a hundred thousand thronging faces aglow in firelight.
Some of the revelers seperated from the orbiting masses and gathered at either end of the burn, looking intently into the flames. One by one they mustered the courage to to cross the hellish fires, braving what looked like deadly peril to emerge on the other side with an ecstatic, exhilirated sense of accomplishment in their faces.
I felt drawn to crossing and the rush of adrenaline thrilled me until suddenly it happened: Just as I was about to brave the burning gauntlet, a man crossed with recklessly clumsy haste. He lurched halfway across before he tripped and pitched forwards into the flames, dissapearing into a shower of sparks. Firemen suited like astronauts leapt forwards to carry his melted body towards a medivac helicopter and I know not if he lived or died or which would be worse in his condition.
Should this man's gruesome example dissuade me from trying it? Or was there an opposite lesson? I looked at the charred but unmelted shoes of those who had crossed already and realized that the heat however great was as nothing compared to the danger of painicking and making a rashly fatal misstep. Crossing was safe, fearing was deadly. I calmed myself, gave up the thrilling pleasure to be had in scaring myself, and walked calmly across. I ignored the alarm of my heat blasted skin and recrossed to return to where I stood, unharmed.