Why Being Safe Could Actually Kill You

“Excuse me sir - that’s not safe”

So many times I’ve heard a phrase along those lines. And it really angers me each time.

But perhaps you’re reading this and don’t know me, so you’re wondering ‘Well is he talking about jumping into the gorilla enclosure at the zoo, or starting business with the cartel?’ - no.

I’m not talking about reckless endangerment of my person. Or other people. I am not a reckless person. I’ve never broken a bone, had a stitch or gone to the hospital for an injury. Yet I am a barefoot runner, parkour athlete, freediver, backpacker, skateboarder, and wilderness explorer. I’ve spent a whole month living in a bamboo hut in the jungles of the Philippines. I’ve camped in the bush of Zimbabwe, and had three lions circle around my sleeping bag in a night. But somehow, I’m ok. I’ve been ‘safe.’

Well how exactly? Those activities have risk involved, surely. I ‘could’ have broken a bone skateboarding, or cracked my head, I ‘could’ have been eaten by a lion. Why haven’t those things happened? It’s because I’ve learned to mitigate risk.

Maybe I can make my point clearer by asking some questions:

How does an olympic gymnast not break their neck when doing a routine?

How does an an animal control worker avoid getting bitten by a rattlesnake?

How does a hunter not get shot by his gun?

How does a person not crash their car into another car on the highway?

The answer lies in knowledge of the subject. The gymnast has done thousands of tumble routines, thousands of rotations through the air, and landed on their feet. The snake handler has handled countless snakes, bagged them with the proper tools each time, and learned how to anticipate their strike, when to push them further away, and when to bag the snake over the head. The hunter has learned that its simply best not to point a gun at himself or anything he cares about, even if its unloaded. The driver has learned to check their mirrors when merging, and to slow-down preemptively when approaching a car ahead. How do they all stay safe?

All these scenarios involve the person (or the ‘actor) having knowledge of a situation that has risk. They have immense experience with the subject at hand. But perhaps MOST importantly, is that they have FAILED many many times, so they know how to avoid failure in the future.

So back to my experiences - I’m not saying I’m an expert in Lion behavior and that’s how I avoided being eaten, or that I can survive in any wilderness by myself… But my point is that I’ve learned enough so that I can stay out of harms way in situations that could involve danger. I’ve learned, from many nights camping, that animals that approach you (a human) at night aren’t interested in eating you.

Or when it comes to parkour; I’ve learned through experience, how far and high I can jump, how big of a drop I can safely take, how much weight I can put on my hands, how to safely bail from a jump. I’ve spent most of my life doing things like this. From walking on the curb as a little kid, to climbing the playground, to actually climbing rock faces as an adult. From practicing a backflip on the diving board, to trying it in snow, and now to being able to do it on concrete. I have spent countless hours working on challenging myself physically, without significant injury since I was born.

Maybe you’re thinking, “OK yeah so what you have experience …there is still risk.”

Fine.

Yes there’s risk in pushing yourself physically, in clearing a jump on a skateboard, or diving off of a cliff. But let me ask you this, would it be ‘safer’ to sit on your ass your whole life, never leaving the couch? To never meet new people because there’s risk they could hurt you? To not trying new things no matter how much you could learn because they might cause you some harm? That is not ‘safe’ either.

We need risk in our lives. So if you ever find yourself saying the words “that’s unsafe” I suggest you take some time to ponder if the person you are speaking to has poured hours, blood, sweat, and tears into the activity they are practicing, that maybe, perhaps maybe, they have knowledge and experience in the risk they are undertaking.