What we covered
We All Need Situational Awareness
Each of us can benefit by increasing our skills in obtaining situational awareness in everyday life situations. Situational Awareness skills can be applied to both life-threatening situations as well as times of personal crisis.
We all need it from time to time.
Remember, it is a mindset we should make habitual.
People can hone their situational awareness abilities by practicing some simple drills.
Employing such simple focused-awareness drills will train a person's mind to be aware of these things almost subconsciously when the person is in a relaxed state of awareness.
Situational awareness is an ongoing process and not a one-time event. The need for situational awareness is greater during times of crisis and adversity.
What we are not aware of controls us.
Fear is a consequence of ignorance. Situational awareness can diminish both fear and ignorance.
“I don’t know” is the answer in absence of situational awareness.
Be aware and make situational awareness more prominent in your everyday life.
As we have discussed throughout, the discipline part of practicing situational awareness refers to the conscious effort required to pay attention to gut feelings and to surrounding events even while you are busy and distracted. However, it is critical to stress that situational awareness does not mean being paranoid or obsessively concerned about security. In fact, people simply cannot operate in a state of focused awareness for extended periods, and high alert can be maintained only for very brief periods before exhaustion sets in.
What's Next?
The impact of Situational Awareness in our lives depends on our ability to make It an instrumental part of our thought process. When we intentionally make it a habitual part of how we view situations as they unfold we may gain the ability to become more proactive rather than reactive. Increasing awareness of any type can lead to opportunities that might have been overlooked. It has been said, what we are not aware of controls us, what we become aware of might allow a greater degree of control.
There is a school of thought that all challenges bring opportunities. Granted, we may face challenges that might be beyond our control with little in the way of opportunity. However, we postulate that situational awareness is often the gateway to opportunity.
Our recommendations for you
As a suggested exercise, use the current COVID-19 situation and consider:
Who are you relying on for information and guidance?
Where are you getting your information from?
How reliable and up to date are your sources?
What steps can you or are you taking to validate your sources?
What precautionary measures will you take as a result of an individual or family response?
What precautionary measures will you take as the nation reopens?
Are you confident that you have all the information you require to make the best decisions for you and your family?
What else do you want to know that you don’t know?
Are you aware of all the areas you need situational awareness? Physically, Mentally, Emotionally, Spiritually, Financially, Relationally, etc.
Always ask, “What am I missing? Or What else?
Congratulations. Now you have a better awareness of the need for increasing your ability to gain and maintain accurate and timely situational awareness.
With this awareness, you should be better prepared to make informed decisions and appropriate responses to crisis situations.
We encourage you to go deeper with what you learned in this mini-course as we have only scratched the surface of this incredibly valuable topic.
You've Got This.