It can be hard enough to focus on personal safety when we are alone.  What about when we are with our family?  Whether a parent with a child, or an adult with an aging parent, you are responsible for the safety of another person. You have to put their needs and weaknesses ahead of your own.  This is not unlike the Secret Service, which is tasked with the well being of all types of government officials.  What can we learn from them to help us protect our own?

At the foundation of the MCS Mindset, there are three As.  They are Awareness, Avoidance, and Aggression.  The funny thing about the last A, Aggression, is that the need for it can often be totally removed by developing the subconscious use of Awareness and Avoidance.  These two things are what the Secret Service does better than anyone else in the world.   Even though they have the tools and training to use aggression, having to do so to them would be considered a failure. It would mean that they failed to effectively use Awareness and Avoidance.   How can you harvest the full potential of the concepts as an ordinary citizen? Let's break it down.

First off there are three types of Awareness-

Self  Awareness-  In other words, making the conscious decision to take a moment before walking out the door everyday to be truthful about how you are doing both physically and mentally.  As mentioned, it is one thing to be prepared to plan for your own safety compared to someone elses.

Team Awareness- (which is the focus of this article) is being realistic when it comes to the the abilities of those you are with.  Everyone is somewhere on the sliding scale between being an asset or a liability.  If you are a Mom moving with an infant, that infant is a liability when it comes to both of your safety.  Primarily this is because the key to safety is often the ability to move and move fast. Obviously this is much harder to do with an infant in tow.

If you have read this far, you are the self selected team leader of your family and probably anyone else you find yourself out and about with.  This makes it imperative that you be realistic about your team's strengths and weaknesses and plan accordingly.

Situational Awareness-  when talking about awareness, this is what most people will say.  The problem is that being aware of your situation is worthless unless you are capable of using the information to your advantage.  There are tons of articles out there detailing things such as pre-assault indicators.  It is good to be able to recognize these things but even better if you have a plan about what to do if you encounter them.  If you encounter this situation and you are alone, the best option is always to get out of the area as fast as you can.  But, what if it happens in the confines of an emergency room when you are there with an aging parent in a wheelchair?

You need to be constantly gathering information on people, places, and things that can impact your safety.

Now that we have you thinking about Awareness and all it entails, let's talk about using the information you are now constantly gathering and how to use it to Avoid things that are likely to effect your safety...the skill of Avoidance.

Any and all situations are like an act in a play.  They all contain a setting, scene, and actors.  It is common sense that certain scenes are more likely to play out in certain settings, thus those places are to be avoided.  Doing so decreases the chances of that type of scenario effecting you or your family's well being.

Of course we know that anything can happen anywhere, so at all times you need to recognize your "out".  Envision the Secret Service stuffing a dignitary into a limousine at the first sign of any disturbance, even if it does not directly effect them.  They don't sit around to wait and see what happens.  They refuse to participate as actors in the scene.  This should be your mindset as well.  This means habitually doing things such as-

Leaving room between you and the vehicle in front of you so you can drive around if something happens.

Sitting next to the exit in a restaurant.

Backing into or pulling through parking spaces so that you can leave in a hurry.

Trusting your intuition and acting on it before things become totally clear.

Put this information to work and create good habits.  It is the little things you do everyday that can keep you and your family alive.