Arriving Home

"A hospital bed is a parked taxi with the meter running." - Groucho Marx

From the internet pages of IDriveSafely.com, an article titled “Dangers of Drinking and Driving” reveals that a person is injured in a drunk driving crash nearly every 90 seconds. During the holidays, alcohol-related driving deaths nearly doubles.

This "person" could be your son, daughter, mother, father, wife, friend, co-worker or even you.

Some sobering statistics and great advice can be found on The Zebra website. How to plan ahead, best and worst times to be driving and just how much alcohol is in that drink. The party is great but just be careful to avoid a "mourning" after.

Do not become a January 1 statistic.

Enjoy the party and leave yourself capable of enjoying the days which follow. Arrive home safely and stay inspired my friends.

School Bus Stop Arm - Do The Right Thing

"Just do good, don't worry about the road ahead." - Monk Wansong

August 10 marks the start of another school year in Gwinnett County, Georgia where I live. The county educates over 173,000 students and every year that number grows. With a school system this large, it also involves transporting quite a few students to and from school.

Gwinnett County Schools Transportation Department operates more than 1,900 school buses, which transport more than 127,000 students twice daily. Along with other activities, the GCPS buses travel more than 23.3 million miles annually. One can imagine this means quite a few bus stops five days out of the week.

This means watching out for those flashing red stop signs on those buses.

A 2014 study by the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services, statistics from 29 states found that almost 86,000 vehicles illegally passed 97,000 school buses in one day. Put in broader terms, nearly 13 million illegal passes nationally in a typical 180-day school year.

- Those kids getting on and off the bus are your kids.
- Those kids are your grand-daughters and grand-sons.
- Those kids are your nieces and nephews.
- Those kids are your friends kids.

Do you get the picture?

Please be safe out there when driving. Be patient and obey the laws. If you do not know or understand the law when coming upon a school bus stop arm, make the safe choice and stop. You might have a few car horns irritated if you got it wrong.

Better to suffer a car horn than injuring a child.

Stay inspired my friends.

Risk Reward

"Fear stifles our thinking and actions. It creates indecisiveness that results in stagnation. I have known talented people who procrastinate indefinitely rather than risk failure. Lost opportunities cause erosion of confidence, and the downward spiral begins." -Charles Stanley

Are you a risk-taker?

Really think about that question and ask it of yourself again. What you will realize is that all of us are risk-takers. From our very beginning, we are born into an unknown future of which living it is risk in itself. As a teenager we want to drive a car for the feeling of independence. But driving has the risk of accidents. Even with independence is the risk of failing to support one self properly.

Going to college and selecting a major subjects us to possibly making a wrong choice. Marriage and there is a risk of divorce. Risk can be defined in almost every decision we make in life. So in most respects, all of us are risk-takers whether we believe we are or not. What defines the outcome of risk is how we respond to it.

Does risk rule you or you rule it?

So if risk is around us in most everything we do, how is it that some people take additional risks while others play it safe? There are at least two reasons that can answer this question.

One is that we the need for security keeps many of us from taking risks. As human beings, we have a need to want to stay with the familiar and predictable. We like things we can control and understand well. It was Helen Keller who said "Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."

Secondly, fear and doubt keep us from taking risks. For a dreamer, these two things are their worst enemy. The Irish author, Gareth O’Callaghan has this advice, “Do not fear risk. All exploration, all growth is calculated. Without challenge people cannot reach their higher selves. Only if we are willing to walk over the edge can we become winners.”

How do we overcome the safety from and fear of risk?

Well, you can start by asking yourself these three questions:

- What would I do if I were being more courageous?
- How will inaction cost me one year from now if I do nothing?
- Where is my fear of failure causing me to over-estimate the size of risk, under-estimate myself and holding me back from greater achievement?

Whatever answers come into your mind, be aware that your answers are trying to point you to a greater future. Only you can create that future by taking bolder, more decisive and courageous actions. There will always be risk involved, just know that our human condition is created to overestimate the size of risk and to underestimate our ability to handle them.

As written by Lao Tsu in the 6th century BCE, “You are capable of more than you think.”

Stay inspired my friends and "Fortes fortuna adiuvat" or “Fortune favors the brave.”

Embrace

“Love... It surrounds every being and extends slowly to embrace all that shall be.” ~Kahlil Gibran

My posts talk about stepping out and challenging your self in every day life. To take those risks that will help you seize a better life for you and those around you.

It is for those around you that I'm speaking of today. There are risks we take that are smart to take. There are other risks which are unnecessary to take. The video below addresses one of them.



Take risks but not the unnecessary ones! Embrace the people you love by being safe. Have a great weekend everyone.

Teen Driving Safety

Driving while young, a worrisome thought for most parents as their children attempt this right of passage. All of us have gone through this and most have successfully navigated the learning to drive process. There are those that some would argue still need to 'learn how to drive'.

But any humor aside, there is concern over the amount of training given to young drivers today. As Rose Rougeau of the American Automobile Association says, "It's clear from this analysis that young drivers' lack of experience on the road is a major traffic safety issue." Some of the sobering statistics about teen driving are;

• The number one cause of death for 15-20 year olds is car collisions.
• This age group makes up 7% of licensed drivers, 14% of fatalities, and 20% of all reported collisions.
• In 2004, 7,386 people were killed in crashes involving young drivers ages 16-20 (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, 2005)
• 3,523 young drivers ages 16-20 were killed in 2004. (NHTSA, 2005)
• 53% of teen driver deaths occur on weekends.
• Nearly two-thirds of teen passenger vehicle occupants killed were unrestrained. (NHTSA, 2003)
• Forty-one percent (41%) of teenage motor vehicle deaths in 2003 occurred between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. (IIHS, 2004)
• Staying up late puts teen drivers at high risk for automobile collisions due to drowsiness.
• Teens are more likely than any other age group to be involved in a single vehicle crash.

Very tough statistics to think about but what do we do? Mandatory drivers education courses in the public schools. Driver and traffic safety education began as a concept in 1928 as part of a doctoral thesis by Albert W. Whitney whom argued that since so many high school students were learning to drive cars, schools had a responsibility to include driver education and safety instruction in the curriculum.

I am a proponent of schools providing this training to better prepare our teens to be better and safer drivers. An organization called Drivers Edge provides training around the country as a free service. They are able to do so due to corporate sponsorships, but your donations and support can help keep it this and help them to expand.

Founder of the organization, ex-race car driver Jeff Payne provides the following tips:

1. For your teen's first car, you shouldn't compromise safety to save money. And don't encourage buying a flashy hot rod, which invites high-speed driving.
2. Even the best kids can make poor decisions, and many are afraid to call their parents when they've had too much to drink. Stress this: "You can call us anytime. We won't ask questions."
3. When she goes out, know her destination, and tell her she needs to call you if she heads to a new location.
4. For six months after getting a license, make sure your teen drives alone. Having friends in the car, especially if they're rowdy, is a dangerous distraction.

Do what you can to keep your teen safe, give them the necessary tools to drive safely and remind them of what it takes to remain safe.

Travel Safely

For those that do not travel a lot may not have some of the 'built-in sensors' as someone that travels quite a lot. Myself, most of the traveling has always employed various ways of making sure I'm safe. There is always the possibility of something happening, whether it be in your own country or when traveling abroad.

A recent article in Executive Travel Magazine, psychologist Terry Riley provides twelve travel tips. The tips talk about 'traveling overseas', yet I've always felt regardless of where you travel, it is always a good idea to be careful in unfamiliar locations.

So here are Mr. Riley's twelve tips. For more, find and read his books 'Travel Can Be Murder', 'C.H.A.R.M. School' and 'The Complete Travel Diet'.

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12. Don’t go.
Granted, this is really a ‘don’t travel’ tip, but it bears mentioning. If you genuinely feel that you could be in danger by traveling to your destination, don’t go. Applying some creativity may lead you to find another way to accomplish your business goal without having to make an in-person visit. It’s not worth risking your life to advance your career.

11. Know where to go and how to get there.
Before you leave home, contact a friend, colleague or government official who is familiar with your destination and can give you the skinny on how to get around. Study a map of the area to plot out your routes ahead of time, and take the map with you. (Important corollary to this tip: Know what places to avoid and how to circumvent them.)

10. Pack a “survival” kit.
My kit includes a small flashlight (in case of power failure), duct tape (to prevent smoke from entering a hotel room where I might have to await rescue from a fire) and, of course, a cell phone (that will work at my destination).

9. Get your rest, and avoid alcohol and other drugs.
Travelers who are confused, tired, drunk or doped up are easy prey. Combine any of these vulnerabilities and your chances of being victimized increase substantially.

8. Keep a low profile.
Affluent Americans and employees of American corporations are prime targets when traveling internationally. Don’t advertise your wealth, citizenship or company affiliation. Leave expensive jewelry at home, cover your identification and remove your company’s logos from your clothing and luggage.

7. Travel light, and keep moving.
Criminals prefer stationary and slow-moving targets—the expression is “sitting ducks”—so you want to be able to move smartly along your way. Carry only what you need in transit. If you have excess luggage or cumbersome items to transport, ship them in advance.

6. Make eye contact.
Develop a habit of looking around and making eye contact with others—especially those behind you. A strong deterrent to crime is the possibility of being caught. A criminal is way more likely to be caught if he knows he can be identified.

5. Stay with others.
Criminals prefer lone targets. There is safety in numbers, even if those numbers include strangers.

4. Protect your identity.
When you make reservations, use only your first initial and last name. Even if you’re a cautious traveler, few things will disarm you more than a stranger calling your name. While you are trying to figure out how you know the guy who called out to you, he may be figuring out how to snatch your goodies. And, if you are a woman, using only your first initial means advance notice of your gender is denied to anyone who may be lying in wait.

3. Trust your instincts.
Listen to your internal danger alert system, and act on its warnings. In most cases, it won’t let you down.

2. Never trust others to manage your safety.
You are ultimately responsible for your personal safety while traveling.

1. Never trust others to manage your safety.
This tip is so important it bears repeating: Only you are responsible for your safety -- no one else.
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“When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.” Clifton Fadiman