Blog 854 – 12.25.2017

Being Mindful Not Careful

Instead of a Christmas blog I would like to share what most of the companies that I have been contracted to call a “Safety Moment.” For over eleven years In my almost forty year career in Quality I carried the title of Quality Manager/ Health, Safety, and Environmental Manager. For two of the three companies that I worked for in that capacity the second half of that title was shortened to Safety Manager. I have given countless Safety Training Lectures and conducted Safety Meetings with large and small groups covering all the OSHA (Occupational Health And Safety Administration) required subjects.

It has for some time been a pet peeve of mine what I consider a great misunderstanding of the meaning of words. The term is “Be Careful” but I submit that is the last thing we want for our family, friends, and work mates – that they should be full of cares and worries. It does not make one work safer but instead distracts and at the very least depresses one into a state of stupor or sleepiness that makes them even more susceptible to causing accidents or being caught up in those of others. Being “care full” is not really what most of us mean when we use the words so why not pick better words like, “Be Mindful,” “Be Aware Of Your Surroundings,” or “Be, Alert To Changing Conditions.” That sounds like a more proactive approach and less like “worrying” which never prevented one time lost accident or even an “un-reportable” that is OSHA accident reporting jargon.

I am of the opinion that many of us, myself included, spend way too much of our waking hours still technically “asleep at the switch” or “not giving it our full and undivided attention.” The second is often the result of our misbelief that we are great multitaskers. That is really just some efficiency expert jargon for trying to get more work out of the little guys. Be sure that that baloney about most big business deals being made on golf courses and resorts is just an excuse for the the big boys to get paid for playing. Trust me they concentrate their full attention on improving that golf swing or score and on drinks at the eighteenth hole. Any real business done is incidental consisting mainly of setting up meetings “when we get back to the office, I will have my people get with your people.” Don’t get me wrong we like to do business with our friends and to paraphrase a wall motto, “The people who play together stay together.”

Safety, like Quality is a matter of focus. Being mindful is the best way to live and to stay safe this holiday season and every day.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

Have a Mindful Merry Christmas and a Fully Focused Happy New Year.