In Part 1 and Part 2, I was explaining the relationship of chance-taking and outcome. Specifically, we wait in line to buy tickets for highly improbable though favorable outcomes (lottery), and we take chances on unfavorable outcomes because we think they are highly improbable (many other aspects of our lives). We do the former out of hope, and we do the latter often in the interest of expediency.

Now, if you want to save your money and bet realistically on the most probable outcome, put your money away and don’t buy the lottery ticket. Put it in savings, use it to pay down debt, buy what you need. Just don’t buy the ticket.  All it requires is a little personal discipline.

In personal safety, at work and on your own time, you also have to apply discipline to NOT buy tickets. You have to:

• Identify the driving conditions and adjust accordingly.
• Research and buy additional protective equipment before you mow the lawn or paint the house.
• Read the labels and follow directions. If something requires extra ventilation, there’s a reason.
• Approaching a traffic light as it turns yellow, if your internal voice says “I think I can make this” your new replacement voice should be saying “Time to brake”.

Taking shortcuts is like buying tickets to an injury. We fool ourselves by saying “If I am just more careful in using this chair instead of a ladder, I’ll save time and money and won’t get hurt.” Doing this repeatedly, you collect enough tickets, and you might eventually have the unfavorable outcome.

Actually, I don’t care if you buy lottery tickets or not. But I worry about carelessness when you don’t even realize you are being careless. Don’t buy a ticket to an accident, make the safe choice, every day.

Let’s be careful out there.

• Lottery – Highly Improbable Favorable Outcome (HIFO), I have to consciously decide to buy the ticket.
• Safety – Highly Improbable Disastrous Outcome (HIDO), I consciously and unconsciously buy tickets.

The basic idea I am working from here is that to win the lottery, you need to buy a ticket, and in our daily lives injury can result through conscious and unconscious events that compromise our safety.

So, imagine that one day my wife calls me and says: “Did you bet our numbers yesterday like I asked? They were drawn!”  And  of course I did. I pull the ticket from my pocket and yes indeed I had the ticket, and there were “our numbers”.  5, 8, 9, 16, 22, 24.  I read them to her. Silence on the other end.  Then this – “Did you say 24?”  ”Right,” I say, “because our anniversary is August 24th.”  Silence again. Then she reminds me that our anniversary was the 23rd of August.  Uh-oh.

Notice I said that my wife called me. If this story were true, I would probably be saying “My ex-wife called me”. So this didn’t happen.

But if it did, do you think I could go to the lottery office with our birth and marriage certificates and explain what numbers I MEANT to bet?  I’m sure they would immediately understand and grant me the prize, right? No, they would grant me the prize for 5 out of 6 numbers, and leave it to me to explain why we didn’t get the jackpot.

If I could have that moment at the counter over again, would I think twice about the dates and get it right next time? Certainly, especially if I knew it would be the difference between jackpot and second place.

And when I get hurt because I didn’t take the right precautions, I would wish to live that moment over again too. I would want to take bad luck and turn it into good luck. Turn my HIDO into a BPSO (Best Possible Safe Outcome.

In Part 3 next week, I’ll tie this all together.

Do you consider the number 13 to be unlucky? Or maybe you have an actual fear of the number, which is called triskaidekaphobia. If you do, you wouldn’t be alone. Thirteen is frequently left out when numbering floors in a building or even aisles in an airplane.

Yet there are some who consider this a lucky number. Traditions for luck, both good and bad, go across cultural and religious boundaries, but very few have any scientific or fact basis.

The old saying goes “The harder I work, the luckier I get”. This is absolutely true with safety. Except instead of “hard work” we would probably say “smart work”. If I take on any action in an informed way, I can make better decisions about how to perform that action safely.

So don’t worry that today is Friday the 13th. Your safety and well being is in your hands, not in the determination of a calendar date. Make a decision to not let fate determine your safety. Make informed choices as you go about doing your work, and encourage others to do the same.

Thanks, and let’s be careful out there!