Safety First

The rainy season is fast approaching. And I need to fix some awnings that requires me to climb and work under very cramped conditions outside the face of the bird house – it’s less than ideal work conditions….but it’s just doable as a one man job.

Early this morning. I planned to finish it off before lunch….as soon as I started work. It didn’t take me very long to realize I was in an awfully dangerous position and got down immediately.

Spent the entire day instead preparing the ropes, procedures and gathering the tools to get the job done safely….first thing tomorrow….it occurred to me then how I was nearly blind sided by rushing into a seemingly benign task…it’s very easy for me to over estimate my abilities. As I happen to be a very accomplished mountain climber who probably suffers from a delusional narcissistic arrogance when it comes to heights – and that blasé attitude is just right for accidents to occur…I must have kicked myself a couple of times really hard when this realization sank into me….I of all people should really know better not to take stupid risk…paradoxically, since I know mountains so well that was what probably prompted me to stop dead on my tracks, do a quick U turn and spend the rest of day planning HOW I should work SAFELY tomorrow – mountains are very unforgiving teachers….safety is like breathing — if you don’t climb safely, you die….it’s as simple as that.

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‘When arrogance gets the better of you…you will fall. That’s hundred percent…the question is whether you get up or stay down for the full count…but fall you will!

So never allow arrogance to get even one millimeter of space in your head….when you find yourself behaving impulsively and rushing into something – press the pause button and set it aside for a while…take your time…never be pressured and just look at what’s before you…study it from all angles like a hunter and scale the opportunities and threats…this is good, this is bad, that sort of attitude…take your time about it…above all do this with the attitude where you’re always mindful…if you don’t have an exit strategy and another to back that one up…you will die – man after all is very fragile.’