It All Starts With Situational Awareness©

 

I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource!  To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE.  Thank you and Happy Trails!

 

I had planned on writing something different for this week’s article, but the recent death of a beautiful person (HERE and HERE) I didn’t know, and a random conversation with my dental hygienist about self-defense last week, has led me to write this instead.  I’ve been blessed/cursed with hyper vigilance and high protective instincts, and while I know that you can’t save someone you never knew, it still hurts and frustrates me.  Perhaps, with this article, just maybe, somehow, I can help someone else I don’t know, instead.

 

This crazy world that we live in is made up of “sheep”, lovely people without a mean bone in their bodies, who have no or only limited capacity for violence, and who are targets for “wolves”; who prey upon sheep, and “sheep dogs”, who protect the sheep.  This is an oversimplification of course, but it illustrates the point.  Oh, and there are a lot more sheep than wolves or sheep dogs, which is both a good and a bad thing.  It is good, because your chance of becoming a wolf’s victim is low, but it’s bad, because often there isn’t someone there to rescue you if you get into trouble.

 

So, how do you reduce your risks and become a safer, smarter  sheep?  There are a number of things that you can do, but it all starts with situational awareness and realizing that IT could happen to you.  Once you realize that it can happen to you, the first step to being safe in any environment, whether urban or wilderness, is to be aware of your situation.  Being aware of your situation can help you identify possible hazards, avoid accidents, react quickly to emergencies and make informed decisions.

 

Situational awareness or situation awareness (SA) is the ability to perceive, understand, and effectively respond to one's situation, which is defined as one’s environment, its elements, and how it changes with respect to time or other factors.  Situational awareness is a cycle and is formally defined as, “the perception of the elements in the environment within a volume of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their status in the near future”^2.

 

In a nutshell, situational awareness is being aware of your surroundings, predicting potential risks, and taking the necessary actions to stay safe, but what does that mean in an urban setting, which according to the U.N. is the home to over half of the world population today?

 

The concept of situational awareness has been a part of military strategy for millennia, a failure of situational awareness is what makes an ambush successful, for the ambusher!  However, it wasn’t until the 1960’s that the concept of situational awareness was formalized into a model by Colonel Jeff Cooper.  This hypothesis, which is known as the “Cooper Color Code”, details four levels of situational awareness, although later authors have added two additional levels, levels five and six, or colors gray and black.

The lowest level of situational awareness is “condition white” or the “switched-off”, “tuned-out” level.  In condition white, you are completely unaware of your surroundings and are not prepared for anything.  Reasons for being in condition white might be lack of sleep, fatigue, impairment due to drugs or alcohol, being absorbed by technology, or stress.  In condition white, you are distracted and may not even realize you are in danger.  This is the case when a person walking down the street has headphones on and is listening to music, is texting or is otherwise using their technology.

 

The second level of situational awareness is condition yellow, which describes a relaxed awareness level.  In condition yellow you are relaxed, but aware of your surroundings and are actively scanning for potential threats.  You can quickly respond to any changes in your situation.  A person who is walking down the street and is frequently looking at the people around them is in condition yellow, so is a human “wolf” who is sizing potential prey.

 

The third level of situational awareness is condition orange, which identifies a focused awareness level where you have identified a potential threat and have focused on it.  You are prepared to act if necessary and are in an increased state of awareness.  A person who has spotted a suspicious person approaching them on the street, and is watching them, or a human predator who is moving towards a target is in condition orange.

 

The fourth level of situational awareness is condition red, which defines a high alert level.  If you are in condition red, you are actively dealing with a threat and you are taking actions to protect yourself or others.

 

Smart people try to remain in condition yellow, because it reduces your risks and you become a safer, smarter sheep!

Don't Forget to come back next week for “The Ten Commandments of Situational Awareness©”.

I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource!  To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE.  Thank you and Happy Trails!

 

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

 

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

 

Sources

 

Bonnafoux, Patrice; “Situational awareness: practical safety tips”, [© 2012-2023 Patrice Bonnafoux], https://www.urbanfitandfearless.com/2014/03/situational-awareness-safety-tips.html, accessed January 25, 2025

 

Endsley, Mica R.; “Toward a Theory of Situation Awareness in Dynamic Systems”, The Journal of Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Vol. 37, No. 1, March 1, 1995, pages 32 -64, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/210198492_Endsley_MR_Toward_a_Theory_of_Situation_Awareness_in_Dynamic_Systems_Human_Factors_Journal_371_32-64, accessed January 20, 2025

 

Kardian, Steve; “The Seven-Second Rule: How to Avoid Being an Easy Target”, Aug 6, 2017, [© 2025 NBCUniversal Media, LLC], https://www.nbcnews.com/better/health/seven-second-rule-how-avoid-being-seen-easy-target-ncna789226, accessed January 25, 2025

 

Oglesby, “Pamela; “Instinct - Are We Born With a Protective Instinct?”, July 18, 2022, [© 2025 The Arena Media Brands, LLC], https://discover.hubpages.com/health/Instinct-Are-We-Born-With-a-Protective-Instinct, accessed January 20, 2025

 

Premier Body Armor; “How To Be Situationally Aware”, May 11, 2023, [© 2025 Premier Body Armor ], https://premierbodyarmor.com/blogs/pba/how-to-be-situationally-aware, accessed January 25, 2025

 

Wikimedia; “Crowd in the street’, by Christopher Amrich, July 3, 2016, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crowd_in_the_street_%2827890306640%29.jpg, accessed January 25, 2025

 

Wikimedia; “Stubai - Tiroler Bergschaf -BT”, by Basotxerri, July 16, 2018, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stubai_-_Tiroler_Bergschaf_-BT-_01.jpg, accessed January 25, 2025

 

Younis, Ola; et al.; “ Peripheral Vision Loss using Smart Glasses and Augmented Reality”, International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, March 2019, Vol. 10, No, 2, pages 1 to 9, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331409336_A_Hazard_Detection_and_Tracking_System_for_People_with_Peripheral_Vision_Loss_using_Smart_Glasses_and_Augmented_Reality, accessed January 25, 2025