Fortune Cookie Friday: Living with Prevention

We can live long and happy lives if we practice a healthy lifestyle. Eat right, exercise, and get plenty of rest. This is regular advice from medical professionals. We are also reminded on an annual basis to get the flu shot. All of this adds up to that special ounce of prevention that makes our health better. Prevention can help other areas of our lives as well, especially when we don’t want to deal with unfortunate accidents.

Preventative measures can help us at home, at school, at work, when we travel, and even when we decide to take a break. We stock the cupboards with food, study hard and get to work on time. We pack an extra pair of socks and underwear for trips and maybe turn off our phones when we want to decompress.

Imagine taking a road trip and forgetting to fill up the tank with gas. We could find ourselves stuck out in the middle of nowhere and have to hike miles to the nearest town for assistance. A quick glance at the dashboard gauge could have prevented that.

Or maybe we did fill the tank but miscalculated the distance. It would be great to be a member of an auto club for roadside assistance. Hardly anyone keeps a gas can in their vehicles anymore, but if there is one, having some good walking shoes would make the hike a lot easier.

A little precaution before a crisis occurs is preferable to a lot of repairs afterward. And let’s face it, we all have some crisis in our lives. If you live with teenagers, you probably get more than your daily recommended allowance.

With the hurricane season in full swing and winter around the corner, many are preparing for whatever mother nature throws at them. Sometimes, all the preparation in the world won’t stop the chaos. Stuff happens, and we find that there isn’t much we can do to prevent it from happening, but we can make that chaos more of a mild calamity by taking the time to learn how to deal with chaos when it does happen.

Learning how to deal with intense or critical situations is just as much prevention as having a first aid kit or spare batteries. A person with a cool head can think clearly and calm others that aren’t prepared. Knowing what to do and when can be the difference between life and death.

Can one over prepare? Sure. It’s possible that we spend too much time and effort on prevention that we prevent ourselves from enjoying life or lose sight of our goals. We can easily scare ourselves into not doing something such as eating new foods, learning a new sport, or even falling in love.

Now, we don’t have to throw all caution to the wind, but it does mean we have to take a risk or two. There is nothing wrong with taking preventative measures and leaving a little room for the unexpected. Hey, you’re prepared for whatever happens, right?

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, but add in just a smidgen of risk, and we may find ourselves with a whole life of happy accidents.