I Forgot About Safety?

                At a delivery last week, I saw a poster on the wall outside the breakroom with a cartoon drawing of a man with a bandage on his head, black eye, broken nose, arm in a sling and on a crutch.  On the poster it said, “I forgot about safety for one moment.”  That poster really ticked me off.

          I had this great post all worked out in my head then I decided to look up the word “forget” on the dictionary app on my phone.  (Yes, I’m that nerd that has a dictionary app on my phone.  A thesaurus, too.)

Merriam-Webster defines “forget” as”

    1.   To be unable to think of or remember (something),

    2.   To fail to remember to bring or take (something),

    3.   To stop thinking or caring about (someone)

I was all set to blast that poster right out of the water in this post until I saw the third definition.  And here I thought I was so smart.  BTW, the synonym listed for the word “forget” is “neglect.”  The first two definitions make forgetting sound like something that happens unintentionally, but the third one nails it.

Safety rules don’t leave our brains.  None of us (out of training) wake up in the morning not knowing we should do a pre-trip.  People don’t suddenly not know that they should lift with their knees, not their backs.  Seatbelts have been in motor vehicles for years.  None of this is new information.  I don’t know the exact number, but I believe that the majority of tickets, accidents and injuries would be prevented if people would stop neglecting the safety rules they absolutely do know.

To me, “I forgot” sounds like the beginning of a really crappy excuse.  It ranks right up there with “I didn’t mean to…” in my mind.  I’m a firm believer in being intentional and owning my crap.  When we use excuses, we rob ourselves of the opportunity to become better and no one buys them anyway, so why bother?

When I was in high school, one of my teachers had this quote up on her wall.  I have no idea who said it, but I love it and still quote it 30 years later.

“Excuses are tools of the incompetent.  Those who use them build monuments to nowhere and seldom amount to anything.”