90% of Survival is Behavior

Look, Listen, and Pay Attention
Then Act Accordingly.
Don't do stupid things.

Most of us think of survival as coping with starvation or exposure in the wilderness, but that is only a small danger to your physical existence in modern society.  Most of your risk comes from driving your car, walking in the wrong neighborhood, or falling off a ladder.  Electrocutions, drowning, tumbling down the stairs, or getting knifed or shot by someone you know rounds out the threats to your life.

Here are an assortment of items in the news to give you an example of why behavior can give you a short ride to playing the harp in the afterlife.

Man calls a female police officer nasty name during a confrontation and she shoots him dead.  He was unarmed but apparently acting erratic and in the process of an emergency call she is faced with an aggressive guy who caught her on the wrong day.  He is no longer with us.

Lesson Learned:  Don't get the police chasing you and especially don't call them names when they have a gun pointed at you.

Woman and boyfriend jump from cruise ship and are lost at sea. 
Disappearances from cruise ships happen all the time.  Every now and then someone is seem jumping but getting pushed off probably happens often enough as well.   The Navy loses sailors on ships regularly as well, but you just never hear about it.

Lesson Learned: I'll skip the Love Boat and spend my time at the beach.  If someone wants you in the water on a cruise ship they just have to pick the right time when you are unaware and unnoticed.  Here are some ideas if you must go on a cruise ship anyway. 

Woman falls off 17th floor apartment balcony railing in NYC.
This happens all the time too.  I hear about it at resorts where people get drunk and show off while doing headstands on the balcony or just sit on it like somehow they are immune to the laws of gravity.

Lesson Learned:  Don't sit on balconies railings or railings of any kind for that matter if they are more than two or three feet above the ground level.  Also, don't stay in the area if someone else is doing such a stupid thing since you might be blamed for pushing them. 

Man dies of electrocution after urinating on the subway third rail.
This may not happen all the time but it reinforces the thought about the risk of electrocution.

Lesson Learned:  Don't pee on the the third rail with your third rail.  

Man dies while pooping on the subway tracks while between trains.
Why not go in an alley if you have to that bad.  And a second man was drunk and was hit by the train as well on the same night.

Lesson Learned:  Shall I state the obvious.  Don't poop on subway tracks especially when trains on on them.

Elderly man run over by elderly woman's car.
The woman suffered from a medical condition and it appears the man was run over by her car when it rolled back over him after hitting some other vehicles.  I had a friend who was run over by a car from an elderly woman who blacked out.  He died within minutes.

Lesson Learned:  Don't hang around near elderly people who are driving and pay close attention to what they are doing.  I am not joking about this.  Often they have lost many of the observation skills that might prevent them from running you over.  Many are deaf so won't hear you yelling or screaming.  When I get that old I hope to be riding around in a golf cart or have a chauffeur.