In my career as a stage illusionist, I was asked to perform Houdini’s “Water Torture Cell” for several TV magic specials. The feat is an escape that requires physical endurance, planning, and safety precautions. I need to escape from a 2’ by 2’ by 6’ high plexiglass box full of water. My ankles are locked in the lid, and I’m hanging upside-down.

It looks death defying but in reality, we take every precaution to make sure that I don’t die performing it. I have three assistants in the performance that appear to be stage performers. In fact, I choose each one for a technical skill that we need if anything goes wrong.

One man pulls on the rope that raises me into the air and lowers me into the water tank. He is actually a mechanic and prop builder, with tools close at hand. He can fix anything that breaks during the show.

A woman who is the “timer” holds a stopwatch and makes the decision to interrupt the performance and rescue me if that is needed. She has to be sensitive to secret signals I might give her, and have an awareness of everything that is going on at all times. For this job I selected a member of a percussive dance company that works with large props and employs skills requiring precise timing, such as stage combat.

My third assistant is a man who seems to be there just to move the tower I’m hanging from and raise and lower the curtain that surrounds the cell. The person I selected for this job was my son’s swimming instructor at the YMCA. He teaches CPR, and has saved someone using it.

I also hired a professional mountaineer to help us with the rigging required for raising and lowering me into the water, and to show us how to effect a rescue if I were unconscious at the bottom of the cell.

The only illusion in this escape is that I’m a “daredevil” cheating death. In fact, we go to great lengths to plan in advance for anything that might go wrong. In your own work, you can also make sure you have everyone on your team you need to do the job. You don’t have to go it alone. Recognize the skills of your co-workers, and support them in their roles.

Edwin Land invented an inexpensive polarized lens, a number of optical products for the military, and the highly successful Polaroid Land Camera. He was a scientist who continued to perform an experiment each day even as he acted as chief executive of the Polaroid Corporation.

One of his employees told me that they liked to work for Edwin Land because if you made a mistake or had an accident, Land would call you into his office—not to reprimand you, but to ask you what you learned from the experience. You see, Edwin Land was an inventor, and he knew that before he invented the instant camera, he invented many products that didn't work. He saw a mistake as an experiment with a bad outcome that could teach him something.

Edwin Land would ask the person who made a mistake "What can we learn from this?" "How can we prevent someone else from making the same error?" In other words, the person who made the mistake became a source of information.

As safety supervisors, can we treat accidents the same way? Our approach can be: "You had the accident—now you're the expert. Help us to prevent accidents in the future."

Captain M. R. Hunter, Commanding Officer of the Naval Air Station Oceana, writes in their Safety Policy Statement: "You are officially appointed as the Safety Officer for those around you. You are authorized to challenge, stop or raise the issue to you supervisor, Safety Office or union representative, whenever you believe an unsafe action is about to occur. Everyone has the right to participate in the Safety Program and is assured that no adverse action will be taken for exercising these rights."

For accidents to be good sources of information, everyone needs to report accidents and provide detailed causes. We can encourage this by letting every employee know that he or she is a valued contributor to the safety program of the company.

Have you ever been in a discussion in which no matter what you said, the other person had an answer and seemed to be able to make the argument come out the way they wanted it to? It’s frustrating, isn’t it?

Unfortunately, we manipulate our own minds in the same way. To rationalize something that we want to do, we make all sorts of excuses and exceptions to the rules. “I don’t have to wear my hard hat and eye protection here, because it’s after 7:00.” “I don’t need to get help unscrewing this rusted lid—I’ll just put my back into it.” For electricians: “I don’t need to use the Live-Dead-Live test—it’s only a wall outlet, and my meter’s been working just fine all day long.”

In my field as a professional illusionist, I call this kind of mind game the “Magician’s Choice.” In my presentations, I give an audience member a free choice of three items. Whichever item they pick, I reveal a prediction saying they would pick that item. The secret method is that I have a prediction for each item hidden in a different place on the stage, and all the locations seem logical. I win no matter what choice the spectator makes.

In the same way, we sometimes make an emotional decision, and then find ways to rationalize it. For example, if it is our inclination to resist safety procedures, we can find all sorts of excuses and exceptions to avoid compliance.

Instead, let’s embrace the idea of personal responsibility for our safety, and even go beyond compliance. Let’s be creative and look for ways to be even more safe than required. Safety procedures are simply the collected data from others who discovered safer ways to work—or learned from their mistakes. If we are thinking for ourselves, and not manipulating our minds with rationalizations, we can be one of the inventive contributors to this wealth of knowledge.

“Why is it sometimes difficult to remind a co-worker to follow safety procedures?”

That is one of the most important safety questions we can answer, because our safety supervisors are not the ones in charge of our safety. We all are. And if we have a hard time talking about it, the job isn’t getting done.

One reason we have difficulty is that we think assertiveness has to be aggressive. That’s why it’s so important to find ways to be assertive, with humor (or at least with a positive attitude), and without aggression.

Another reason we have difficulty reminding others is because many of us don’t get much practice being assertive. We believe that it’s usually good to try to get along with other people, and not to “make waves.” We can practice being more assertive (and staying calm while we do it) in situations where it’s not that important, such as with telemarketers, door-to-door salesmen, stating our views in meetings, and all sorts of other situations.

Finally, we have difficulty reminding others because sometimes we confuse “I” statements with “should” statements. Most people respond poorly to being told what they should do, or what they need to do. Before suggesting that a co-worker follow a safety procedure, see how you can turn your “should” statement into an “I” statement.

You might find yourself wanting to say, “You need to wear your hard hat when you walk across this area,” but a more constructive approach might be “I’d sure like it if you wore your hard hat. I don’t want anything to happen to you” or “Let’s put on our hard hats—you never know when someone might be working overtime!”

“I can lift this box onto the table by myself. After all, I could when I was 30. What’s 15 years?”

As I demonstrate in my safety presentations, we often fool ourselves no matter how smart we are. One way we do that is by assuming that we are strong enough or flexible enough to do challenging physical work without help, or without following proper safety procedures. How can we prevent this mistake?

First, let’s listen to our inner voice when it asks “Should I really be doing this?” If you find yourself asking the question, that’s a red flag warning. Secondly, be aware that most accidents at many worksites are sprains, strains, slips and falls. Therefore, stretching and toning before work, along with regular exercise, can greatly reduce our chances of injury.

Eight out of ten people in the United States will have a back injury or back pain at some point in their lives. Whether we’re one of the eight, and the degree to which we suffer injury, is to some extent within our control. Studies show that people who exercise at least three time per week have far fewer injuries at work. Other studies show that workers who do stretching exercises at the beginning of their workday greatly reduce their accident rate.

Do you take better care of your tools than your body? If you attend an exercise and stretch class that your employer may offer at the beginning of your workday, or stretch out at home before coming to work, you will not only feel better all day, but you’ll feel better at the end of the day. It will also help you manage stress. You may even live longer to enjoy your retirement! It’s a great habit to form, and it’s guaranteed to help you stay young.

No matter how smart we are, we need to fight the natural tendency to wait until it’s too late. Stand up and stretch right now—for your safety, and for your pleasure.

Like many of us, I once reached a point in my life where I realized that I needed to take charge of my health. In my search for answers, I went to a health conference. In the exhibit hall you could take a computerized test to see how long you were expected to live based on your family history and lifestyle behavior. I decided to save time by checking the computer program to see how you could live the longest, and then I’d just follow the advice. I found out that you could be told that you’d live to be 115 years old. Here’s who you have to be:

You need to be a 70-year-old woman with at least a Master’s degree doing manual labor and living on a farm. She exercises aerobically 5 times a week, doesn’t smoke or drink at all, and all 4 of her grandparents lived past 80. She follows safety procedures and uses her safety equipment. She’s happy, easy-going, always wears her seat belt, and hasn’t had a speeding ticket in the past year.

I realized that this was one test I wasn’t going to get an “A” in. So I looked to see if I was better off than anyone else. I found out that you could be told you’d live to be only 33. Here’s the profile of that person:

He is a 29-year-old man who graduated from high school working behind a desk in a large city making over $50,000 a year. He lives alone and never exercises. He smokes over 2 packs of cigarettes a day, drinks over 1/4 bottle of liquor a day, and sleeps over 10 hours a day. He’s aggressive, unhappy, doesn’t wear his seat belt, and has had a speeding ticket in the past year.

Well, we’re all somewhere in between, aren’t we? And there are some things we can control, and some things we can’t. We can’t control how long our grandparents lived (although when some people hear about this, they immediately buy their grandparents vitamin pills and exercise equipment!). However, there are many choices we can control, and when it comes to those, we have to work to make sure that we make the safe choices, and not let ourselves get manipulated by our environment to disregard our well-being. We hold our safety and longevity in our hands every day. Let’s make healthy choices.