Where are you now? On what device are you reading this post? Are you reading this post at home, in the subway, or in the car stuck in traffic? If you are in a public place taking a break, having lunch reading this blog, do you know who sits next to you? You don’t have to be a trained assassin like Jason Borne to take charge of your own security and stop being an easy target and I guarantee; you will be less afraid and feel more in control. Control your environment is not being paranoid and expect anybody wants to do you harm. It is just about being aware and conscious what you do, where you do it and what or who is around you when you do it. So many people are focused on their smartphone today that they forget all around them. How often did you open your car door, got out, closed it and before you locked the doors you sent the last chat message? There could have been 20 naked men protesting for the end of the exploitation of cotton and silk and you wouldn’t have noticed. You also wouldn’t have noticed the person who opens your passenger door to grab your purse and gets away. Where your doors locked while driving? Did you close your purse after buying the sandwich before you got on the subway? The problem of the new communication devices today is that they are so small and handy and offer such easy features and entertainment that anybody can operate and enjoy them anytime, except maybe free climbers 200 meters above ground. When in high risk places the control of your personal information around you is the most basic security measure, but in the normal life today it is to know when to focus on the world around you and not on the cell phone. Even though that it is actually a great tool for your personal protection. It can be of great use if you encounter a suspicious person in the staircase of your apartment building and you make a quick photo of the person and send it to a friend. The same is for a taxi you are about to take in the middle of the night or any strange encounter. The first step is to be aware and let anybody else know you are aware. Any general offender selects easy targets, awareness is the first prevention of incidents. And even if you don’t know why, but you feel uncomfortable in any situation, listen to your intuition and ask yourself if you can avoid it, control it or transfer it. If you see a group of people in front of you and don’t feel good about them, don’t ignore your feeling and go to the other side of the road. If they do the same, you use your cell phone to take a photo and look if there is any shop you can enter to take a break and breath. If you need to deliver something late to a place you don’t know consider sending a messenger. The true security profession is not as it is shown by many security companies when the client is pushed aside by his bodyguards while they draw their guns to engage two armed attackers with ski masks. When it comes to this point the changes for the VIP are very little to get away unharmed. The true security professional is either avoiding, controlling or even transferring any threat. Any serious security professional would either use a different entrance, call security from inside the building or drive three times around the block until the police checked out the individuals in question. Most might choose all three options. You also don’t have to change every day your route to work, I heard this nonsense so many times from ‘true’ professionals. It is good to have a routine if you live it consciously, you are familiar with your environment and know what should be there at this time or what is out of the normal and is suspicious. The daily routine should only be changed if you encounter something out of the ordinary which seems suspicious to you. Sometimes it is not what you see, sometimes it is what you don’t see. If you encounter the subway station and people are running in panic or it is absolutely deserted, don’t try to find out what happened, just turn around and look for a place which looks like a good shelter. There might be a shop with a security guard close to you or a financial institution. But again the key is that you are aware of your surrounding and you control your environment.