'Drive carefully', my friends would tell me. Since they already know I don't do small talk, I ask them 'How?'. Then things get creative.
Now we have invented 'Drive with grace and focus, Cecilia'. That sounds more inspiring, like something I can actually do.
'Safely', like 'Successfully,' is a result, not a method. 'Safely' is decided by how you did things much, much earlier.
By the time you've left the house, its too late to be 'safe'. If you cause an accident, its because you didn't get essential tasks out of the way, and will try to do them while driving. We know these things cause accidents:
-Distractions
-Speeding
-Being tired (we won't even talk about drinking. Its 2018, we don't do that.)
So instead trotting out 'Drive carefully' to our loved ones, how about setting them up to make it happen?
Ask them beforehand what time they have to leave, and help them get out the door on time, so they don't rush and crash
Before they leave, ask 'show me the route' if its new for them, and support them by taking them through it, so they aren't navigating while driving.
Ask 'is there anyone you need to call or text before you get in the car?'
If they are hyper because you were doing a good job of being merry, do something to calm them down before they get in the car. Robert Miles wrote the Techno dream masterpiece 'Children' to be played at the end of rave nights. On post-trance Saturdays, hyped up young people were being killed in car accidents. All of them somebody's children, and our children.
When you do these humble, strategic things to look after your friends who might need it (you know who they are), they get to be really, really yours. Like your children.
________________________________________________________________________________
To Celebrate my 50th year, I'm blogging useful ideas, daily for 12 months. Who'd have thoughts it would be so much fun? Here are some you may not have seen. In 2019 I'll be running workshops on TPS, the Toyota Production System. They design out the need to be careful, and have all these clever ideas we can borrow, so that imperfect humans can make perfect products. What a relief.