AFTERTHOUGHTS AND REGRETS

How often have you said or done something and then later, reflecting on your action, thought to yourself, "How could I have done that?"

Here are some afterthoughts which, unfortunately, too many of us have experienced:

· "That's how we've always done it before." (…before the accident occurred anyway.)

· "I never thought that a little bolt dropped from that distance would cause so much bleeding." ( I should have worn a hard hat, I guess.)

· "If I had taken that first-aid/CPR course, I probably could have helped him." (…and chances are, he would still be here.)

· "I should have taken care of that board with the projecting rusty nails earlier." (Now, I have to take off work to get a tetanus shot.)

· "Wow, I never realized that a fire could get out of control so fast." ( If I'd called the fire department before trying to put it out myself, I might still have a place to work tomorrow.)

· " I know they were always preaching that we should lift with the leg muscles instead of the back muscles." (What the heck is a herniated disk?)

· "For few more dollars, I could have bought safety shoes." (That deep cut in the toe section ruined my new work boots, and this broken toe still hurts.)

· "My safety glasses were in the tool box, but I was just going to grind off this one little piece…." ( I wonder if they'll still let me drive with only one eye?)

· "We were only going to use the scaffold for one day. I never thought a hammer would fall off the plank and strike someone." (I had a hunch I should have taken the time to install the toe boards.)

· "They always insisted that the tool rest should be no more than one-eighth inch from the grinding wheel. What difference does another quarter inch make?" (I was lucky not to go blind when the chisel got wedged and the wheel exploded into a thousand pieces.)

Any of this sound familiar?? They say hindsight is the only perfect science-but foresight could have avoided these incidents, misfortunes and regrets.

Learn from others' mistakes and you'll have no regrets!