The short version
- When you walk into a room, find two exits that aren't the door you came in.
- It takes about ten seconds and becomes automatic within a couple of weeks.
- In an emergency, crowds rush the entrance they used. You won't be one of them.
Ask anyone who has worked executive protection what they teach first, and most will give you the same answer. Not a gadget, not a martial art. Exits.
When a protection team walks into a restaurant ahead of a client, they're quietly answering one question: if something goes wrong in here, how do we get out? You can answer that same question for your own family in about ten seconds.
Why the door you came in is the wrong answer
In fires and crowd emergencies, people head for the way they came in. It's familiar, so the brain grabs it under stress. That's how one doorway jams while a fire exit twenty feet away sits empty.
Knowing a second and third way out ahead of time means you don't have to think when thinking is hardest.
How to do it
- Pause one beat inside the door. Before you look for a table or a host, look up and around.
- Find two exits. Look for lit exit signs, the kitchen door, a patio, a hallway to the restrooms that leads to a back door.
- Pick your seat with them in mind. Where you can, sit facing the entrance with a clear path to one of your exits.
- Tell your crew once. With kids, make it a game: "Who can spot the exit signs first?"
Make it automatic
Do it everywhere for two weeks: the grocery store, church, the movie theater, the gym. After that you'll do it without deciding to. That's the point. Good habits do the work so fear doesn't have to.
On the road
Traveling adds unfamiliar buildings and different safety standards. Count the doors between your hotel room and the stairwell, since smoke can make hallways hard to read. In a theater or stadium, note the exit closest to your seat, not the one you used to get in.
Prepared, not paranoid: you're not expecting trouble. You've just already answered the question.
Want to practice this with a professional? Our partner Contingent Group teaches situational awareness, self-defense and trauma care in person. See training →
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