How safe are you everyday once you step outside the door of your home? Many people make the naive mistake thinking that nothing bad can happen to them but the reality is if you were walking to your car and were attacked, can you protect yourself? Do you have a plan for defense? Unfortunately, most people are not and if you are among them, be aware that you put yourself at risk every day.

The study of self-defense cannot be easily defined with quick, easy, and over simplistic solutions. It is more along the lines of being prepared when you encounter an attacker and nothing is more important to your preparation as studying your everyday environment for escape routes or anything else that can help you during your time of conflict.

Here are some ways for you to be prepared to protect yourself during your everyday life:

• You should always prepare yourself for any and all environments. Take where you work for example. If you work from home, you need to think about how to protect yourself there or if you work in an office, are you safe on your way to your car? Plan out and review a few various what if scenarios as a way to prepare yourself if the situation arises.

• Spot and address any surrounding environmental conditions that are subject to frequent change. Once you know what to prepare for, you can go over how to adapt your self-defense techniques to situations such as a dark stairwell, a poorly lit parking lot or even in the snow.

• Carefully take note of your surroundings looking for things such as potential escape routes if you are ever attacked. It is very important for you to never take familiar settings for granted. If you are attacked somewhere familiar to you, what is your plan for escape?

• What will you do if your first escape route is blocked? You better have a secondary plan even if it is something as easy as buying enough time to call 911. The goal is to increase your odds of coming out of the altercation unharmed.

• Always know where potential weapons can be found in your environment. Your home has items such as kitchen knives or the fireplace poker for example. Your car is full of potential weapons like the tire iron, windshield scraper or something from a grocery bag. Often times, its the less obvious items that end up saving your life such as using your wedding ring to scratch the attacker's face.

• Now that you know what you will use as a weapon, think about how you will use it as a weapon. Certain items like dishes, ashtrays or vases can be thrown at an attacker. Hot liquid can be thrown into the face of an attacker to buy you enough time for an escape. You basically need to do whatever it takes.

• The final thing you need to always remember is that as you are scanning your environment for potential weapons, your attacker will be doing the same thing as well. Always remember the urgency of the situation.