Two years ago I attended a High Threat Protection Course and I learned a term that I had never heard before but I had being doing all my life.

Throughout my life I have always had a conscious thought that was burning a hole in my head, “What if this happened?” or “What would I do in that situation?” Sometimes I even felt like maybe I had premonitions. As I grew older I found myself in the private security industry after short stint in the military. At times while on the job, I would even find myself thinking, “If I were to be a shot at while driving, which way would I drive to escape?” or “How would I even react?”

These “what ifs” are imperative for security personnel, military and quite frankly any professional working in a high threat environment

But what if you are just an ordinary civilian? Don’t civilians find themselves in high threat situations sometimes too!?!

So where am I going with this?

During my threat protection course we were taught to always look for avenues of escape and evasion. These areas are called “doors” (not the 60s rock band). The term “doors” refers to a defining a point of escape or evasion that would make it very difficult for a threat to follow you. For example: imagine that you are on a vacation somewhere in Latin America. You find yourself in a local taxi, travelling throughout the city to get a good dose of local culture. You are a westerner visiting a place you have always wanted to travel to, someplace you saw on some cooking show with a travelling chef that eats things off the street and raves about “the texture” and “the flavor.”

As you traverse the chaotic streets, the taxi stops. Traffic has bottlenecked all vehicles from three lanes to one. You sigh and wait-what else can you do? Most westerners would look down at their smartphones and start scrolling away, or at their cameras, deleting pictures they don’t like and saving the rest. Your attention is now completely absent; you have become so immersed with your devices that you have no idea what is going on out the back window of your taxi. What you have failed to notice is that a vehicle parked across the street from your hotel when you departed has followed you throughout the city and is now directly behind you. You are a target. They might be amateurs, but they know how to keep their distance before a hit. The light will turn green soon and traffic will return to its normal, scheduled chaos. The passenger of the vehicle behind you steps out with an old revolver in one hand. He holds it low and approaches the vehicle slowly, knowing you’re not paying attention, so why rush?

The windows are down in the back because it’s customary. Air conditioning is a luxury. Doors are unlocked. The door swings open and you have a barrel pointing at your eye.

I can finish the story or you can. If it were a kidnapping you could always hope for an early ransom payout. If it were a hit, well then.

What could you do to help mitigate something like this?

This is where the theory of “doors” come into play. You can always “what if” something to death, but in this scenario it’s in your benefit to do so. By just simply scanning the area you’re in, you can take a mental note or snapshot of what’s around you. It’s not hard to do; simply look for a potential area that makes it hard for your threat to follow you. Maybe you see a subway entrance where you know there are large crowds of people. Running into a crowd can always make it difficult to be spotted.

Dangerous but not out of the question is running on the opposite side of the road, against traffic. This is usually a last option, and best used while you’re on foot and a vehicle is following close.

Doors are just a small cousin of the “Situational Awareness Family.” Nothing groundbreaking, but usually it’s simple that saves. Please understand, there is a fine line between hyper-vigilance and being consciously aware.