Check out the Pool before Diving in

Protecting yourself is more a matter of adopting a certain philosophy and way of life than of measuring each relationship against a set list of requirements. It is a matter of: not ignoring the obvious;recognizing that you are powerless to resist the HALF factors (Health, Achievement, Love, and Faith); being honest with yourself; trusting your own intuition; avoiding obviously dangerous situations; not compromising your own system of values.

This is not advocating paranoia, it's merely suggesting that it makes good sense to check that there is water in the pool before diving in.

(In the interests of brevity and simplicity what follows focuses on self-defense in one-on-one relationships, but the same advice applies equally to other situations where an individual might be a risk.)