When it comes to safety and health, internal consequences to support the right behavior are terribly important. Remember, external and intrinsic (natural) consequences for safe behaviors are not readily available, and we cannot expect to receive sufficient support (extra consequences) from others to sustain our proactive, safe, and healthy choices. So, we need to talk to ourselves with sincere conviction to boost our intentions. We also need to give ourselves genuine self-reinforcement after we do the right thing to keep ourselves going.
When we receive special external consequences from others for our efforts, we need to savor these and use them later to bolster our self-reinforcement.
Source: Psychology of safety handbook, E. SCOTT GELLER, 2001
