What is an undesirable event? Is it just having a bad food experience at the restaurant one has been dying to visit for months? Or is it an event that disrupts all of someone’s plans and causes them to have a completely different experience from the one they had hoped to have? Everyone experiences undesirable events. These experiences can happen to anyone at any time and any place. And while the consequences of an undesirable event range from minor to extraordinary, how one behaves in the midst of the experience can determine how well one will fare. Being able to recognize and quickly respond to undesirable events while traveling abroad can mean the difference between a travel experience that leaves one with joyful memories and opens doors to prosperous opportunities, and a travel experience that leaves one with unpleasant recollections and damage to one’s reputation and future.
An undesirable event is an instance of a violent, hostile, distressingly bad or serious occurrence that can cause discomfort, great suffering, fear, or grief, and can leave an indelible impression. Undesirable events can sometimes be predictable and recognizable, or sudden and unforeseen. They are almost always connected to circumstances brought about by antagonistic actions intended to cause a harmful result, or an uncontrollable hazard caused by incidents of chance or accident. These circumstances can often lead to negative outcomes that impact the way someone engages in everyday activities, the purpose of someone’s travel, or their physical wellbeing. The impact could be anything from almost unnoticeable and lasting a relatively short period of time, to creating a disastrous impact that permanently affects someone’s existence.
Examples of Undesirable Events
Hurricane |
Terrorist Bombing |
Scammed |
Poisoning |
Identity Theft |
ATM Eats Your Card |
Examples of Potential Outcomes
Loss of Freedom |
Loss of Money/Valuables |
Loss of Credibility/Reputation |
Loss of Physical Abilities |
For students who want to study abroad but are worried about their safety and health, learning how to recognize the avoidable and prepare to mitigate the unforeseen helps them reduce the impact of undesirable events while gaining experiences through travel abroad that will build their independence and confidence.
For organizations with concerns about negligence lawsuits, ensuring personnel learn how to recognize the avoidable and prepare to mitigate the unforeseen helps reduce the impact of undesirable events, and allows the organization to comply with their legal and moral obligation while protecting their personnel and operating cost.
Every undesirable event, whether or not someone predicted its probable occurrence, will result in an outcome that will affect one’s life on some level. We can not control whether the undesirable event actually happens but we can take steps to mitigate if and how the undesirable event will impact the rest of our lives. Identifying the possible foreseeable and the unforeseeable undesirable events that could directly affect your valuable and significant information during the time you will be traveling in that country, allows you to make the appropriate arrangements to protect what can be protected, prevent what can be prevented, and respond to undesirable events in a way that minimizes the impact they could have on your life.
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