I wear safety glasses at the drop of a dime! It began long ago when I used to play racquetball and I realized that I had a competitive advantage by wearing eye protection *all the time* rather than only wearing them *if required* to compete. I came to realize that I had removed the "distraction" by making them the norm. I also realized that I was more willing to push the envelope because I was less vulnerable.
Fast forward to my time in the Army. The very macho culture of my early career shunned "safety" and valued unobstructed vision (scanning for and engaging targets...). But data showed that eye injuries were the worst culprit for removing troops from duty than anything else (during peace-time training). Eventually the culture has evolved to embrace macho eyewear! Now, troops declare how badassed they are by what they put on their face.
The older I get (mid-40s now) the more careful I become. I wear eye protection, helmet, gloves, and either neon/flourescent colors or at leat something bright and contrasting. I never stick anything in my ears while riding (but always wear earmuffs--AND eye protection--to mow the lawn or use a power drill). Call me a sissy if you want. But I'm not going down over some stupid little shard or fragment (or sound wave!) that found the one-in-a-thousand shot at my peepers. Not if I can make the odds one-in-a-million by simply donning some fashion.