I always wear a full face helmet, strap on back protector, motorcycle jacket (with shoulder and elbow armor), motorcycle pants (hip and knee armor), gloves and boots when riding. I got lucky and could score most of that stuff during sales so I only paid around 550€ for everything.
While it might sound counter intuitive at first, I made it a habit to look for motorcycle crashes on YouTube. It's one thing to hear from an instructor that the left turning vehicle is your number one enemy (in countries that drive / ride on the right side) and another to actually see it happen many times over. Or to see the dangers of target fixation and the resulting completely unnecessary crashes first hand so to speak....and let's not forget all the times when excessive speed and not following the traffic code let to disaster...
It makes me more aware of possible dangers and I think helped me to become a better rider.