Having a survival mindset means you are always ready to take on new challenges, right? Although I fully believe that new challenges are a good thing, it is sometimes downright frustrating to recognize that prep as we do, we are never really ready.
Part of the disconnect from being totally prepared is having the knowledge that we will never be able to prepare for everything. As recently as four years ago, we were preparing for the end of the world as we know it and a global economic collapse. And now? The flavor of the month is a pandemic, a cyber attack, and the potential for another world war.
As preppers, this leads us down a path of indecision. Do we continue to add to our preps, focusing on the worst that can happen or do we soldier along, preparing for the more likely nuances of Mother Nature?
This is a decision each of us must make on our own or in partnership with others in our household. It is not easy. I don't know about you, but coming to terms with not being ready for anything and everything is a tough mind game.
If you too are struggling with the dilemma of not being ready and therefore not being prepared, take a moment to re-focus on these 16 rules of survival and preparedness. They just might help you come to terms with not being fully prepared.
What do I mean by that? Simply that you can have a years' worth of freeze dried food, six ways to purify water and a well-stocked first aid kit but if you don't have the skills to defend yourself, the knowledge to find food in the wild, and the ability to tend to serious wounds, all of the "stuff" you own will be of little use to you following a post-apocalyptic event.
Hoard heirloom (non-GMO and non-hybrid) seeds even if you are not currently gardening and growing your own food. Those seeds, when brought into a survival community, will be worth more than gold. Don't worry if you do not know how to use them. Others in the community will likely have gardening skills and together you can prepare the fields, sow the seeds, tend the crops and bring in the harvest. But you first need seeds that will reproduce themselves as true, year in and year out.
Unless you live in isolation, the bad guys are going to come around and it may be difficult if not impossible to defend yourself on your own. Not only is there strength in numbers, but members of an organized team will most certainly have a wider variety of skills at their disposal.
hen roaming groups of looters show up on your street, or even worse, at your doorstep, they may be tired, hungry and in need of shelter. What do you do? Who gets to stay? How do you decide? This is just one example of the tough decisions you may have to make in a collapse situation.