A lot of time and attention is focused on building kits and accumulating supplies that can be used in a SHTF situation.. These are important and a necessary component of any survival strategy. However, they can not replace skills that must be learned, rehearsed and honed long before disaster strikes. Anyone who is serious about preparing for disaster needs to learn skills as much as they accumulate supplies and resources.
Taking Care of Self
The cornerstone of survival is to take care of yourself and those in your charge. This means making good decisions, thinking clearly in difficult circumstances and being ready to act appropriately. The consequences of the decisions you make can mean the difference between life and death, but the chances of making good choices dramatically increase with experience, training and the confidence that goes along with these traits.
Part of this responsibility may come in the form of knowing how to forage for food or what to do to establish a stable water supply. It may involve knowing how to track prey, set traps or hunt efficiently. Skills could involve administering first aid or knowing where to go for medical help during civil unrest or after a disaster. There is no end to the options that will present themselves during a crisis, but learning and developing skills will help you to make the right decisions based on the immediate circumstances.
Learning to Think Outside of the Box
One of the biggest skills that people who have survived tremendous ordeals possess is the ability to think on their feet and see the bigger picture. We are so conditioned to take a pill to cure an illness or call a service when something breaks that it is very easy to appreciate how little we really know about creating our own solutions when we have to stand on our own two feet.
This is a skill that gets developed over time and with practice. However, it doesn’t require coming up with a specific set of steps for every possible problem. The more experience that you have with thinking on your feet based on how you handled other situations in the past will automatically guide you into taking appropriate actions during the current problem.
The key is to continually learn and apply new tricks to new situations so that your mind will know what to do when it matters most. Survival in and of itself is not that difficult, but it does require a certain orientation of the mind in order to know how to act under pressure. Survival doesn’t always require a big investment in food or resources as well. Prepping will only do so much and give you tools that may help during a crisis. However, how you approach problems with your mind and utilize resources on hand will be the biggest determining factor with how you fare as the situation unfolds.
Build Your Repertoire
Learn how to hunt, how to navigate without a GPS, how to administer first aid and make leadership decisions under pressure. Take advantage of the time you have now to prepare your mind and build a skill set that can be implemented at a moment’s notice. Your skills and experience are just as, if not more valuable than any plan or material items that you have on hand.
Take an honest look at your strengths and weaknesses and hone your skills accordingly. Otherwise, you may end up having a bag full of gear that you don’t know how to use, or perhaps you will be making decisions based on the fears that stem from the insecurities of the moment instead of from experience. Spend just as much time studying survival and applying techniques to your life as you do on accumulating resources. Your mind is your greatest asset, but it needs to be trained so that you can fall back on your skills as circumstances warrant.
