There are times when you might question why you are preparing your family for disasters. Purchasing foods you might never need, kits that may never be used, or storing water that never gets used. These are things you might think you are wasting time and money for, but you must remember that when you are a prepper, your desire to survive is why you do this.
When you made the decision to start being prepared, you entered a world that doesn’t always make sense to you or your family, but you made that decision with their well being in mind.
You have to deal with things that other people don’t even consider, and this can be taxing on the mind.
An example would be having to make storage space in a basement or garage for the water, gear, and foods that you are storing for your family’s survival. You will also have to make a plan to use and rotate the can foods that you purchase to have on hand. I know I struggle with a good way to make sure the older canned foods get used before the newer purchased cans and I am continuously trying to find a system that works. I am not the only one in the house that must stick to a system and that is where I am struggling.
Everyone must understand and respect the system you set in place to use the foods and water that you store, and if you have a spouse that does not respect or understand why you do what you do can make that hard and more work for you in the long run.
This can make what you need to do to be prepared not worth the trouble, but we must remember why we do this and being ready for tomorrow means preparing today.
Anything Can Happen
We prepare because we know that anything can happen at any time. We never know when an emergency or disaster will happen, and we plan and prepare for that unknown. Everyone prepares differently and for different reasons, but just preparing gives you the edge over your neighbors.
Having the food, water, and supplies for what you are prepared for allows you to also be prepared for other unforeseen emergencies. For example, you might prepare for a snowstorm but unexpectedly a flood happens, yet you have what you need to survive without much inconvenience and stress.
Just being ready for an emergency gives you that extra edge because you will be calmer and not panic like others in the area. You won’t have to make that mad dash to the store for food and supplies to get through the emergency because you already have everything you could possibly need, and that is why we prepare today.
Lower You Risk
By preparing for emergencies, you will lower your risk of being affected as bad as others around you. A first aid kit in the home allows you to easily treat injuries.
If you have a swimming pool and something happens where you need water, having water treatment pills or a water filter gives you access to the water in the pool.
The only way you can take advantage of what is around you is knowing what you might need and preparing a way to use these resources. This may mean learning about water sources near you, knowing what plants can be consumed that grow in your area, or stocking up on food and water so you don’t have to rely on foraging for survival.
I do think being able to forage is a great skill to have and something you should work toward but getting the food and water you will need stored in your home is the way to start.
Skills Take Time
As I just mentioned, foraging is a good way to ensure survival by using the surrounding resources, but this skill will take you time to learn, and something you will need to practice regularly to stay sharp.
This is the case will any skill. Being able to do something perfect the first time is impossible, but practice makes perfect. This will be the case for the skills you need to learn for survival. Take that time that is needed for learning and include everyone so that each of you can survive alone but thrive together.
You may think that you will be the only one that learns to make a fire in any condition, but what if something happens to you and someone else must then make the fire. Eating, drinking and staying warm will depend on this fire but you are unable to, and the family suffers. Take the time to learn survival skills while teaching everyone else in the family as well.
A good set of survival guides can show what different skills you might need, and you can start your learning there.
First aid skills are essential to survival and can be learned from first responder courses in your area if you have them. Look for a class that teaches basic first aid and learn these skills to pass to other members of the family. You may think you do not need any survival skills for what you are preparing for, but everyone needs first aid knowledge because injuries happen even when there isn’t an emergency happening.
Basically, take the time to learn skills. Don’t just read how to do something, try it once, and then think you are ready. This will give you a false sense of preparedness when you are not prepared. Worse case is this leads to a fatal mistake and you kill someone trying to take shortcuts to prepare.
Having a library of survival guides will give you the ability to study and practice different skills when ever you want, and an affordable option and the set I like the best can be found here.
Mindset Matters
To be prepared you may need to change your mindset, or you may be in the prepared mindset already. You will need to know why you do this because, you may have to sacrifice things to prepare. For instance, you might have to change your spending habits to afford the supplies you need for your stores.
You will also have to be alert and pay attention to what is always happening around you. Civil unrest is an emergency that we will not see coming until it happens. Seeing something like this before it gets out of control will give you the ability to get out of the situation.
It can also be a burden to always be planning for things that may never happen, but this is how we choose to live. We are not like others around us, and honestly that is a good thing because we know we will be fine while others will suffer if something ever does happen.
Mindset will also help us get through the most difficult periods during and after a disaster because we will be able to make things easier and less stressful. We do the things we do to protect those that are dear to us. Keep them in mind and focus on that when you feel like you are wasting your time with the planning and preparing you do.
Conclusion
You are planning and preparing for a reason. Sometimes it can seem like what you are doing is all for nothing, but you must keep focus on your why. Everyone will have a different “why”, but our outcome will be the same. Know your why and figure out how to keep that forefront. We plan today for tomorrow in many ways in our lives, and this is just one other way we plan for tomorrow because we never know when that tomorrow will come.
