The Rule of threes

First rules of survival outdoors
or exposed to the elements

The first rule of survival—and personal sustainability— pertains to your life before you may face a survival situation. Be prepared. This means mindset, knowledge, and equipment. This will help you have the wits about you to follow the next rules. There is no confidence and effectiveness booster like preparation.

The second rule of survival/sustainability is not to get into a survival situation. That obviously doesn’t always work out, so...

...once you’re actually in a survival situation, the first rule is this: stop and think. Stop any uncalculated motion. Quiet the panic. Focus; assess the situation and make a plan.

Obviously, you will keep moving if you must escape some deadly threat (flood waters, etc.). Otherwise, stop and focus first on any injuries that require immediate attention to save life or great physical harm, and then your plan, which should be, first and foremost, finding or creating shelter as close as possible.

When people don’t survive, it’s often because they let their minds run off at the mouth, so to speak, causing them to stop thinking clearly—or at all. So they fly into a flurry of activity, or maybe they just keep moving, despite having no real direction. Or maybe...
...they lose their mind...

In the movie, The Edge, Anthony Hopkins’s character says that he’d read that most people who die in a survival situation die of shame. “How did I do this to myself?” etc. Some certainly do die this way; the time spent on this exercise of self-abuse—and to recover from it— may cost you your life as could panic, pointless or non-priority activity, and hopelessness.

The best way I’ve ever found to keep survival priorities clear when under pressure is:

The Rule of Threes:

• Three Minutes without air
• Three Hours without shelter
• Three Days without water
• Three Weeks without food
• Three Months without companionship

And some would say that The Rule of Threes includes:

• Three Seconds without hope

“Three Seconds without hope.” The survival mindset is king in a survival situation. This site is primarily dedicated to that one point. The prepared mind will recognize the situation, and work through these rules.

Most people have reasons to stay alive: to get back to a loved one; some sense of duty (family, country, God, some purpose); purely being too stubborn to die (it’s funny, but it is a real factor!). These can be even more powerful than simple hope. I therefore would place purpose into that unofficial three second spot: Three seconds without purpose.

Obviously, circumstances will alter the time frames in The Rule of Threes, and those numbers vary somewhat from one person to another as well. The point here is not the numbers, exactly, but the priorities they imply.

Using your head, you’re aware that extreme heat and wind may reduce your survival without water considerably—but it, or extreme cold, increases the urgency for shelter, rather than diminishing it or changing its priority position.

I thought three minutes without air was a bit unnecessary, until I connected air with any first aid concern whose immediacy in terms of life and death is in minutes. Anything that can wait for an hour or more can be prioritized behind shelter. Three minutes without air, however, is certainly the easy way to remember that.

So, if you find yourself in a survival situation, ...

• Stop. Stop moving. Stop screaming inside. Take some deep breaths and quiet your mind as best you can. Stay roughly where you are
• Focus
• Remember what it is that really gives your life purpose
• Remember and act according to The Rule of Threes

Once you’ve done that, you can proceed to deal with getting rescue, help, and other items on your to-do list, like water and food.

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