Why it makes sense for you to prepare

Reason #1: Natural and man-made disasters and technology failure can unravel your life fast, if you are not prepared

Most of us in the “develped nations” live in what amounts to an artificial world. While our technologies are derived from natural forces, we are also distanced from nature. And when all is said and done, nature is the reality that will always exist.

Our homes, offices, groceries, clothes, transportation, electricity, phone, internet, even our social systems and society itself... virtually everything in our lives is dependent on technology supplied and maintained largely, if not entirely, by whole communities of “someone else.”

And we’ve become dependent on them, to such a degree that we wouldn’t know what to do without them. While many of us like to go romp in nature—camping, hiking, etc.—many would not know what to do or how, if they didn’t have their gear, or they ran out of provisions.

And we’ve seen what happens when nature asserts itself and overwhelms our defenses. Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Other hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes... the list is long. In these situations, people die because they aren’t prepared. Others (often also unprepared) loot to survive. Still others loot because they can. And some go completely predatory, attacking other folks directly: rape, robbery, malicious assault.

That is some of what we need to be prepared for. But even more important, not every survival situation is that rare or dramatic. Let’s take a look at one of the things that is more likely to happen...

The story of James Kim and family

You may remember the story from November-December of 2006: popular TechTV host James Kim and family, lost and stuck in Oregon, unable to communicate by cell phone, in a survival ordeal that lasted nine days and ended with Mr. Kim dead—survived, thankfully, by his wife and daughters.

This family was actually quite effective. They were creative and committed. They had reasons to live. They ran the car for heat until it was out of gas, and then burned everything else they could get their hands on. After seven days of the ordeal, Mr. Kim ventured out to try to find help. It came two days later, but not because of Mr. Kim’s expedition; Mr. Kim had died in his attempt.

Make it go differently for you

There were some choices that could have saved them all, but I will not beat up the Kims. I think they showed incredible staying power and commitment. And they were clearly in a desperate situation. I actually admire them, and my heart goes out to them all.

But other than what the Kims did, what else? What do we need to know to survive such a situation? What should we have along on any outing, and why? And what about at home?

This is the essence of survival preparedness; we are aware of what is likely and what is less likely, and we take that extra step, or those steps, to lay up solutions so that we don’t have to wing it, thrashing around in the proverbial dark, should a problem develop.

Which leads us to...

Reason #2: Peace of mind provided by preparation improves your everyday quality of life

One of the first fundamentals of mental health is a sense of efficacy, of being able and willing to do what is necessary. Preparing for survival situations is as much a part of that as learning basic manual and intellectual skills.

It’s my belief that we all know, down deep at least, that we could be faced with a survival situation almost at any time. And I believe it nags at us until we do something about it. Yes, we can shut it out, but it never really goes away. In the end, shutting it out only increases our subliminal stress, decreasing our sense of efficacy and thus our perceived quality of life.

Preparing is a form of honesty with self (another fundamental of mental health) that bursts that bubble. Thus, preparing restores that aspect of peace of mind and improves our quality of life even during normal times.

Reason #3: preparations don’t have to break the bank

The Live Well, Survive Well theme is fundamentally that living well, we make such prepartions a part of everyday life. We simply integrate the two: living and surviving. We recognize our vulnerabilities, and we use foresight, knowledge and creativity while things are good, so that if things blow up, we have what we need to function.

Integrating the survival and everyday living functions, it becomes a matter of a little added provisioning here and there as we buy groceries, researching a topic as we do other exploring on the web and elsewhere, and buying a tool or other piece of gear as we get ready for a recreational outing. It isn’t about running out and buying tons of gear or a kit.

The survivor with the right mindset knows that it’s knowledge, more than gear, that will make the difference. Thus he or she doesn’t feel compelled to buy gear that really isn’t necessary.

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