When you think about it, there are only a few ways any Preparedness Plan or method can be wrong.
The first way is kinda obvious.
- You build a house straddling the San Andres Fault and do no more than follow building codes for earthquake preparedness or you build a house on an offshore ‘key’ and don’t do anything for hurricane preparedness.
Yes this is very simplified and obvious stuff and it is downright the wrong way to prepare!
“Dumb is being unable to learn.
Ignorance is not ever having had the opportunity to learn.
Stupid is having had the opportunity to learn and not taking advantage to do so.
Being Alive is learning something new every day."
Anonymous
The second is not so obvious because you can’t really know if it is right or wrong for you until a crisis actually hits. It is HOW you react to the crisis - that will show you if your plan was right or wrong.
- You are not as committed to your preparedness plan as you are your S & G’s (Sh_ts & Grins).
- You “play” at being prepared; you stock pile but not much else.
- Then when a crisis hits you realize that you don’t know how to do something that will reduce or eliminate a few trials and tribulations.
- You see neighbors or friends are doing better so you go over and demand they help you.
- You rant, rave and blame other things and people for why you do not have some skill to reduce or eliminate your trials and tribulations - because you were too busy; not enough money or time; learning those skills took too much effort; ‘such’n’such’ agency isn’t doing their job, etc. – so people must help you now.
This is a wrong way to plan and there are only two ways to make it right:
- Accept that you did not have a good plan or work at it, and suck it up to make it through the additional trials and tribulations of the crisis. Oh, you can ask that neighbor or friend for help but you won’t fly off the handle if they cannot be of assistance to you right then and there.
- Play this “What If” scenario out now – before a crisis – and change your plans accordingly. Make preparedness one of your top 12 priorities in life.
If you are doing your plan “right” you will accept the burdens of additional trials and tribulations in the current crisis. You will not point fingers or blame others; you will not demand someone help you right now. Rather, you would accept the responsibility of the outcome of your preparedness planning. And I’m willing to bet my last dollar that once the crisis is over – preparedness will be a higher priority in your life.
“10% of life is made up of what happens to you.
90% of life is decided by how you react."
Stephen R. Covey
(Stephen Richards Covey, born 1932, American author, professional speaker, professor, consultant, management-expert.)
Most of us humans will fail to achieve knowledge and or skills we feel we may need to survive a crisis because we have NOT placed preparedness as one of the top 12 priorities in our lives.
On top of this when we have not been honest with ourselves that preparedness is not one of our top 12 priorities in life, we often come up with all kinds of rationalizations (excuses) as to why we can’t attend this or that lesson or class on a skill we have identified we lack.
"The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what you want most for what you want now."
Zig Ziglar
(Hilary Hinton "Zig" Ziglar, born 1926, American author, salesman, and motivational speaker.)
We make these rationalizations because when we are not honest with ourselves, we can’t be honest with others – so any excuse will do.
Yet when this type of individual is confronted with additional trials and tribulations in a SHTF world (because they have not obtained this skill) they may ask for assistance to learn this skill and if refused, they usually will NOT be demanding or a danger to others around them.
Instead as the crisis unfolds their minds are mature enough, their feet planted in reality enough; to realize that they made a poor choice in not learning this skill in the past – they accept responsibility for this and make do.
"Perhaps the very best question that you can memorize and repeat, over and over, is, "what is the most valuable use of my time right now?"
Brian Tracy
(born 1944, Canadian self-help author and speaker on leadership, sales, managerial effectiveness, and business strategy.)
The most common rationalizations one is likely to hear for not attending a class on some skill needed to survive a crisis are:
- My life is too busy … I just don’t have the time …
- It’s too expensive to drive across or into town and then pay for the class too …
- My neighborhood, community or situation is different so it is too hard to take a class in town…
- These instructors should teach in my neighborhood if this is such an important skill …
- I have my emergency supplies and gadgets so I am already prepared and don’t need any classes on this because that blah-blah agency will help me if I need more …
"Knowledge is that which, next to virtue,
truly raises one person above another."
Joseph Addison
(1672-1719, English essayist, poet, playwright and politician.)
The most common rationalizations one is likely to hear for not preparing at all are:
- That will never happen here, or to me …
- People are too inventive or ingenious to let to that happen …
- That is just being a doomsayer…
- That is just a gimmick to get me to buy this-or-that or a scare tactic to get me to do this-or-that …
- That is what such-n-such entity is for…
- You can’t prepare for everything that is likely to happen so why prepare much more than I am or at all …
"Life doesn't happen TO you; it happens FOR you."
Byron Katie
(Byron Kathleen Mitchell (née Reid), born 1942, American Author, speaker.)
I know “Preppers”
from all walks of life.
- One friend has 5 children, the oldest just started college. They live in a middle class neighborhood. Yet despite working and running from one side of town to the other for their children’s sporting events they manage to attend classes to learn at least one new skill a year.
- About 6 years ago a friend of mine in Tennessee moved out of the city to a small rural town about 45 miles away to care for his father, who is now in late stage Alzheimer’s. He only makes about $87,000 a year and he finds time to go into the city at least once a year for a class to learn a new skill he feels he needs to survive the crises on his list.
- Another friend lives here in town, drives, needs a walker to get around and lives on a fixed income. Attends at least one class a year here in town and even helps “sponsor” a class now and then.
- One friend lives in Belen (south of town), does not drive; is in a wheel chair and lives on a fixed income. He manages to attend a class or two a year here in town.
- Another friend lives here in town, is on a fixed income, does not drive and is in a wheelchair. She and her family attend at least a class or two a year here in town.
- One lives in Morority (east of town), is in a wheelchair, does not drive and lives on a fixed income. She manages to get into town for a class a couple of times a year.
- One lives in Edgewood (east of town) is on crutches (will probably be in a wheelchair in the next 5 years), does not drive and lives on a fixed income. This single mom not only manages a class in town a few times a year, she is leading her church group too.
- When I was in Jr. High back east we lived across the street from a Catholic Church and School. The family on our right had 11 children; the family on our left had 9. Despite our middle-class lives and the costs of sending their children to parochial school, these two families were what we now call Preppers and they found time and monies to attend several classes a year in downtown Philly to learn skills they felt they would need to survive some crisis with the least trials and tribulations.
Four of these friends are married and three have more than one child at home under the age of 18.
All of these “mobility”
and “financially”
challenged people find the time, money and make the effort to attend 1 or more glasses in town each year.
"Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves."
Edwin Teale
(1899-1980 American naturalist, photographer, and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer)
When I ask them if they feel their situations and limited incomes would warrant an instructor to teach these classes closer to them, they all replied about the same:
- Why? My being disabled does not warrant that kind of special consideration.
- Most of these teachers are not getting paid to teach these classes and are taking time away from their families and busy lives to teach, in the cheapest venue around, so I might as well go where they will get more students per class, so their sacrifices to teach are worth their effort.
"When life takes the wind out of your sails,
it is to test you at the oars.”
Robert Brault
(American free-lance writer for over 40 years)
These friends are my inspiration, so when I catch myself using some kind of rationalization, I reflect on these friends of mine …
Then I find the money, make the time and effort to attend a class on a skill I feel I need to survive the crises on my list. If they can do it, I know dam well I can do it too!
To these friends: I Thank You one and all for showing me that life is worth living and that anything I so desire is just an action or two away ;-}
Bottom line: The only way a preparedness plan, methodology or process is wrong is if you are:
- Stupid
- Live in fantasyland
- Blame others for your situation, rather than yourself for that which you did not take upon yourself to do
- Demand or taking from someone else, that which you did not demand of yourself to obtain
Otherwise your preparedness plan is not wrong; it just may not be perfect.
So to stay on track, be honest with yourself and look around you. Take stock in others whose lives have more “built in” excuses to not have the time or money to take a class in a skill, yet they do anyway and find this tenacity in yourself to do the same.
“Determination and perseverance move the world;
thinking that others will do it for you is a sure way to fail.”
Marva Collins
(1936-present American Educator)
TNT
