Even though I have been “into” Survival & Preparedness for a long time, I still have many things that I would like to accomplish. I don’t have all the food stored up that I want. I don’t have all the gear I want. I don’t have a really cool, fully equipped, remote “bug-out” location. I certainly don’t know everything that I need & want to know.
But, we do have some food storage. We have some gear. We have a plan for “bugging out” to a safe location for our family if the need should ever arise. We know some stuff. We have done some of the things that need to be done, and we will keep building on what we have done. We’ll keep studying and learning, working on our pantry, getting things that we need, etc.
Like most things in life that are worthwhile, being a prepper, (or whatever term you prefer to use) can seem like an overwhelming goal when you first start out . No one was born an Olympic track star. The fastest runner in the world had to start out by learning to take little baby steps. As they practiced, the steps got easier. Pretty soon walking was easy, and then they could start learning to run. Pretty much everything in life works the same way. We start off with baby steps, and as we learn & grow we are able to conquer bigger and bigger goals.
I think some people get discouraged when they read about folks that have enough food stored up to feed everyone in their family for a year or more. That is a pretty lofty goal for most people. Outside of the expense, most people would have no idea where to begin. What do you buy? How much of everything will I need? How long will it stay good? How do I store it? And on & on….
Don’t make your initial food storage goal to have enough food for a year. Figure out what you need to have in your house to keep your family healthy and happy for two weeks, or a month. Once you have that goal accomplished, then work toward a longer term goal, or turn your focus to another area of prepping for awhile. Do you have a way to cook all of that food if you have no utilities? Do you have any type of backup heat if you lose power? What about backup electricity? Do you have a backup water source? You can live longer without food than you can water, so that should be something that is toward the top of your survival and preparedness goals.
I don’t look at preparedness as a destination. I don’t have a checklist that if I get everything on the list completed, then I will have accomplished my goal & I will be done. I think that there is always something new to learn. There is something that can be done better. There will always be more projects, more goals, and something to look forward to. Those of you that have been reading my blog for awhile may remember one of my failed experiments. I tried to dehydrate my own eggs & powder them. I’ve read about other people doing it, & they were successful, but I wasn’t. Mine turned out like garbage. I may try to do it again sometime, but for now – it’s just something to add to my FAIL folder.
Don’t get discouraged when you try something & fail. Babe Ruth struck out 1,330 times during his baseball career, but he made 714 home runs! Thomas Edison tried 1,000 different ways to invent a working light bulb before he figured it out. When asked by a reporter how it felt to fail 1,000 times, he said “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.” Most people who are successful at anything have experienced many failures. Take just a couple of minutes & look at this list of “Failures.”
If you are not yet in the place you want to be in your journey toward preparedness and self-sufficiency, don’t let it get you down. Keep working on it. Take some baby steps. Do something that will help you move closer to your goals. If it doesn’t work out, then you will know how not to do it. Doing a little bit every day will add up to a lot by the end of a year! Grow something, even if it’s just a single tomato plant. Learn to sharpen a knife or an axe. Buy a few extra cans of food when you’re at the store to put into your pantry. All of the baby steps will add up, & pretty soon you’ll be running!
Leave us a comment, and let us know what you’re working on. Don’t forget to register for the site & get involved in the community. And you can subscribe via email for updates. Thanks for reading. Be safe! ^MM
 |
Recent Comments From Readers