There is always talk about the ‘survivalist mindset’ and
how important it is to anyone who is going to prepare themselves and
their family for whatever crisis they foresee. Some people get this
mindset from previous experience (like Katrina survivors who we can
hope will become advocates of personal preparedness), others from their
religious convictions (Mormons, awaiting the Tribulation, etc), others
get this mindset from objectively viewing world events and decide the
world is risky place, and many others get this mindset from other places.
All of these people, however, have at least one thing in common in
their survival mindset - the need for discipline and balance.
As anyone who has prepared, or is preparing, for uncertainty can tell
you, there are a lot of things to do. There are things to be bought,
mapped, planned, diagrammed, learned, prepared, tuned-up, sharpened,
sighted-in,
oiled, cleaned, built, dug and stored. There is, it seems, no end to
the things to be done. The one thing more than anything else that will
get these things done is discipline - the discipline to stockpile food
when the supermarkets are full, the discipline to store ammo when the
stores are open, the discipline to save money when you’ve just
gotten a raise, etc. However, discipline without balance is
almost as bad for your plans as no discipline at all.
In good times, when we have our jobs, heat in our house, water in our
taps, food in our cupboards and gas in our cars it is incredibly easy
to slack off or even ignore our plans to prepare. And when a blizzard
or hurricane shows up and knocks out the power, the pumps and the petrol
we start kicking ourselves for not keeping up on our preparations…and
then the lights get turned back on and we go right back to neglecting
our plans for ‘next time’. I’m sure we all know someone
who says he’s going to be prepared for the next hurricane or
tornado or whatever. He buys a case of bottled water, maybe he gets
some food, and a few weeks later he’s the owner of a shiny new
pistol. And then he starts tapering off… He buys a little food
one month and then does nothing for six months, after that time he
might buy some batteries and flashlights and then he seems to lose
interest and nothing more becomes of his great plan and desire to be
prepared. The intentions were good, but the follow through was weak.
This is a classic example of a lack of discipline.
Balance, the other important aspect of the mindset, is completely absent
in the person who goes in the opposite direction than the one just
described. He sells the jet skis, liquidates his investments, builds
a concrete bunker, wears camo every day, spray paints his truck in
a camo pattern, eats MREs for
breakfast and has no time for anyone who isn’t in 100% agreement
with him on his timetable for ‘the big one’. His wife is
ready to leave him, his kids are embarrassed by him, his boss has put
him on notice, the people
in town call him ‘that crazy survivalist guy’ and his friends
don’t know what to do with him. If the disaster he’s preparing
for does happen he’ll probably come out fine, but if it doesn’t
he’s going to be a lonely, miserable, tragic figure. Classic
example of discipline, but no balance.
How does a person achieve the discipline and balance to prepare for
an uncertain future while still maintaining a comfortable present?
For each person it’s different. The easiest way to is to ask
yourself if, in a future crisis will you be glad you did whatever it
is you're doing at this moment. Two years from now when the power is
out and the blizzard is raging will you be glad you spent $35 on new
computer games or will you be glad you spent it on 5-gallon drums of
kerosene? In a year from now when travel is restricted due to bird
flu concerns will you be glad you spent $150 on designer running shoes
or will you be glad you spent it on canned food and bottled water?
I’d say it’s a safe bet that as people were standing on
roofs waiting for help after Katrina none of them were thinking “Man,
I’m glad I spent $700 on SuperBowl tickets and didn’t waste
it on gasoline and a generator.” Discipline is being able to
stay focused on the ‘big picture’ - being prepared - even
while the everyday world provides you with limitless distractions and
reasons to not prepare.
On the other side of the coin, you have to have enough balance to sometimes
decide that, yes, you’re going to spend $20 on a movie, popcorn
and drink simply because you want to. Or you’ll compromise and
see the movie for ten bucks, skip the snacks, and take the remaining
ten dollars and squirrel away some D batteries or a couple gallons
of white gas. That’s the sort of compromise that is a win-win
situation… you still move forward in your preparations but you
still have a pleasant and happy life outside of your survivalist interests.
A good sense of balance will keep you from sacrificing your present
happiness for future security. You could probably use the words ‘balance’ and ‘judgment’ interchangeably
in this example. Do you have the good judgment to know when you should
live it up a little and when you should knuckle down and get busy?
There is nothing wrong with ‘splurging’ every once in a
while as long as it isn’t at the expense of other things we should
be doing. All work and no play does make Jack a dull boy, but then
again Jack was never preparing for the end of the world as we know
it. There is a middle ground where you can still have a good time without
being neglectful of your plans to prepare, finding exactly where that
middle ground is will make your life much easier.
Discipline keeps you on track, it keeps you focused, and it keeps you
always moving forward towards your preparedness goals. Balance keeps
you from losing sight of everything other than your preparedness goals.
It makes you stop from time to time to enjoy what you’ve got
going on in your life, now, in the present. Balance keeps you from
sacrificing the good times to prepare for the bad times. In a nutshell,
balance is what keeps you from ‘going too far’ or ‘over
the top.’
If you can balance your ‘civilian life’ with your ‘survivalist
life’ in this manner, not neglecting either one but not sacrificing
one for the other, then you’ll have developed the discipline
and balance to keep both lives stable and on-track. If your big disaster
occurs, you're ready for it and if it doesn’t occur you won’t
be moaning about how you wasted opportunities and time that you’ll
never get back.