Compulsion or foresight, which one is it for you?

Every day I talk to Preppers that seem to be consumed by the very act of prepping. They spend every waking hour dwelling on thoughts of how they can get more preps and what those preps should be. While a little concern is a good thing, some people go way overboard to the point that it becomes an unhealthy compulsion.  Compulsion or foresight, which one is it for you?  This is going to be the subject of today’s post.

Now, I will admit that I do spend a lot of time thinking about prepping, but then I write about it every day so I have to give it a lot of thought. Do I worry about not having enough preps or everything I might need?  Yes, I certainly do.  What I do not do is lay awake all night, worrying about it because I know that even if I had millions of dollars to put towards my preps, I would still find that I did not have something I need when SHTF hits.  No matter how hard I tried, I could never think of everything, and that is just a fact of life.  So how do I keep from letting it consume my every waking moment?  First off, I put it in God’s hands because I know it is much bigger than I am.  That is a personal choice I have made and it helps me sleep at night.  The other thing I have done is to make a list of categories that are the most important when it comes to prepping.  For me  those are: Water and water purification, Food/ utensils, Medical Supplies, Shelter, Self-Protection, Communications, Power generation and tools.  Each month, I try to focus on an individual group.  By rotating through the different groups’ one at a time, it helps me keep them in perspective.  Have you ever been trying to solve a problem and walked away from it for a while only to find that when you went back to it the answer was right there in front of you? Well, that is exactly what happens when you rotate you focus from one group to another.

This month for me, I am focusing on Communications and have purchased a couple of new 40 Meter antennas, as well as an antenna analyzer for my preps. This was a big expense so I had to wait until could afford to invest the money.  I try to do that with each group such as Tents and high quality sleeping bags.  Guns and ammunition are another category that can get expensive, so it’s best to let the subject rest and then come back to it, so you can be sure to get what you really need and not just what you want because it’s cool!  Yes, I’m guilty of this as well.  Fortunately however, my loving wife keeps a close eye on me most of the time and that keeps me out of trouble.  The point is that if you allow yourself to dwell on any one subject, you can quickly get in over your head and wind up buying things that you don’t really need for your preps.  The other thing is that by leaving the subject alone for a while, your mind doesn’t obsess over one or two things that you are having trouble deciding on like what type of gun you should have or how much ammunition you need.   This will quickly lead to ulcers if you let it, so keep your focus changing from one group to another, each month for the best results.

How much or anything is enough and how do you know? Oddly enough, that is an easy question answer…. There is never enough and at some point, you are going to have to start producing your own items and growing your own food as well.  If you can have enough food and water for 1 to 2  years, then you are well prepared, however, the only thing that last forever is God’s love, as my Mom would say.  What you need to be thinking about is how you will make more when what you have is gone.  Knowing how to grow food and when to plant is life-sustaining knowledge and something every Prepper needs to have firsthand knowledge of.  The same is true with knowing how to make clothes from cloth or skins of animals as well as knowing how to clean and butcher fresh animals.  You not only need the knowledge, but you need the tools for doing it as well.   Of all the things that you add to your preps, knowledge is the single most valuable item there is.  Filling up your pantry with food or garage with survival equipment, will do you no good, without the knowledge that you need to be able to use it effectively to replenish that pantry of food when SHTF hits.

Do not let yourself become so obsessed with prepping that you forget to enjoy life today. When SHTF hits and life gets really hard, it will be your memories of these times that will help you get through it.  Make them good memories, so they can last a life time when you need them.  Just remember, you cannot stop the passing of time or change the future.  What is going to happen is going to happen and there is nothing that you can do about it, so don’t worry about what you can’t change and look toward the future with hope and knowing that you have prepared the very best you possibly could.  It is that hope that will keep you going when nothing else can and you need to hold on to it and not dwell on whether or not you are completely prepared for it, because you never will be.  Prepping is the smart thing to be doing, in these uncertain times, but don’t let it destroy your life before SHTF even gets here.  We are preparing for the darkness that we know Is coming and we will be as ready as we possibly can, in the hope that we and others like us will survive to help build a better world for tomorrow.  I guess that is it for today and I hope I have given you something new to think about, as always, just remember that prepping is a direction of travel and not a destination?  God Bless!

-The Sargent-