“To me, it’s simple: if you’ve got the time, use it to get ready. What else could you possibly have to do that’s more important? Yes, maybe you’ll learn how to do a few things you’ll never wind up actually needing to do, but that’s a much better problem to have than needing to do something and having no clue where to start.”

― Chris Hadfield, quote from An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth

I love this quote. It is relevant for so many things in life and not just prepping. I spent most of my adult life in the corporate world, and the people who were successful were the people who were prepared. If I was doing a presentation, the more familiar I was with the topic, the better the delivery and the Q&A.

Regardless of how much you prepare for an emergency, almost any preparation is better than nothing. If you start preparing now and a disaster strikes in 2 weeks, you will be more prepared than you would have been if you had done nothing.

Prepping: The First Thing You Should Do

Forget what you think you know about Preppers and the prepping world. Like anything, there will always be people on the extreme edges. Conservatives have the alt-right and the Liberals have the anti-fa. Preppers are no different. There are some preppers who live off the grid in the middle of the woods, have a year or more worth of supplies, practice self defense, grow their own food and raise their own chickens. These “Preppers”, however, should really be considered the true Survivalists.

There is nothing wrong with being a Survivalist, but for most of us, we want to continue to live our lives enjoying what we have become accustomed to. We don’t want to spend our lives preparing for something that may not happen and ignore the life that is in front of us. We are Preppers… and not Survivalists.

Regardless of where you end up on the scale of Survivalist vs. Prepper, you need to start out with a plan. Prepping is about planning. If you are not good at documentation and planning, then you either need to learn how to do it or have someone else in your household manage that process for you.

When I learned how to scuba dive, one of the first things we were taught was to plan your dive and dive your plan. That means you do the work ahead of time and know how deep you will be going, how long you will spend underwater and what your goal is for the dive. Plus you need to plan the gear you will need. I take different gear with me if I am planning on catching lobsters than I would if I was taking my camera to do some photography. A good diver plans all of this ahead of time so they are totally prepared for the dive and there are no surprises.

Prepping should be the same. Come up with a plan and stick to it. This might mean your first plan is just two weeks long or two months long. Whatever it is, plan it out and stick to it.

Your Prepping Plan Should Include the Following

• The Rule of Threes – Live it. Love it. Learn it.
• Determine the tools you will need to keep track of your plan. I use Microsoft’s OneNote for all of my planning. You can create notebooks, store documents and take notes all the while syncing them to the cloud and making them accessible wherever you are. Plus it’s free.
• Budget – How much are you willing to spend on your plan
• Deadlines – Create a timeline of when you will be purchasing and storing your items. This should be made in conjunction with your budget.
• Gear – A list of all the gear you will be purchasing and where you will store it. This is not ALL the gear you will purchase, just the gear you will be purchasing in this initial plan.
• Plan your storage. You will need a place to store food, water and your survival items.
• Inventory process – Keep track of all your items, especially food. As you grow your list of items, you will need to keep track of things like expiration dates and maintenance.
• Have hard copies of all of your documentation and keep it in one place.
• Have a plan for different scenarios and review your plan with your family.

Progress not Perfection

This is one of my wife’s favorite quotes. This simply means you should continue to make progress on your prepping plans and not focus on making them perfect. Remember, anything you do today will be an improvement over yesterday.

No one can predict the future. Odds are you will never have to use any of these things, but chances are you may have to use some of what you learn so take some time and be prepared.