Most prepping guides focus on tactics, and for a good reason. Unfortunate events have a tendency of being sudden and you need to be able to react quickly. But, if you use survival strategies and prepare for scenarios in advance you might have a better time using those tactics.
There are six steps, all with increasing time costs and complexity, which will allow you not only to survive in 90% of predictable situations but to thrive in spite of those issues:
- Form a survival pack and family survival packs
- Learn about medicine, botany, and how things work
- Form friends that will help you in dire situations
- Plan where to retreat
- Stock on lasting tools, not products
- Use your achievements now
And there isn’t a clear way for everyone how to achieve these steps, as every situation and personal preference will make it different. But, if you know what you need and become aware of your surroundings you will have a contingency for every situation, or at least the tools to make a contingency.
The Apocalypse is Already in Progress
While the term is biblical, Apocalypse means the uncovering of truth about the world where the world itself is demolished. If we forget a Hollywood representation of the planet literally exploding, we can argue that a similar thing is happening right now.
It is now painfully obvious that the age of neo-feudalism is upon us and it is a question of time when another squabble for resources will be brought against the back of the common folk, namely us.
Now, it is not a question if we need to prepare, but rather if we have started on time.
Tactics for Survival, Strategy for Prosperity
When there is an issue, your first job if you and your family to survive. This means surviving the elements, attacks, illnesses, and similar issues that might be specific to your situation.
But, what happens when you do survive? What happens if things don’t come back to normal and you need to move your life into a new situation? Survival is not enough here, as you want prosperity.
Once you are certain that you can get away from a bad place at the wrong time, you need to see where you are going and how you will survive and thrive in that place.
1. Quick Survival Pack
Making a survival pack is relatively easy and there are already multiple ideas on what you might need in your urban bug out bag. But, you must be sure that what you are bringing are the things you will need and can use easily.
Even the best tools are just heaps of junk if you don’t know how to use them.
Also, your bug out bag should be focused to allow you to reach the place where you are bugging out to, and in a widespread survival situation, there might not be a safe haven of someone else’s making.
2. Increase your Knowledge
The only two things you really own is what is in your hearth and what is in your head, everything else is just around. That is why the most important thing you are bringing to a survival situation is your mind and what is inside it.
The main thing you should learn about is physiology and medicine. People get hurt and doctors are not abundant in survival situations, so you should make do with your own capabilities.
Next, learn about botany and chemistry, as you may need to make your own drugs and components once those from your pack run out.
3. Make Friends and Plans
People are social animals and we can achieve much bigger things in packs than we could ever do alone.
Make your tribal pack.
Ideally, you will want people who are reliable and have the skills and knowledge you don’t have. But, it is much more important for those to be your friends that you like being around.
Those people should be aware of your capabilities and plans, and you can work together to see if you can make each other’s situation better both in a survival scenario and in general.
Main Steps in Preparation Strategy
Once you know you will survive, you should start planning on how to thrive. And by combining ancient techniques with new technologies this can be rather easy.
If planned correctly, you will lose very little of modern comforts over time and might even have a better life than before a disastrous situation happens.
4. Make a Retreat
Buy a remote piece of land, somewhere near mountain water sources and with plenty of woodlands. Ideally, it shouldn’t be too cold or too hot, but this is a personal preference.
Here, you will build your retreat. It will be a relatively safe place for people and can be independent of economic collapses. A comfortable cabin with solid fuel (wood) stoves and prepared places to grow food is something everyone should have.
This retreat can be urban and can be a reinforced basement under your very home. But, long-term urban survival is significantly more violent than rural, and that amount of stress might not be up everyone’s alley.
5. Stock up on Tools
Most tutorials on survival will tell you to stock up on food like MREs or pemmican that can last for decades. But, they only last for decades if you don’t eat them.
While you want to have a year’s supply of food, more than that is not necessary. It is much better to stock up on tools that will help you make more food, create electricity, defend yourself, or make medicine long-term.
Tools last indefinitely if properly maintained and will allow you to react to situations how you need which may not be as you have predicted.
6. Make your Effort Pay Dividends
Finally, use your retreat regularly; not only for maintenance but for recreation as well. Take your friends and family to your cabin and have a good time at least once a year.
By doing this, you will use your time prepping to help you even before anything happens, and you will inform your family and friends about the options you have and the plans you are making.
From a survivalist perspective, this will allow you to be better informed about the land and what it has to offer. Once you need it, you can just jump into solutions without pondering.
Conclusion
Being prepared for a bad situation is not only the moment something is happening. Some things like economic collapses or nuclear warfare will have impacts for years, if not forever.
This is why, aside from developing tactics on how you will survive the instant, you need to have a strategy for how you and your family will live in the future.
Thankfully, having such a retreat can be fun and serve as a recreational spot until there is an issue. But, when push comes to shove you can retreat and have somewhere to go after surviving.