Being Prepared

I was talking to a friend at work the other day and the subject of "preppers" came up. My friend was talking about the show Doomsday Preppers on National Geographic and made some comments saying that "those people are crazy" and "none of those scenarios would ever happen". A lot of people view prepping this way; however, I do not. I looked at my friend and told him that I was actually a prepper and there is a large population of people that fall into the category these days and they don't even know it. I started telling him about some of the things that I am preparing my family for, like floods and tornadoes, civil unrest, recession, food shortages, power outages and even terrorist attacks. I talked about some of the recent things that had been going on in the media and even stuff that has happened in our local area that would make me think "maybe I should be prepared for that." The more we talked and I explained the reasons why one might want to be prepared for events that happen around the world all the time, the more he started asking questions. He even asked how he could get started preparing for a few things.

The point is, the media, TV and movies have made an image of preppers for a long time and it makes people think of crazy people living underground in bunkers or living off the grid in the middle of nowhere making houses out of mud and not showering or other ridiculous things. If more people asked questions and more preppers engaged the public with practical solutions for being prepared maybe preppers wouldn't be considered the crazy ones. The people who weren't prepared would be. 

Intelligent Preparedness is about being aware of your situation and preparing yourself physically and mentally for the worst case scenario that is possible. I learned this skill in the Army as an Intelligence Analyst. When the Commander of a military unit is preparing for an operation he wants to know lots of things. But the two main things he/she wants to know from the Intelligence Shop (S2, G2, J2, etc.) is what is the enemies' most likely course of action and what is their most dangerous course of action. Everybody in their daily lives can use this way of thinking to be prepared for whatever comes their way. Even though civilians don't necessarily have an enemy, think of the enemy as a natural disaster or a criminal or any bad situation and figure the two things you need to know; what will most likely happen? And what is the worst that can happen? This way of thinking can literally be incorporated into any real world situation. If you look at life this way, it may just help you stay a little safer and a little more prepared. 

Always remember, if you are not always prepared then you are never prepared.