Doomsday Around the Corner
It’s hard to read the news or check social media these days without feeling like things are getting worse all the time. Internationally, regional conflicts threaten to spiral into larger wars. At home, pundits on both sides of the aisle float the scenario of severe civil unrest, or worse. And in the background, advanced technological developments in AI are moving ahead full steam with little government oversight.
As responsible citizens, we often feel that time is working against us – that at some inevitable point in the future, the “bad times” will be here and now. How can we continually strive to get our households ready without becoming overwhelmed or burned out?
Cover Your Bases of Survival
When starting out in crisis readiness, it’s easy to feel that you should rapidly make up for lost time. You used to not worry about worst-case scenarios, but now all of the sudden, you are worried. This gives the false impression that because you are now thinking about disasters, something bad is likely to happen soon.
Many of us have experienced this urge to get ready for a crisis as fast as possible. If you are at square one, you should absolutely take care of emergency food, water, and disaster response plans as soon as possible. It’s affordable, and will give you peace of mind that you can sustain your family through the most likely disasters and short-term power outages.
If you live in or near a city, your next step should be to plan for an emergency evacuation. There are many reasons that a rapid evacuation could become necessary, including natural and man-made disasters, as well as civil unrest. Having a plan to get out of town to a safe location is critical.
Crisis Readiness Is a Marathon, Not a Sprint
Once you have the essentials covered, you may feel the urge to continue getting ready with more supplies and gear. The thinking goes, if the grid can go down for two weeks, why couldn’t it go down for two months, or a year? This is a reasonable thought process. However, the level of intensity from your initial preparations can be hard to sustain over time.
For one thing, your budget may limit you from continuing to prepare at the rate you desire. There’s no sense in going into debt or draining your emergency fund in order to prepare for a hypothetical scenario.
Furthermore, if you continue to indulge a sense of inner panic, your stress and anxiety levels will go through the roof. It gets hard to sleep at night when all you can think about is nuclear war and societal collapse. Be sober about the threats we face, but don’t let them take over your life.
The reality is, we never know what tomorrow will hold. Most changes happen slowly over time until a single spark ignites a dramatic shift, such as a conflict or an earthquake. In many ways, it’s true that we are sitting in a tinderbox. We just don’t know when and how the next crisis will be set off.
As responsible citizens, we should do our best to stay up-to-date on domestic and global affairs. Paying attention allows us to react decisively if it looks like things are about to go sideways. Don’t let yourself get caught off guard along with everyone else.
The important thing to remember is that crisis readiness is a marathon, not a sprint. You may learn skills and store away supplies your entire life and never need to use them. Or you may need to fall back on those skills and resources a few months from now. The fact that you are reading this article and thinking about crisis readiness means that you are already miles ahead of most people. You’re on the right path.
Parting Thoughts
Once you have your essentials squared away, take some time to think strategically about next steps. It’s easy to get sucked into the vortex of buying survival gear, gadgets, and supplies, but often these commodities just serve to provide a false sense of security.
Work on your skills (this is often free, or low cost), keep your response plans updated for emerging threats, and stay alert for warning signs. Over time as your budget allows, invest in supplies and equipment that you feel will give you the greatest benefit in a crisis.
If you continue to invest a little bit of energy and funds into crisis readiness month-by-month, and year-by-year, you’ll find that a few years into the future, you’ll be worlds away from your starting point. And you’ll have done it without creating unnecessary stress and anxiety, or burning through your bank account.
