The Mind4Survival Podcast

Have you truly and honestly ever thought about your mindset and the truths about disaster mindset when it comes to preparing for disaster and major cataclysms? When it comes to mentally preparing for major disasters and society altering events, all of us read posts on social media and hear people say in person about how…

What would you say if I asked you, "What does safety third mean?" After all, shouldn't it be the number one thing for all of us? It seems like that is common sense, right? The answer to those questions and the meaning of putting safety in third is yes, no, and it depends. What is Meant by Safety Third? Safety Third means that you are prioritizing your safety and security. It's about being prepared for problems, so they don't happen to you. Putting safety in third should be a way of life and a perspective that anyone can practice every day, not just safety professionals. What About Safety First? For years, we have all heard people say "Safety First." We see construction sites with banners that read "Safety First!" or "Safety is Our #1 Goal!" However, as surprising as it may sound, your safety is not everyone's top priority. When it comes to keeping ourselves safe, the reality is that our personal well-being is our individual responsibility. The fact is that our safety is our personal responsibility and cannot be shifted to someone else as their priority. After all, if we assume our safety is someone else's priority, then do they transfer the responsibility of their life to someone else? The fact is, we all have our own safety needs, and therefore, we are all responsible for protecting ourselves. Why Does Mike Rowe say Safety Third? The person who makes an excellent argument for the meaning of putting safety in third is Mike Rowe. You may remember Mike Rowe as the host of Dirty Jobs. To answer the question "What does safety third mean," Rowe points to an experience he had while working on a crab boat in the always dangerous Bering Sea. A Crab Boat on the Bering Sea A storm came up while working on the crab boat, and the seas became rough. Icy rain made the deck and gear slick and challenging to handle. Plus, the addition of thirty-foot seas made the work conditions about as bad as they could be. With the conditions worsening and danger increasing, Mike Rowe went to ask the boat captain if he was going to shut down work on the deck. When asked, the captain replied, "No, safety third." Confused by the captain's response, Mike responded, "Isn't safety first?" The captain then explained: "No, safety third. Safety is third because each person has individual needs that others may not be aware of. Therefore, the individual is the responsibility of the individual." Mike turned and went back to work on the tossing and turning deck. As he did, he had an epiphany about how he wrongly approached his personal safety for his entire life. Now though, he was number one, not number three! What is First and Second if Safety is Third? As the captain told Mike, safety is third. Heck, it may not even make the top five at times. If that's the case, and it is, what is first and second if safety is third? Safety Can Not Always be Your Primary Focus First, as in the number one thing people will do, as I've written, is whatever you prioritize as the number one thing you should focus on. And, while safety is essential, it is not, and I'll hazard, it cannot always be your primary focus. For example, visualize that you're home with friends enjoying a great dinner and conversation. Now, imagine what you're doing during that dinner. Do You Eat Padded Up? Are you wearing a helmet, elbow and knee pads, and shorts with extra padding in the butt? Do you ignore the conversation out of fear that you may end up on the floor? After all, chairs break every day. When chairs break, there is a remote possibility that a person may become injured. So, is a broken chair worth worrying about? It can be. And in those instances, most people put their safety as number one by either giving the chair a jiggle and a keen eye before sitting in it, sitting in another chair,

Long-term water storage isn't a glamorous topic. It's sure not as interesting as debates on gun calibers and freeze-dried foods. But long-term water storage should actually be one of your number one preparedness concerns.  Why Should You Think About Long-Term Water Storage? Without clean drinking water, human life expectancy drops to around three days. Most of us in first-world nations take clean water for granted. However, circumstances may happen in which your household water faucets no longer deliver the precious life-sustaining liquid. When that happens, you'll need long-term water storage to tap into while you figure out your next steps. While we purchase insurance for unexpected accidents or disasters, many don’t consider taking action to ensure our personal water supply. Fortunately, having a supply stashed away is insurance against unexpected water loss due to natural or human-made disasters. Natural Disasters Tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, and other disasters can conceivably knock out a pumping station with a direct hit. Ironically, flooding due to strong storms can also cause shortages of potable water supplies if it contaminates local wells and municipal water supplies. Typically the impact of these events lasts only a few days and rarely directly disrupts the flow of water into your home. However, if your water continues to flow, you may be instructed to boil water to cleanse it of impurities for several days while they resolve the problem. Earthquakes, perhaps the worst natural disruptor of water flow, potentially could destroy pumping stations, pipelines, and sewer lines. Under such circumstances, household plumbing could be rendered useless for a lengthy period of time. Events like that necessitate that people take long-term water storage more seriously. Human-Made Disasters Human-made disasters can include system failures caused by operator error, on-site accidents, an act of terrorism, war, or civil unrest. Recently, a plant operator at a Florida water facility discovered that someone had accessed the system and increased the amount of a dangerous chemical into the water supply. Fortunately, the hack was detected before there was any risk to residents, but it just goes to show how vulnerable our water supplies can be. In yet another human-made disaster, a chemical spill rendered the water in West Virginia unusable for a couple of weeks, causing an instant shortage in bottled water being sold locally. These are just two examples out of many. Depending on the severity of the damage done, these events could render you waterless for extended periods of time. Health Impact of Drinking “Dirty” Water Flooding is one of the most common reasons for water contamination, especially after natural disasters. Floods occur worldwide, and while most are a matter of inconvenience, the worst-case flood scenarios can bring life-threatening diseases to your water. Some of the diseases that may accompany floods and disasters include typhoid fever, dengue fever, malaria, West Nile virus, cholera, yellow fever, leptospirosis, and hepatitis A. These do not always occur due to drinking the flood water but simply from being exposed to it. Learn more about the health hazards from floodwater here. How Much Water Do You Use? The classic rule of thumb is one gallon, per person, per day. But is that really accurate? On average, most people drink less than a gallon of water per day. But it’s important to remember that we use water for more than drinking.  Our extra water use needs to figure into our long-term water storage on a larger scale than many people currently do. You will have to determine your daily water usage based on your personal needs, along with your speed and efficiency of getting tasks done. These estimates below are based on one person’s typical water use.

Do you know how to identify phishing emails? Have you ever received an email and you weren’t sure whether it was real, or someone looking to scam you? I have, and as a matter of fact, I received one today and am going to talk with you about it and how to avoid becoming the next…

Have you ever considered what you’ll need if you are involved with older adults and evacuations? Are you an older adult who may have to evacuate at some point from where you’re living? Well, if you have older relatives and friends, or know of someone who cares for an older person, please share this episode…

    Have you ever looked at an item that you use almost daily and wondered about its history? It turns out, a lot of things we use every day were inventions of World War 1.  The Inventions of World War 1 Here are six inventions of World War 1 in particular that have had a significant impact on society. Did you know that these everyday items and ideas were invented during that era? Trench Coats Daylight Savings Time Pilotless Drones The Wristwatch Zippers Stainless Steel Let's take a closer look at these inventions of World War 1. Trench Coats Trench coats were not created to be fashionable. Designers of trench coats created them purely to satisfy a practical need. That need was as a replacement for the heavy wool greatcoats that were issued to British military officers. While the wool coats provided warmth, they also became cumbersome when wet, making movement more difficult. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention. British soldiers serving in the trenches during World War I  needed a more practical option to the wool greatcoat. The English clothing industry came up with one of the inventions of World War 1 still commonly worn today. They created the early version of the modern trench coat. The trench coat had many benefits over the long wool greatcoats. It was lightweight, waterproof, and made with deep pockets for holding maps and other necessities. Trench coats also had a waist belt consisting of metal rings for carrying needed equipment. Daylight Savings Time Benjamin Franklin is credited with the idea of putting clocks forward during the spring and back in the fall. It was in a 1784 letter to a French newspaper where Franklin first suggested that candles were wasted during the summer. His reasoning was because the sunset before people went to bed, so in turn, they lit candles to see. Likewise, he believed that people wasted daylight by sleeping well past the sunrise. It wasn’t until World War I that the notion of daylight savings time became a reality. It was instituted due to the demands of the war and coal shortages. Germany mandated that on April 30, 1916, clocks be moved forward from 11:00 pm to midnight. They hoped the extra hour of daylight in the evenings would use less coal for heat and light. Britain followed Germany’s example and initiated daylight savings time on May 21, 1916. Other European countries soon made the transition as well. Eventually, on March 19, 1918, following its entry into the war, the US implemented daylight savings time. The US also established time zones to help in the war effort. Following the signing of the armistice that ended the war, daylight savings time also came to an end. However, as history has shown (and to the dismay of parents everywhere), the idea of daylight savings time would return. Pilotless Drones The first use of crewless aerial vehicles happened on July 12, 1849. This first attempt by the Austrians at using unmanned balloons to carry explosives over the besieged city of Venice was a failure due to unfavorable winds. However, while the young artillery officer who created the idea failed on his initial attempt, his second effort on August 22, 1849, achieved a small level of success. While the attempt to float pilotless explosives-laden balloons over Venice was only marginally successful in damaging the city, it psychologically affected the population. The psychological impact and other stresses of the siege pushed Venice over the edge and resulted in their surrender two days later. Meanwhile, the first use of a pilotless, motorized aircraft took place on Long Island, New York, on March 6, 1918.  Two Navy inventors designed a pilotless aerial bomb. In short, their brainchild combined two inventions of World War 1 at the same time. While creating the first motorized uncrewed aeria...

Disaster prepping is nothing new. Did you know that disaster prepping and getting ready for potential hard times date back to the beginning of human history? Disaster Prepping from Ancient Times to 1900 All we need to do to see the importance of preparedness is to look to the story of Noah and his family building the ark in preparation for a natural disaster. The reality is that humans have taken disaster-prepping measures since the earliest time to get ready for the adversity they knew was coming. Whether gathering and preserving food to get ready for winter, working to deal with Mother Nature, or readying themselves to overcome a host of other adversities, people have always worked to be prepared for problems that lay ahead.  Lacking our modern conveniences, people had no choice other than to plan and prepare for the trying times they knew would come. For example, people of the Middle Ages gathered and preserved as much food as possible during the summer months. They knew that a long cold winter was coming and did what they could to put aside food so they wouldn't starve. Until very recent times, preparing for the future was NOT an option. Preparing for the rough times that lay ahead was simply a way of life for thousands of years. The dark reality is that those who didn't prepare stood a good chance of not living past the next difficulty. Think about trying to survive the winter a few hundred years ago without a stack of wood, preserved food, or any number of other life-sustaining preparations. Disaster Prepping from 1900 - 1970 As our relatively recent history shows, preparedness was an expected practice. Heck, it wasn't considered disaster prepping or anything other than mainstream. It was a way of life to raise a garden, can some pickles, and be self-reliant. Nobody went to the store or restaurants on a daily basis. As recently as most of the last century, people were encouraged to prepare and be self-reliant. Often, governments promoted preparedness in an attempt to rally their people to support a national effort. The World Wars As the flames of world wars raged around the globe, many countries involved in the fights pushed their citizens to become more self-reliant. Here in the United States and other nations, people were encouraged to grow "Victory Gardens" to help keep the country fed during a time of food rationing. Not becoming more self-reliant and prepared was considered unpatriotic at the time and counter to the nation's war effort. The effort was so strong that over 20 million victory gardens were planted within the United States. By 1944 victory gardens produced over eight million tons of fruits and vegetables. To help put this into perspective, they produced 40% of all fresh fruits and vegetables consumed in the United States. At that time, the amount was equal to all U.S. commercial production. In addition to growing victory gardens, people fearing possible attacks by the enemy began constructing home bomb shelters, many of which still exist today. The Cold War During the Cold War, the specter of nuclear war was an ever-present threat. The building of bomb shelters throughout the United States by individuals and local and federal governments increased. One of the most famous examples of bomb shelters is the Greenbrier Resort, located in West Virginia, a short trip from Washington D.C. Construction of the Greenbrier, codenamed "Project Greek Island," began in 1958. Architects of the Greenbrier created it to house over 1,000 people, including the entire US Congress. The refuge remained in operation for over 30 years. Had the shelter not become known to the public in 1992, it would probably still be in operation today. While the Greenbrier may no longer be involved, other shelters are certainly part of the government's continuity of operations plan today.

Have you, in your quest to become prepared, ever considered breaking the gun laws in America? Well, I’m going to cover some of the things that everyone should think before knowingly breaking any law, but more specifically gun laws in America; regardless of the reason To Obey or Disobey Gun Laws in America, That Is…

Do you ever get frustrated trying to explain the fundamentals of preparedness to people? Shows like Doomsday Preppers have done us a bit of a disservice because it shows the extremes, rather than realistic prepping for everyday people like you and me. What Is Emergency Preparedness When working to understand something, it's usually best, to begin by defining whatever it is you want to understand better. In this case, Dictionary.com defines preparedness as "the state of being prepared; readiness." In other words, preparedness is your ability, based on instincts, knowledge, and personal effort to be able to face the adversities of life with skill and confidence. These things combined help improve your chances of successfully overcoming the situation.  That sounds like a lot and can be kind of overwhelming. But if you focus on realistic prepping, then it feels a lot more manageable. Just think about the stories of people who weren't prepared and how you don't want to be one of them. Why is Realistic Prepping Essential Also, just as important as understanding what preparedness is, we need to understand why realistic prepping is essential. The reason why emergency preparedness is important is two-fold. First, helping others who are in need is a crucial part of preparedness that humans have practiced throughout our history. The fact is that more often than not, we, as preparedness-minded people end up helping others out during disasters and other difficult times. Why is that? Well, that's because we tend to be more aware, more ready, and better able to avoid personal disasters that others may not. Personal Survival Secondly, when we are personally involved in a difficult predicament, we've moved into the arena of preparedness survival. It's time to use our skills, knowledge, and instincts to successfully move past or deal with the problem, whatever it may be. This is when all of the time you put into your preparedness will pay off. You will be successful at minimizing or altogether avoiding the effects of a disaster. The Fundamentals of Realistic Prepping When it comes to the fundamentals of preparedness, there are five critical areas, which are: Mindset Situational Awareness Safety Shelter Sustenance. We'll be covering each one of these in more depth in future posts but let's take a quick look at these topics. Mindset Your prepper's mindset is more important than any gear you can carry or supply you can stockpile. Briefly, your prepper's mindset encompasses the knowledge and skills that you have acquired to help you through a crisis. Educating yourself about the most likely disasters in your area and getting your family involved is also part of your mindset. Learning to make quick decisions by walking through the "what ifs" is key to your prepper's mindset. This is realistic prepping because it costs little to nothing to develop. Situational Awareness One of the most important factors in realistic prepping is your situational awareness. Being observant about the things going on around you, the people, and subtle shifts in mood can help you escape before a bad situation happens. It can also help you to avoid needless accidents because you've paid attention and side-stepped the danger. (We've all seen those videos of people so engrossed in their phones they walk right into a wall or a telephone pole.) Safety Safety encompasses a lot. It covers our personal safety when we're out and about, either alone or with our loved ones. It can also cover the basics of home security, letting people know where you're going to be and when you're expected to return and avoiding dangerous situations when possible. Safety also encompasses understanding and mitigating the risks of the most likely dangers in your area,

Often one of the first steps to becoming more safe and secure includes performing an evaluation of your risk assessment components, which consists of assessing both your home and personal risk. This sets the stage for managing any potential threats to your safety. The truth is, at some point, many of us have had it with leaving the protection of ourselves and our families up to fate. Instead, we decide enough is enough, and it’s time to take charge of our future safety and security. When that happens, if you want to be effective and efficient with your time, effort, and resources (including money). You’ll need to take stock of the threats you face and the vulnerabilities you have to those threats. Taking stock of your threats and vulnerabilities is a less technical way of stating that you will conduct an evaluation of certain risk assessment components. After all, unless you perform a personal and home risk assessment, managing your risk will be at best, a guess. What is Risk? Before we dive into risk assessment components, though, let’s discuss exactly what "risk" is. Risk is when we know a potentially lousy situation can happen to someone or something. However, at the same time, we don’t know when or if it will happen. For example, in my case, every time I cook food, there is a risk of it tasting awful! However, I don’t know when I’ll whip up that terrible-tasting meal. Ultimately, it depends upon some factors. Those factors include the freshness of the ingredients, my knowledge and ability around the kitchen, combined with the randomness of chance. Similarly, the same is valid for risks related to our safety and security. It’s no secret that we all run the risk of having our cell phones stolen. Unfortunately, while we know people take cell phones, we don’t know if, when, or where it will happen. In other words, risk is something that we know is possible, but at the same time, we don’t know if it will ever happen to us. Another way of looking at risk is to consider it as the probability of an unfortunate event happening. Now, if you eliminate the possibility of something wrong happening, you’ll remove the risk. Unfortunately, as we’ll discuss later, the potential to eliminate all risk is highly unlikely. Heck, I’ve spent decades working in professions that attempt to eliminate risk. Unfortunately, despite that, I can still break myself on occasion or have other bad things happen. The Bottom-Up Risk Assessment Components A personal or home risk assessment is required when managing your risk. The purpose of performing a personal risk assessment is to identify potential threats, their chances of occurring, and their potential impact. While there are various ways to assess risk, for our purposes, we’ll use the more straightforward-to-implement bottom-up approach. The bottom-up personal risk assessment requires that we identify as many of our potential risks as possible. In other words, before you start making safety and security plans, sit down with a pad of paper. Then, make a list of all the potential risks you think could impact you, your family, and your home. Another great way of creating that list is to have a brainstorming session with friends and family who can help expand on your list of possible risks. Risk Assessment Components Can Cause Overwhelm and Worry It’s good to know upfront that some people may feel overwhelmed and worried when brainstorming potential risks. If that happens, remember that it’s normal to feel that way. Thinking about the potential for future problems can be difficult for some. However, while it may be difficult, it’s good to consider that most of us get nervous when thinking about unknown possibilities. The fact that we’re thinking about unpleasant options makes it even worse. One way to overcome the unpleasantness, overwhelm, and worry is to think less about the potential problem and more about the results....

The reality is that once you begin thinking with a criminal mind, you’ll be better prepared to stop a bad guy. The lesson of thinking like a criminal took hold with me during my time providing diplomatic security in places such as Iraq, Pakistan, and elsewhere. When I say diplomats, I am speaking about protecting everyone from members of the US Senate, Congress, and the White House Cabinet, to lesser diplomats and representatives of the US government. Learning to think like a bad guy was one of the first lessons we received when going through the high threat protection course. I’ve probably mentioned it before, but instructors expected us to look at our missions from the bad guy's point of view during training. They taught us to think like the attackers to determine their most likely courses of action when attacking us. Then, armed with that knowledge, we'd work our plans to address our vulnerabilities. I do have to say that it worked spectacularly because we never lost a diplomat to the bad guys. Thinking with a Criminal Mind Thinking with a criminal mind, especially when contemplating how a criminal may target us, can be unnerving. After all, when we honestly think like a burglar or a person bent on violence, we are forcing ourselves to confront our weaknesses and vulnerabilities. However, once we move past any uneasiness of delving inside a criminal mind, we'll find ourselves in a much more safe and secure position. We can discover the chinks in our armor and work to repair them. Some things to understand when thinking like a criminal are: Knowing the trends in crime. Studying your neighborhood. Studying your home. A Few Crime Stats to Consider To begin with, according to the FBI, US Department of Justice, and others, One property crime, which the FBI defines as the offenses of burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson, happens every 4 seconds, with an average of over 1,000,000 home invasions happening each year between 1994 and 2010. One burglary occurs every 20 seconds, with over 2,000,000 homes experiencing a burglary or break-in this year. One violent crime occurs every 25 seconds. One aggravated assault occurs every 45 seconds, with 38% of all assaults happening during home invasions. One robbery occurs every 90 seconds. One rape or attempted rape occurs every 5 minutes, with 38% of all rapes occurring during home invasions. Know the Trends Sir Francis Bacon is credited with the Latin phrase “scientia potentia est,” which translates in English to “knowledge is power.” In thinking of getting inside a criminal mind, the phrase knowledge is power is 100% accurate. The same goes for just about anything else we do in life. Heck, it’s one of the reasons we all listen to podcasts, right? When it comes to maintaining knowledge of potential threats, a good method is to work inwards from the macro to the micro. In other words, study what is happening on a global scale and work inward from there. The global scale provides a good representation of the overarching trends in terrorism, cybercrime, and other significant criminal tendencies. It’s also good to remember when studying international crime trends that other potential future problems may become apparent. These problems include financial upheaval, infectious diseases, and other issues that warrant our awareness. International Crime Trends Studying global crime trends does not always provide information that requires action at the local level. However, understanding trends on the macro scale does help to establish an overall mindset for detecting developing crime trends. Additionally, when international methods make their way to the local level, having knowledge ahead of time will reduce a person’s chance of becoming a victim.

To best understand how to prevent them, you need to answer the question, "What IS a home invasion?" Understanding the home invasion process can help you to improve your strategies for preventing them. Home invasions target you, your home, and your family and are sadly becoming more common. However, due to a variety of reasons, many of us don’t always take that threat as seriously as we should. That Was My Situation When My Home Was Robbed in 2010 My home was burglarized, and here's a quick rundown of what happened. About a week before I returned from Baghdad in 2010, my roommate emailed me that someone broke into our house. The bad guy found the closet where I kept my gun safe. He then, due to the deadbolt lock that I installed, chopped his way through the door. Once inside, he found my gun safe, loaded with firearms and other personally valuable items. He then worked on the safe, rolling it out the front door. So, with that in mind, you may understand why I was thinking about the true answer to the question of "What is a home invasion?" I think it’s vital that we take a look at what a home invasion is. We also need to examine the statistics behind home invasions because it’s the numbers that often motivate some of us to take action. That is taking decisive action to make our lives,  homes, and futures more safe and secure. Why Merriam Webster’s Definition of "Home Invasion" is Wrong To begin with, let’s define what is a home invasion. For our purposes, I’ll go with the top-ranked definition on Google. Merriam-Webster provides the number one definition of a home invasion on Google. Merriam-Webster states that the legal definition of home invasion is: “The crime of entering a dwelling and committing or with intent to commit a crime (as assault) while armed and while another is lawfully present.” ~Merriam-Webster Sadly, Merriam-Webster’s definition of what is a home invasion is 100% wrong. Not only is Merriam-Webster’s interpretation of what is a home invasion wrong, but it's misleading. Now, some of you may be saying, “Brian, you’re making a very bold statement when you say that Merriam-Webster and its definition of what is a home invasion are wrong.” After all, Merriam-Webster has been defining the English language since 1828! That’s almost 200-years of definitions. Well, my answer to you is that you’re 100% correct. I am making a bold statement. However, please give me a few minutes to explain why Merriam-Webster’s definition of a home invasion is wrong. What is a Home Invasion and Why Is Merriam-Webster Wrong? To understand why Merriam Webster’s definition of a home invasion is wrong, we need to deconstruct its definition. Again, the Merriam-Webster definition of home invasion is, “The crime of entering a dwelling and committing or with intent to commit a crime (as assault) while armed and while another is lawfully present.” For this purpose, I’m going to assume that we can all agree that Merriam-Webster’s definition of what a home is, is correct. Merriam-Webster defines the word home as: “One’s place of residence. The social unit formed by a family living together.” So, home is both the physical structure of where we live, and it also has the greater meaning of our family living together. That’s something special and worth protecting. Next, Merriam-Webster defines "invasion" as “An act of invading. The incoming or spread of something usually hurtful.” Even more to the point, Merriam-Webster’s definition of "invade" is “to conquest or plunder. To encroach upon. To affect injuriously and progressively.” So, what do all of those definitions mean? Well, if we use the deconstructed portions of Merriam-Webster’s definition of home invasion to create a statement about home invasions, we come up with this definition: “A home invasion is the act of invading someone’s place of reside...

What often stops people from taking preparedness seriously is the question, "Are preppers crazy?" It's that very question that also drives people within the preparedness community nuts.  After all, especially with 2020 in the review mirror, does preparing for challenging times and unforeseen difficulties sound crazy?  Unfortunately, when it comes to answering the question of "Are preppers crazy?," the readiness community often suffers from a label that it has, at least in part, fostered for itself.  Therefore, if the preparedness community wants to be taken seriously and not be looked upon as crazy preppers, it first needs to accept responsibility for its reputation and change from within.  With that, this article will cover some of the fundamental reasons people think preppers are crazy. Preppers Scare People Far too often, preppers unnecessarily use fear as a tool to motivate others to prepare. As a result, the fear that is supposed to encourage others has the opposite effect.  "Keep your fears to yourself but share your courage with others." ~ Robert Louis Stevenson Fear-based preparedness is bad enough when it comes from the average person. However, the most egregious use of fear-based preparedness happens when businesses and influencers from within the self-reliant community use it for personal gain.  The fact is that those who unnecessarily use fear to convince others to prepare are taking the lazy way out. Moreover, those who needlessly use scare tactics for preparedness motivation are often alarmists who lack the most fundamental of all preparedness tools.   The tool the alarmists lack is the mindset to understand fundamental human nature. Sadly, these Chicken Littles don't understand that more is accomplished through encouragement and helping others understand the situation than is achieved through fear.  Surveys show that one of the most sought-after goals of preparedness-minded people is to improve their confidence to rise to the occasion when times get tough. Whether those tough times are a micro or macro disaster, people want to be mentally prepared to deal with it as best as possible.  So, the question is, when people turn to preparedness to gain the skills and confidence to protect their families and friends, why in the hell are we as a community trying to scare them? Does that make any sense?  The truth is, we as a community will gain more and go farther to help others to prepare by building them up instead of tearing them down through fear.  Five Rules of Fear in Preparedness It's helpful for those of you who are new to the readiness lifestyle to know these five rules of fear in preparedness: Fear is a normal part of the human condition.  Nearly every new prepper feels overwhelmed and fearful when they first begin prepping.  Despite repeated predictions to the contrary, the world hasn't ended in our lifetimes, nor is it likely to.  The fact that you are taking an interest in preparedness today means you're already better able to face tomorrow's uncertainties.  Those who unnecessarily use fear to motivate personal readiness often lack the most fundamental of preps - an understanding of basic human nature. Negative Nerd Speak People also ask, "Are preppers crazy?" because of the negative-sounding, nerd vocabulary we use.  Think about what preppers must sound like to someone who doesn't yet understand preparedness. Think about it in terms of the acronyms we use.  Suppose you take a step back and listen to it objectively. In that case, you can't help but see that we often stick the crazy preppers label on ourselves without even trying. Let's look at some of the terms and language that we, as preppers, use. EOD: End of Days GOOD: Get Out of Dodge

With hurricane season headed our way, I wanted to share some hurricane preparedness tips to help you get ready ahead of time. Many of these tips apply to any severe storm. We see the same stories of hurricanes and major storms repeat themselves time and time again. Despite the loss of life and massive damage that hurricanes cause every year, people continue to be caught unprepared. The tragedy of this is that preparing for hurricanes isn’t that difficult. As any preparedness-minded person will tell you, successfully preparing for a hurricane or major storm takes some time, effort, and forethought. Before we get started with these hurricane preparedness tips, I want to urge those of you who are in the path of a hurricane to please take it seriously, play it safe, and avoid becoming a statistic. Hurricane Preparedness Tips: Before the Storm Most of the work for getting prepped for an impending hurricane or tropical storm happens long before landfall. Some things can be done well in advance if you live in hurricane country, while others need to be done shortly before the storm. And you'll notice that many of these preps apply to a wide variety of emergencies, so the general preparedness you already have in place will provide you with a firm foundation (without the need to go out and fight the crowds for that last case of bottled water.) Stay Informed Start by keeping an eye on the news. When you see a storm forming that may impact you, increase your level of awareness about the weather. Pay attention to the weather apps on your phone, check the National Weather Service at weather.gov, and keep tabs on the forecasts for your area. Remember, weather.com is an entertainment money-making website when checking the news, and weather.gov is there to pass on weather information. Learn more about weather preparedness here. When staying informed about tropical storms and hurricanes, make sure you understand the differences between weather advisories, watches, and warnings. Advisories are issued when conditions are expected to cause substantial, potentially dangerous problems. If people use caution, these conditions should not be deadly. Watches are issued when a hurricane or tropical storm may occur within 48-hours. When a watch is issued, it’s time to double-check your preparations, make sure your vehicle is fully fueled, and start getting ready things in case you need to get out of dodge. Warnings are issued when a hurricane, or tropical storm is likely to occur within 36-hours. When a warning is released, wrap up your preparations and consider launching your evacuation plan. Form a network with others to help keep each other informed and help out in a disaster. The minute one of you notices something terrible headed your way, pass the word on to others. Understand the Categories of Hurricanes One of the most important hurricane preparedness tips is to understand what meteorologists are talking about when referring to the "category" of the impending storm. Meteorologists rank hurricanes using the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. They are categorized on a scale of 1-5 based on the top sustained wind speed. The National Hurricane Center explains the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Category 1: 74-95 mph Very dangerous winds will produce some damage: Well-constructed frame homes could have damage to roof, shingles, vinyl siding and gutters. Large branches of trees will snap and shallowly rooted trees may be toppled. Extensive damage to power lines and poles likely will result in power outages that could last a few to several days. Category 2: 96-110 mph Extremely dangerous winds will cause extensive damage: Well-constructed frame homes could sustain major roof and siding damage. Many shallowly rooted trees will be snapped or uprooted and block numerous roads.

This week, we’re going to cover overcoming adversity so that you can help yourself and others successfully overcome a disaster, emergency, or another critical event. One of, if not the primary goal of preparedness is to overcome adversity. That’s because as survivors, we prepare for what Merriam-Webster defines as: “a state or instance of serious…