bulbs in your house for LED lights is completely insufficient to shift the larger trend of global warming. But, if all households do this, across many nations, a material impact will be made and therefore it’s necessary.
Likewise, storing extra food may be totally insufficient to feed your family for more than a few days or weeks. But it’s necessary that you do it anyways, because it might make all the difference in the wake of a natural disaster.
We’re going to recommend dozens of things, each of which may strike you as insufficient by themselves. Together, however, they’re completely necessary for prosperity, peace of mind, aligning your thoughts and actions effectively, and providing motivation to those who may look to you for guidance and leadership.
A JOURNEY, NOT A DESTINATION
We heartily recommend that you begin preparing as early as possible. The crises headed our way will be with us for a very long time, which means that becoming resilient is not a “one and done” objective.
The need to remain resilient will likely increase as the Three E trends arrive in force over next few decades, and the type of resilience required of us will likely shift as developments unfold.
In short: think of developing resilience as a journey rather than a destination.
In whichever areas of your life you choose to focus your efforts, ask yourself three basic questions:
1. What should I keep doing? Most of the things you already have in your life you are going to keep. Most of the things you already do, you are going to keep doing. Eating well, getting plenty of sleep, laughing and loving your family are all examples of things you are going to keep doing. It’s important to emphasize this because some people look at the changes coming and think we’re talking about having to drop everything and start a brand new, and less enjoyable life. In truth, 80% to 90% of the things that are already in your life will remain there.
2. What should I stop doing? Some things no longer make sense given the macro trends in play, and you should stop doing them right away because they no longer serve you or are increasing your expenditures and risks. Unearth the things you’re doing that you should stop. Stop eating foods that don’t nourish you. Stop wasting money, energy and other resources – especially time.
3. What new things should I start doing? Here’s where the magic begins. What are all the new things you need to do to align your actions with the new reality of the world around you? Depending on your circumstances and aspirations, you may start exercising more, or begin new practices of daily awareness and connection. Perhaps it’s time to get to know your neighbors better, or learn how to garden. We’ll help you figure out which ones to focus on first.
But keep in mind that your pursuit of all of these will be fluid. Some you’ll handle quickly; others may take years to get right. Just remember it’s a journey, and enjoy the progress you make while on it.
MIND THE GAP!
Taking these steps is also very important for emotional reasons.
If you ride the British tube, or subway, you’ll have heard the pleasant recording of a woman’s voice and/or noticed the signs telling you to ‘mind the gap.’ In this case the gap being referred to is a dangerous empty spot between the train and the platform.
Another anxiety-producing gap exists between what people value and what they do. The two are often not always aligned in our modern culture. In that gap between one’s thoughts and one’s actions is where anxiety and fear live and breed. Sometimes in debilitating, paralyzing amounts.
If you know that an earthquake is a distinct possibility where you live, and yet have done nothing to prepare, then you have a gap. Even if you don’t spend much time consciously dwelling on it, an uneasy situation has merely been suppressed and sits there, quietly gnawing at the edges of your consciousness, corroding your overall sense of well-being.
Add up enough of these gaps and you’ll end up more anxious and unsettled than you need to be. In our work, we often encounter people who are anxious or depressed without understanding why. Fortunately, in most cases the anxiety and stress can be relieved by simply closing the gap with a few simple actions—in our previous example, it might be as simple as putting together an earthquake response kit. Unfortunately, a lot of people won’t undertake even the simplest of steps.
Another example is that our just-in-time food delivery system could suffer a breakdown for any one of a dozen legitimate reasons. As mentioned, most cities and communities have only 3-4 days of food in the stores. A lot of people comfort themselves with the knowledge that the stores have never run dry before. Therefore a prolonged period without access to groceries seems far too remote a possibility to concern themselves with.
However we know that the fear of shortage lurks because every time there’s an approaching hurricane or big snow storm, people flock to the stores and load up “just in case.” Well, just in case of what? The answer is, on some level, everybody knows that losing access to food during a disaster is a possibility that can’t be entirely dismissed.
There that knowledge sits, just out of sight, like an unwanted guest until an approaching storm wakes it up and brings it to the surface. So what can we do about it? That’s easy; buy some extra long-term storage food that will last for 30 years without needing any additional attention and kick that worry right out of your brain. Your authors did exactly that a number of years ago, and the sense of peace it bought has paid itself back many times over compared to the relatively minor expense of the actual food.
Even better, there’s no way to lose. If we’ve concerned ourselves over a risk that never materializes (hopefully!) and we never have to actually use that stored food, then we’ll donate it to a food bank or other worthy outlet in three decades. We get to feel good about the donation and maybe even take a tax deduction in the process. No matter how you slice it, in terms of reduced anxiety, effort or money, it wasn’t wasted effort.
So our advice here is simple: if you want to reduce your fears, anxiety or concern about the future, don’t just sit there, do something!
SELFLESS NOT SELFISH
Another objection we hear to the prospect of preparing and becoming more resilient is that those actions could be seen as being selfish. Instead we see them as being selfless. Those who are not prepared when an emergency strikes are a drain on critical resources, while those who are prepared can be of assistance.
To be among those who can be in a position to render assistance, or at least need none of their own, means that your prior acts of preparation have selflessly removed you from the minus column and placed you on the plus side.
The first steps towards preparedness usually involve addressing your own needs or those of your loved ones, but many people then go beyond that and prepare for others who may not be able to do so, or have not done so, or maybe even will not do so.
But let us put an important qualifier on that; preparing before a crisis hits is responsible and selfless, but trying to accumulate necessary items during a crisis is an act of hoarding. We do not and never will advocate hoarding. Responsible preparations begin long before any trouble appears. Anything else stands a good chance of making things worse, not better.
The news has been full of stories of how people behave when scarcity strikes and they are generally not pretty. People in Boston fought over bottled water just hours after a water
