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Preppers New Year’s Resolutions

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Preppers New Year’s Resolutions

New Year’s Day is upon us, time to chill, relax, get over your hangover from New Year’s Eve and in fact, partake of that great american tradition, making New Year’s resolutions. I’ve always thought of those as somewhat of a joke, considering that most folks don’t make it past a week, without breaking them. But, there are a few who actually make New Year’s resolutions and then have the self-discipline to hold through with them.

I guess in a way that’s what New Year’s resolutions are, a test of our self-discipline. After all, if we can’t plan to do something that’s useful to ourselves and follow through with it, how are we going to ever keep a promise to anyone else? Besides, how are you going to survive if you don’t have any self-discipline? If there was anything that required self-discipline, it’s survival.

Let me tell you a secret. I’m not sure if this works with everyone, however it works with me. That is, tell somebody else your resolutions; someone who is close to you, who’s opinion matters to you. I use my wife for this, but you might have a close friend that you can use. let them know and ask them to keep you accountable to your resolution.

You see, when we tell someone else, we’ve made much more of a commitment than just telling ourselves. Now there’s someone else who knows. We can not tell ourselves that we really didn’t plan to it. Not only that, but we know that breaking our commitment will make us look bad to them.

New Year’s Resolutions Just for Preppers

So, since we’re all preppers, why not use this quaint custom of new Year’s resolutions to assist ourselves prep better in the coming year. Let’s create some prepping and survival resolutions, so that when the New Year is over, we’re better prepared than we are today. Here are some ideas for you:

 Learn a new survival skill

New years offer a brand new chance to learn new skills. I’m not talking regarding some little piddly skill, like learning a new way to start a fire; I’m talking about a major skill set, like learning enough medical skills to serve as your survival team’s medic, or learning blacksmithing. Something that will take some time and effort on your part, however also provide a real benefit to your family or survival team, when the time comes.

Get in shape

Let’s be honest, most people aren’t in as good a shape as we should be. We’re alittle overweight; we haven’t been hitting the gym like we should; and if we have to walk ten miles on a bug out, carrying a pack, it’ll probably kill us.

Physical fitness is a very important part of surviving. So, shed those extra pounds and build up your stamina. If you can’t split firewood for half an hour, without a break or walk 10 miles with a pack on, you’re not there yet. You don’t have to be Arnold Swarzenegger, however you should be better off than Pee Wee Herman.

Increase your survival stockpile by X amount

How much of a stockpile do you have? Is it enough? Most likely not; most people don’t have anywhere near as much as we would like. Well, make a decision now to increase what you’ve got. Pick variety of months worth of food that you wish to add to your stockpile and print out a shopping list. As you complete those items, you’ll check them off your list, showing yourself your progress.

Complete a survival project that you have put off

I’ve got one of these. I started drilling a well this year and never got it finished. part of that’s that I’ve been busy and another part is that we’ve got plenty of clay. So, the drilling rig I’ve been using isn’t powerful enough. But that’s really no excuse. All it means is that i need to come up with an improved drilling rig, so that I can end that project.

What project have you been putting off? Perhaps you’re like me and you just got pissed off with it; or maybe you’re not sure you can do it. Well, this next year may be a great time to prove yourself wrong and get that project done.

Increase your energy independence by X amount

How way have you moved off the grid? That appears to be a common goal for plenty of preppers these days. Well, you probably can’t do all of it in one year, however you can do some of it. So why not set a goal for how a lot of energy independence you’re going to gain next year? Perhaps which will mean adding some solar panels or increasing your battery backup system. It could mean putting in a wind turbine. For that matter, you can gain energy independence by putting in a wood-burning stove as well. Choose something that you suppose will assist you and make it a goal for this coming year.

Teach your family some new skills

It’s great that you learn survival skills, but your family needs to know them as well. What will happen to them if something happens to you? For that matter, if you’re suddenly thrust into a survival situation, are you going to do everything, while they sit on their hands? Better that everyone in your family has skills, so that you can all work together to survive. Even kids can learn helpful skills that will help.

Improve your shooting

Everyone needs this one. Set yourself a goal for how much better you’re going to be ready to shoot by the end of the year and then go to the vary regularly to work on it. That distinction could be dropping a four inch group down to a two inch group. Otherwise to look at it’s to start tactical shooting at your local range. That way, you can learn skills like shooting while moving and shooting in low light. There’s always many room for improvement, so you’ll as well set yourself a goal and start working on it.

Develop a complete bug out plan

Many people have a partial bug out set up, however they haven’t really finished it. Your family will be a whole lot better off if you have got a complete plan, especially the part regarding where you’re going to go and how you’ll survive when you get there. Don’t let yourself be one of those individuals on the road, without a real destination. Finish that plan this year and put the things you need in place, in order to be able to put it into effect.

Start a vegetable garden

It takes at least a year to get the soil for your garden working well. So, if you wait until you need a vegetable garden, it’ll be too late. You’re more happy beginning now, so that when you need it, it’s ready to go. Besides, you probably need some time to learn how to get the most out of your garden, so beginning now will give you the opportunity to own a much better garden in the long-term.

Take the time to do it right. Build raised beds and put in underground irrigation. Everything you can do to make it so that it’ll be easier to use your garden when the time comes is worth doing. Labor savings methods and devices can be a godsend, when a survival situation arrives.

Start raising chickens

If you’ve already got a garden going, maybe you should add some protein to your gardening efforts, by raising chickens. You’ll either raise them for slaughter and eat them or you can raise them for the eggs. Either one will make a good source of protein for your family.

Chickens are fairly simple to boost, and they’ll eat anything, however you’ll need to build a coop for them and learn how to care for them. Just being able to get eggs from your chickens will make it worthwhile, as you’ll have an excellent source of protein, that doesn’t take much work to keep going.

Improve your situational awareness

Situational awareness is knowing what’s happening around you. It’s a very important survival skill, especially when faced by armed two-legged predators. It doesn’t matter if those predators are part of an angry rioting mob or they’re sneaking through the woods. Increasing your situational awareness will help you to avoid ending up in a dangerous confrontation.

There are two components of this. First of all, there’s noticing what’s going on around you. That means keeping your head on a swivel and really looking at the other people you see. The second part is being aware of the news, both locally and nationally. If a major disaster strikes, knowing about it as soon as possible may be the most necessary single consider surviving it.

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John Turner
John Turnerhttp://www.patriotdirect.org/
Dedicated to upgrowth, developement and prepared for the "worst" to come... Simple guy, simple skills, simple attitude. Just an ordinary guy who tries to survive!

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