There can only be one culprit behind intelligent people refusing to take action regarding their own personal safety.....denial. Denial takes many forms from trying to make believe things are as you would like them to be, to gathering any possible opposing opinions, to simply dismissing any threat as the creations of paranoid minds. In the end, however, there can be no denying when things go bad. It will simply be a matter of which side of the fence on which we have chosen to stand; prepared or unprepared.
Those who have begun preparations to any degree know one thing.....denial will not fill your belly, treat a sickness or wound, will not warm you on a sub-zero night or make the bad guys go away. Denial will not answer the 911 call and send help, put out the fire or divert the natural disaster. We are responsible for our own safety, despite what some members of society would have us believe.
Once a person has accepted their responsibility, the next step is making the appropriate preparations. This is where those who think they are adequately prepared make their gravest mistake. Because they don't know any different, people tend to prepare for an emergency with respect to their safe surroundings. For example, they tend to arrange things while the electricity is available, forgetting that in times of crisis, there will likely be no power. Or, they forget to factor in cold, hunger, looters, injuries, etc. To their credit, they have decided to come up with a basic plan, but having never lived it, don't know that "no plan survives initial contact". This gives rise to a false sense of security, which in reality doesn't offer much more security than not preparing at all.....as the shock of having your plans shattered upon impact with disaster can throw you into panic and despair. I've heard so many people whose "disaster plans" begin with driving their vehicle to their remote hideaway or cottage. Perhaps disasters affect everything but roads.
Perhaps the greatest obstacle to survival preparedness itself is getting around to it. This is the natural resistance a human being has to change. It is the enemy of success at it's best and a major contributor to your demise at it's worst. Since most folks don't have a personal D.I. kicking them in the pants and getting them past the point of hesitation, left to themselves, it's just too easy to put it off. Fortunately, all a person needs to obtain the necessary motivation is to put the thought of preparation in a different category in their mind, ultimately instead of dreading the idea, a person can look forward to and enjoy it.
This is as easy as "keep things simple". Your first basics are simply, water, fire and food. Though certainly not the entire list, these are the things you will likely need over and above anything else in a given situation; "what if" scenarios notwithstanding. More importantly, make it fun. For example; build yourself a fire. Don't have access to a fireplace or fire-pit? Build a small fire in your BBQ grill. Don't have one? Get one. All you need is a small charcoal type grill. In an emergency, they are really nice to have. Your goal isn't signalling aircraft passing overhead, you're attempting to find small amounts of kindling and succeed in lighting a small fire. Think it's easy? Depending on the day, you may have no dry kindling available....now what? Practice will teach you many things, both about what you are practicing, as well as yourself.
For water, make yourself a filter. Take two empty 20oz. plastic water bottles that you normally discard and cut the very bottom out of one of them. You can experiment with combinations of resources where you live from sand, charcoal (assuming you were successful in your fire-making), grasses or just plain clothing. You don't even have to leave your kitchen.....you can use coffee filters or fill a pair of (clean) socks with your media. Stuff your makeshift filter in the bottle with the bottom cut off and use it like a funnel, draining the filtered water into the other bottle. (Of course, you necessarily have to boil the finished product, but at least it won't taste like the contents of your local swamp.) The point is to get up and do it. Combined with your fire-making skills, you will have learned two of the most important skills you can have in a given survival situation.
Probably the greatest danger people face once they have begun getting around to it is their belief that they will be able to "live off the land" for food. Think about this for just a moment. In an emergency, there are lots of people who will be likely unprepared and will compete for available food sources, to include items which the land might offer. As we add a little cold weather, available wilderness food supplies dwindle even further. Throw in a little fear on the part of the critters and you may be looking for food for days or weeks. This is not a good situation in which to find yourself. No matter how skilled a person may be at procuring food from the wild in times of peace and safety, all bets are off when things go bad. The best way to ensure your ability to feed yourself is simply to stock extra food. This is as simple as buying an extra few cans of soup, a box of rice or pasta, cans of tuna or realistically anything you would normally buy that has an extended shelf life. All you really have to do beyond that is continually rotate the older cans to the front of the shelf for use. After you've put some food away, if you happen to find some food in the wild, great! Just make sure to have yourself covered first.
In the end, you'll have learned that many things you have in your mind won't quite work the way you expected. The more fun you have, the more you challenge you'll seek. Eventually, you'll necessarily have multiple backups for everything; Matches, lighters, fire-starters as well as primitive methods of fire-starting. You'll have water purification tablets, filters and the knowledge to create your own "just in case". You'll develop skills to obtain food as well as keep your own stock. In addition, your eventual "what if" scenarios along the way will help you create backups for the backups....like medical supplies and skills as well as keeping communication with neighbors. The more advanced will continually challenge themselves to do more with less. Yet, for our busy lifestyles, the bottom line is getting around to it. Because when it really matters, there's nothing worse than finding yourself in a position where you are wishing you'd gotten around to it when you had the chance.
