Prepper Basics – Part 1 – Stop, Relax, and Let’s Make a Plan

Today we will be doing the first of several “back to the basics” posts to help out some of the newer members of the audience and maybe even help some of the more experienced preppers brush up on some of the things they may have missed starting out. We will be focusing on food storage, water storage, security and several other topics that will get you started off on the right foot in your preparedness journey without buying into all the “Doomsday, TEOTWAWKI, ZOMG ZOMBIES!” hype that plagues this community.

Headless Prepper Syndrome

Most people that are very new to the idea of preparedness experience something within those first few weeks that I like to call “Headless Prepper Syndrome”.

Have you ever seen what happens when a live chicken is harvested? After dispatching the bird by cutting off its head, the bird goes absolutely ballistic. The chicken will literally run around with its head cut off in every direction, flapping its wings wildly, blood and feathers going everywhere. Finally, when the adrenaline keeping it alive finally runs out, it falls over dead.

A lot of new preppers do something similar. Usually there is some sort of event or tipping point that a lot of us call the “Wake Up” phase. It’s when someone’s long-standing acceptance of the modern world, with all its conveniences and innovations is finally challenged by the reality that there are literally thousands of threats out there that could destroy our way of life.

They feel vulnerable, caught off guard and are compelled to run around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to do anything (usually involving dropping far too much money on “stuff” they don’t need) to become “prepared” for whatever big disaster event they are now sure is right around the corner.

The worst part is that just like the chicken, the adrenaline doesn’t last long. After a few months prepping becomes less and less of a priority. It’s hard financially, they don’t have a clear plan and the things they are doing aren’t helping them in their daily lives. Before long, they bury their head right back into the sand, depressed and less prepared than when they started out. We call that prepper burn out.

I know I experienced this and I know a large chunk of preppers did as well. Heck, some preppers never got burnt out and are still sitting on a couple pallets of MREs, are spending tens of thousands of dollars on credit cards every year buying the newest prepper gear, buying into every hair-brained SHTF scenario Alex Jones tells them is around the corner and are scratching their head wondering why the end of the world won’t just hurry up and get here already so they can be proven right to all their friends and family who now, for some reason, don’t come around much anymore.

To anyone out there that’s going through this “wake up” moment right now… Calm down and take a deep breath. You can’t plan for disaster or respond in an emergency situation in that way. You need to be calm and you need to have a plan.

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