Rookie Prepper Mistakes
Are you making any of these 7 rookie prepper mistakes?
by some estimates there's 3 million
Americans who call themselves Preppers
and Joel Skousen estimates that for
every one of them there's ten more who
are thinking about it you know thinking
that maybe they need to be Preppers if
you're one of those you need to know the
top seven worse rookie prepper mistakes
you
number one issue is obsessing about
doomsday if a nuclear strike is what
you're most concerned about you don't
need to be thinking about moving into a
bunker you need to move away from there
you need to prepare for likely events so
if you're in Texas you need to worry
about tornados if you're on the Gulf you
need to worry about hurricanes if you're
in Southern California you know think
about earthquakes and wherever you live
you need to thing about ice storms power
outages you know cuts in the water
supply that kind of thing happens all
the time every year two thousands tens
of thousands of people that's the kind
of thing you need to prepare for not
doomsday in a sense you're just
preparing for life take a realistic
assessment of the risks where you live
and get ready for that mistake number
two relying on gadgets instead of skills
you know I love gadgets I love you know
things that you know doesn't a new tool
that does something cool and your way to
start a fire a new way to cook over a
fire a new camp stove whatever there's
all kinds of new gadgets out there but
what people really need to do is gain
knowledge and develop skills I'll do all
the product reviews and you don't have
to okay I buy that stuff I do the
reviews and then you don't have to you
can just watch my reviews and decide
which of these gadgets you want to get
but don't spend a lot of money on
gadgets spend money on a few things that
are really going to be useful to you but
the main thing you want to do is focus
on knowledge and skills mistake number
three obsessing about bugging out I get
it there is something very much alluring
about the idea of get a backpack and a
knife and hitting the road and
conquering nature and getting to your
bug out location unscathed that is cool
okay but realistically you can't walk
across the state you're not in shape to
do it or you might be but somebody in
your family someone you're responsible
for is not going to be able to do that
what you really need to do is
pair to hunker down you need to have a
bug in plan if there were some major
catastrophe in the city that you live in
or in the suburbs around where you live
you're not going to be able to leave
anyway you'd have to leave on foot and
you can't practically do that it's more
dangerous to hit the road in a situation
like that than it is just to hunker down
and stay where you are at least for a
couple of weeks until some of the
traffic clears and you know the panic
has gone or if they subdued a little bit
so you really need a plan that has you
hunkering down where you are and not
obsess about bugging out mistake number
four not having an evacuation plan okay
you need both you need to be prepared to
hunker down no question about it but you
might have to leave and you don't want
to be making plans to leave the day you
have to leave you can't be thinking
about that under stress figuring out
where you're going to go and how to get
there cannot be taken lightly and should
not be planned on the day you have to do
it you need to plan that ahead of time
rookie prepper mistake number five
putting all your eggs in one basket
we just illustrated that in the idea of
you know you want to be prepared to bug
out but you want to be prepared to stay
home too you want to be prepared to stay
home but you need an evacuation plan -
okay
well apply that to everything don't hide
all of your food stock in one place
don't put all of your bullets in one
place don't have just one route to your
safe retreat or bug out location you
need alternate routes you need to learn
contingency planning mistake number six
not having a support and communications
network that usually stems from an
obsession with OPSEC OPSEC is
operational security now don't get me
wrong operational security is important
it's a necessary part of your plan you
need to be wise about who you share
information with who knows you know
where your stuff is but don't get
obsessed about it because you have to
have some
or our grandparents had a support and
communications network and they called
it neighbors nobody knows their
neighbors anymore because we're too busy
watching TV staying in the
air-conditioning and playing the
PlayStation ok you need to turn those
things off and go outside and meet those
people that live across the street from
you because they are potentially your
most valuable resource in the event of
an emergency some sort of catastrophe ok
no man is an island I can't do this on
my own and I wouldn't want to there is
so much to be gained from developing
tight relationships with friends family
neighbors you need to get out there and
do that build that communications and
support network it's going to be an
essential part of rebuilding community
after a disaster rookie mistake number
seven failure to practice once you build
a car and sell it without test driving
no you would not would you make a soup
and serve it to your guests without
tasting it no what is a fire drill for
the purpose of a fire drill is to make
sure that when there's a fire you know
how to get out because you practiced you
need to actually practice your
evacuation plan you need to get your
backpack on put on your boots and walk
to your bug-out location I've got
several more bonus mistakes at the blog
survival news online comm go check them
out if you know of any others put them
in the comments I'll see you at the blog