My Job is to Tell You HOW to Prep – Not WHY

Several months ago, I was a speaker at a local prepper expo. Toward the end of the day, I and a few others were assembled to do a panel discussion. One of the first questions is one that I, as well as just about every other survival/prepper instructor, tired of long ago and it’s all about why you should prepare:

“So, what do you think is going to happen?”

It has been phrased differently, of course, but no matter how you word it, the question is the same – what big disaster do you think is really going to occur and when?

I don’t know about you but my crystal ball hasn’t worked well in many years. I don’t have any top secret information that I’m not sharing with folks. I can’t reliably predict tomorrow’s weather let alone what major events might take place in the immediate future. Personally, I find predictions largely just amusing rather than useful and informative.

I used to know this guy, we’ll call him Jay. He was, and probably still is, heavily into Bible prophecy. Jay and I were both members of a certain online forum. Every year, Jay would predict that “the end is nigh” and that year, I believe in October, the S was going to HTF. He would hammer on this for months and months. Then, come October, nothing happened. He’d quiet down for a month or two, then start right back up about it happening NEXT October. This went on for about eight years or so. Heck, he might still be doing it. I stopped paying attention a while ago. The point here is that no one can reliably predict the future so rather than trying to do so, we should turn our efforts and energy elsewhere.

Here’s the thing:

My job isn’t to convince you WHY you should prep. My role here is to show you HOW to prep. If you’re surfing this website, reading one of my books, or listening to me speak at an expo, you already recognize the need for being better prepared for emergencies. We don’t need to talk about the importance of prepping.

In all actuality, the WHY of prepping is largely irrelevant. As a practical matter, prepping for an EMP strike isn’t much different than prepping for a pandemic…or a zombie uprising…or the New World Order…or any number of other apocalyptic scenarios. It doesn’t matter if the power grid goes down or the dollar collapses, we each still need food, water, shelter, and all the other basic stuff that keeps us on the green side of the grass.

Don’t get me wrong. It can be fun to play “What if?” sometimes. And studying history can help us to recognize when we seem to be making the same mistakes again. My point is to not get too caught up in trying to guess what the future holds. Just prep to the degree it makes you feel safe and comfortable. Think in terms of disaster length rather than disaster make up.

In other words, decide whether you are most concerned about short, medium, or long-term events and work on being able to meet all of you and your family’s basic needs for that length of time.

Work on the HOW and don’t worry about the WHY.

Here’s Survival Mom’s take on preparing for no other reason than you just feel uneasy about the future:

Helpful resources for you

Countdown to Preparedness by Jim Cobb

Make a personalized threat assessment

Prepper’s Long-Term Survival Guide by Jim Cobb

The Prepper’s Complete Book of Disaster Readiness by Jim Cobb

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