You don’t have to be any kind of genius to be a successful prepper. But certain skills are likely to make your quest run more smoothly – and the more of them you can master, the better off you are likely to be.
It’s what you know and can do – not what you have
In another blog, we made the point that skills are going to win out over kit every time. You might have invested in the fanciest and most sophisticated gear that money can buy but unless you have the skills, talents, and knowledge about how to use it – and to improvise in the absence of some bits and pieces – you are unlikely to pass muster as a fully qualified prepper.
No one, of course, is going to have every last skill and talent it’s possible to learn – but some are likely to prove more useful and even life-saving when you are up against it in an emergency situation.
So, let’s take a closer look at some of those skills you might aim to master:
Physical skills
- do you consider yourself fit? Are you in good physical shape?
- provided you are moving around pretty much as you want to, carrying a reasonable weight, and performing basic physical tasks pretty much as well as you’ve always done, you might not give your physical fitness and skills much thought;
- we recently talked about your physical fitness for prepping – and reviewing that advice might put you in the right frame of mind;
- but perhaps you should pay closer attention to the efficiency with which your body continues to perform and develop all-round physical skill;
- it’s not just whether you get yourself physically about but the technique you use to do so;
- neither is it being able to complete a high volume of exercises but to perform them to a high standard of grace and movement – and all this across a wide variety of different fields of action in all sorts of weather; and
- you might want to try developing your complete range of physical skills – that will help you negotiate any terrain in any weather – including testing your sense of balance, running, jumping, climbing, crawling, throwing, and catching, lifting, and carrying.
Survival skills and knowledge
Physical fitness – knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your own body – is important to the process of prepping, but it is not the whole answer.
You’ve trained your body to perform at its best and you’ve invested in all the kit, equipment, stores, and supplies that any good prepper will set aside. So, what more is lacking?
In fact, there is a whole catalogue of survival skills and knowledge that might make all the difference between success and failure. Skills and knowledge that, once again, we would argue beats any amount of expensive kit hands down.
The kind of survival and bushcraft courses we mentioned in a recent blog might be one way of learning the skills you need – but many may be learned from your own trial, error and repeated practice. Here, then, are just some of those basics:
Fire starting
- there are many circumstances in which a fire might prove essential to your survival – or, at the very least, passable comfort;
- a fire will keep you warm, is the source of heat for all your cooking needs, and – depending on where in the wilds you might be – can help to ward off predatory animals;
- even if the matches, or the flint and striker, have somehow gone missing from your bugout bag a fire can be started from entirely natural materials – though the job is going to be much tougher in damp or wet conditions;
- practice starting a fire, therefore, and discover the tricks to getting this potentially life-saving essential to burst into flame;
Drinking water
- potentially even more critical than starting a fire may be your ability to turn a doubtful or suspiciously tainted source of water into clean drinking water;
- whether it’s by boiling or filtration through some clothing you’ve been wearing, or through the charcoal from your fire, some sand and small stones, a posting on the Mossy Oak website on the 25th of August 2020 describes some of the principal methods;
Food
- you’ve laid down your stores of – mainly non-perishable – food, of course, but you might not be able to access your stores or they’re about to run out;
- then, you’ll need to know what you can and cannot eat of the plants and wildlife around you – familiarise yourself with what’s likely to be available and how to prepare and cook it before you are in any emergency situation;
Shelter
- there is all manner of different shelters you can build in the wild – and different designs and materials may be more suitable to one location and specific circumstances than another;
- building your shelter is not something you will want to learn as the sun is going down on your first day in survival mode – so practice building one now;
First Aid
- First Aid can be life-saving aid – and the only kind of help that you might be able to find when an emergency or crisis kicks off;
- First Aid skills are always a valuable asset – use and practice them whether or not your full-scale prepping skills have been called into action because of an emergency or disaster.
We’ve said it before – and it’s worth saying it again – no amount of expensive or sophisticated gear or equipment is going to save your life – or that of your loved ones – unless you have mastered certain basic skills essential to surviving in any emergency or crisis. Skills beat kit hands down.
So, decide which of your skills are undeveloped or rusty, learn them anew, practice them, and build a renewed confidence in using what you know and how to use it when and if you are overtaken by an emergency or disaster.
