One difference between being an effective prepper and some guy/gal who understand the need to prep is simple.
Effective preppers concentrate on how get needs they identify filled.
A second difference between being an effective prepper and everybody else is that once a need is fulfilled, we need to move on to the next need.
While this sounds extremely obvious, in real life it turns out that many, many times people concentrate only on figuring out and identifying needs, and spend virtually no thought, effort, time or resources in finding ways to fulfill those needs.
Here’s a simple example, a need that most of us who live north of Florida have a mechanism to solve… ice frozen on the windshield of your vehicle.
The need we have is ice removal
Spice vs. Ice
The ice removal mechanism we have is Spice, some gloves and a scraper.
Spice wrote a post recently entitled “Needs Are Not Mechanisms”
In that post she listed three things to keep in mind:
1.Figure out what the needs are.
2.Figure out what preps you need for those situations.
3.Get on it and make it happen.
Good advice, and we would all be better off if we followed it.
Herein, however, also lies a problem. Once that need is fulfilled with a mechanism, we need to move on.
Moving on is hard, and it often takes concision effort.
I wrote an article a while back about one of my major prepping no-no’s, concentrating far too much on firearms at the expense of everything else:
My Prepping No-No: I’ve Made The Same Mistake Over & Over, Don’t You Make It Too!
I’ve been reading a lot of prepper news and seeing reactions, and I keep coming back to these basic points… that, as a community, we NEED to find better/effective mechanisms instead of worrying about finding more needs.
I propose the following answer: For every need you identify, have your first reaction be “OK, what mechanisms do I have to deal with that?”
You will probably find that if you have done a good job of general prepping, you already have those tools/supplies/knowledge in place, so you can just set it aside and move on.
If you don’t, then you need to add acquiring the necessary knowledge/tools/equipment/supplies to deal with it if it’s a reasonable need.
We talk about this a lot here on 3BY, because mechanisms is what we are all about. It’s our “thing”.
What we hope is that we can help you make it your “thing” too.
