Hope For The Best – Prepare For The Worst

Positive Thinking

Most people hope for things to turn out positive in their lives. Not many people wish for tragedy or negative things. Some people seem to attract bad happenings or misfortune. Is it all coincidence or are there underlying mechanisms that can influence outcomes and cause death and destruction, or the positive end of good fortune and long life by using positive thinking?

Let us suppose that there are no mechanisms and everything is coincidence and random happenstance. If that is the case, then any amount of positive thinking will not have any affect on reality outside of your conscious awareness. The good thing about positive thinking or more accurately, having a positive attitude, is that it’s less stressful to you, it is a much better way to interact with people, and your actions become more focused on what needs to be accomplished.

Hope For The Best

Do you know any pessimists (someone that sees the doom and gloom in everything)? Ever have anyone bring you down with their negative vibes? How about over-the-top optimists? Do you know anyone that irrationally attempts to always be happy? There is a big difference between having a frame of mind that is upbeat and positive, where you hope for the best in all things, and having a frame of mind that ignores or hides parts of reality in order not to have to deal with it. When you hope for the best, you at least hope for the possibility of positive outcomes if there is that possibility inherent in the outcome of any particular situation.

Hoping for the best and then taking actions to support the desired outcome is one way to influence reality in your favor. However, there are those situations that we hope will turn out best, but there’s no way to influence the events.

In the long run as a society, we would be much better off to hope for the best for all things and all people – without prejudice.

Hope the best for your self, your family, your friends, and your dreams and goals.

Prepare For The Worst

It is possible to prepare for the worst without being a pessimist. Keep logical about any situation and potential situations and be prepared to move into survival mode instantly.

Have a plan already in place to handle most potential situations, such as surviving in your home or getting out of your residence quickly and safely, and which routes to take if you need to leave your location. Along with your primary emergency plan, have an alternate plan in case things change.

If you prepare for the worst, you will always increase your chances for survival.

Keep aware of your surroundings in emergency situations. Most people will not be prepared, adding to their confusion and panic. If you’re trying to get home to evacuate, or as you’re driving out, be prepared for people stepping out into the street without thinking – especially children. Chaos increases the danger level for everything, so stay calm and prepare for the worst possible situations always.

Practice Drills

Have practice drills with your family or roommates and time yourselves in packing, grabbing emergency kits, food and water, and see how long it takes you to load everything in your vehicles. Can you grab all essential and important things in less than 10 or 20 minutes? Just remember, you might have less time than that to pack and evacuate, so practice drills several times from the start and practice drills every few months to make sure everyone has the skills. Prioritize and pack the most important things first.

Always include pets in your evacuation plans and drills, including securing pet food, water, bowls, and bedding. Keep pet carriers and leashes near your vehicle or in the house and easily accessible to help you load your pets quickly.

Have practice drills for barricading yourself at home or safely exiting the residence in case of a local emergency such as a structure fire, earthquake, or other natural disasters. Always have several escape routes planned. Keep all your exits free of clutter and obstructions.

If you have children, have a plan in place to meet in a particular place if you are separated and you cannot reach them by phone. Some catastrophes may render phone systems and public transportation useless, so talk to your children about alternative plans to ensure survival. By introducing these concepts to your children, they’ll assimilate the knowledge and by having actual practice drills, they’ll get the concepts of survival and emergency action. Practice drills will also help to instill confidence which enables rational thinking and calmness in times of crisis. Consider getting hand-held radio transmitters/receivers (walkie-talkies) with a minimum range of 30+ miles (48+ k) and pack them in your kids’ backpacks. In a major emergency, walkie-talkies maybe the only form of communications available to locate your children.

Emergency Kits

At the very least, you can prepare for natural disasters such as fire and flood, or even medical emergencies. Do you have emergency kits in your vehicles and one or two in your place of residence? Make sure you keep emergency kits in the same place and make sure everyone in the household knows where they are. Always keep emergency kits within easy reach.

First Aid supplies can expire, so make sure you rotate your stock by replacing old medicines with fresh supplies. Things will expire faster in hot situations, such as in trunk of your car. If you can store emergency kits in a foam container, you’ll dramatically increase their shelf-life and save yourself money. Every now and then, check everything including bandages since plastics and adhesives deteriorate eventually.

Include flashlights, batteries, flares, flints, clean wipes, and anything else you can think of in your emergency and survival kits. Hand saws, knives, collapsible shovels, plastic bags, and long-lasting rations should be standard items.

Provisions and Tools

Consider getting duffel bags and/or backpacks at least easily available to pack in an emergency. Keep one or more easy-access bags packed along with essential survival gear, including cold weather jackets, sleeping bags, a tent, several changes of clothes, water, and food to last the time necessary.

If you have room, pack rope, snow chains, a saw, an axe and a collapsible shovel. You never know when you’ll need to clear a road in order to pass through or the need to literally dig in or dig out. Leather utility gloves will help keep your hands from blistering, cuts, and abrasion injuries if you need to do some physical work. Who knows, you might have to build a shelter. Make sure your children have gloves too.

If a catastrophe happens where there is a breakdown in law enforcement and government, then it is best to have weapons for defense of your life and supplies. It’s natural to want to believe that other people will treat you with respect at all times, but even in survival mode the typically nice person can become frantic and willing to use whatever means possible to take whatever they can to survive. Unless you want the whole neighborhood knocking on your shelter door, it’s best to keep your survival methods a secret. Before anything major can happen, prepare your friends and neighbors to be fully prepared. One way you can do that is to pass the link to this article to everyone you know.

Evacuation

Evacuation may be required without warning. You may not have time to get home, or if home, you may not have time to grab important items. These are good reasons to have some emergency items already stored in your vehicles including first-aid kits and survival items such as extra clothing and jackets. Keep camping equipment near your vehicles for easy loading.

If you are forced out of your residence due to circumstances, have a secondary place to go to, such as a relative’s home or a hotel. Be sure to estimate pit stops if you need to evacuate a long distance from your point of departure.

Try to keep over a half a tank of gas in your vehicles at any given point in your normal week. Of course, the ideal situation would be to have a full tank if you ever need to evacuate your area. It’s a major hassle to have to wait in line to get gas and provisions for what ever length of evacuation time the officials dictate. Two weeks worth of water and food is a safe bet, but if you can, stock a 30-day supply of both water and food in your residence. The food products should be such things that can last for a long time in storage. Rotate out items that are nearing expiration.

Keep a checklist handy to ensure that you have everything you need to survive.

Always hope for the best and always prepare for the worst!

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written by: Maxwell Jennings