In order to better understand who is responsible for your life and why, let’s start by examining what is most essential to your life. All of the things we will discuss are essential during any time of your life, but they are especially true during a time of crisis.
Mindset
The number one most important thing to develop in life is positive and productive mindset. People are remarkable creatures. One of the elements of being human, that sets us apart from the animals, is our ability to follow a vision. People can see beyond their immediate physical surroundings into a world of potential and creativity. It is this vision of hope for a future that has inspired us to overcome immense challenges and setbacks in life, to prosper despite all odds, and to develop innovative solutions to everything from curing disease to putting our flag on the moon.
Wherever your mindset leads you, you will follow. If you stumble through life with a mindset of doom and failure, and the vision you hold for your life is one of a helpless victim, odds are that every challenge you face in life is going to knock you down, and you will never reach your full potential.
If your vision for your life is one of triumph over adversity, of courage in the face of fear, and that a creative solution exists to every challenge, odds are that even despite all of the challenges and hardship you will experience, your life will have been one worth living, and possibly even an inspiration for generations to come. The biggest asset you can have in life is a positive mindset.
Knowledge
After a healthy mindset, the next most important element of your security and prosperity is knowledge. Holding a vision for a positive future is what gives you a goal to pursue. But hope alone is insufficient to curing disease or putting a man on the moon. You have to understand the laws of nature well enough to manipulate them to your advantage.
Irregardless of what you set out to accomplish, or what challenges you face, possessing knowledge enables you to do more with less. Knowledge, unlike tools or gear is aways with you. There is a limit to how much stuff you can carry but there is no limit to the amount of knowledge you can have at your disposal.
The best way to be prepared for an uncertain future is to understand how the world works and to understand human nature. For example, understanding the basics of mechanical physics enables you to use the resources around you to create mechanics advantage. This is much more valuable than trying to collect a tool for every scenario and hoping its nearby when you need it. The value of knowledge is second only to possessing a positive mindset.
Body
A heathy body is not only more resistant to disease, viruses, and illnesses, but also recovers faster. It is less prone to mechanical injuries. When pushed to the limits a healthy body will carry you farther and get you there faster. When the chips are down and your survival comes to the natural response of flight or fight, the advantages of a healthy body will be immediately apparent.
A critical aspect of anyone’s preparedness or self reliance plan should include doing everything you can to maintain a healthy body. Good nutrition and exercise helps you sleep better, think clearer and react faster. Your mind and body are the most valuable physical possessions you have.
Training
Having a mind and body that is capable is necessary, but not enough. Skills go beyond just knowledge and physical ability. Skillsets must be engrained. Watching a video of someone else cleaning a fish or starting a fire in the rain to understand how to do these things is a great start. Unfortunately, many things in life are at first harder than they appear. Waiting until having the ability to start a fire in the rain is a life and death situation is a bad place to begin your learning curve. It is better to practice these things ahead of time, so that when you inevitably fail at many of these activities the first few times, you can laugh it off later.
Some situations call for immediate action and do not afford you time to think. Fortunately, some of these instinct come preprogrammed within us, such as the blink reflex, or the arch reflex of the spine, but others need to be trained into your muscle memory.
The value of training is that you can program auto responses to certain situations. Fighters spend hours constantly training into their muscle memory responses to various attacks. This enables them to respond with unbelievable speed and effectiveness because their training allowed them to not only instantly recognize the from of attack but respond without having to cognitively process the situation and develop a response plan. They built it all in ahead of time. That’s the value of training.
If you fear or perceive the potential for a difficult situation in your future, think through the various scenarios ahead of time to determine what skills you may need. Whether first aide, self defense, wilderness survival, conflict resolution, or whatever skill it may be, train those skills ahead of time so they are ready and waiting for you when you need them. Waiting until a state of panic to try a complex task for the first time is a plan for failure.
Essential Gear
In the natural world in which we live, it is impossible to survive without food, water and shelter. There are some essential supplies and equipment you will need to see yourself through any situation. Beyond food and water what these essential items are depend of course on your particular situation and geographical region.
Essential equipment is placed as the last priority in being prepared, not because it isn’t essential, but because without the proper mindset there is no point, adequate knowledge will greatly reduce the amount of stuff you need, and a heathy body is more valuable than things.
Having all of the gear and supplies to effectively handle any conceivable scenario becomes overwhelming very quickly. However, having a few key supplies and some well thought out gear will have a tremendous effect on your wellbeing in any scenario. At the end of the day you need, food, water, and some protection from the elements.
You are ultimately responsible for your own wellbeing
Whether it’s the right mindset, gaining knowledge, maintaining a healthy body, or developing trained skillsets, nobody can do any of these things for you. You alone possess your mindset, and subsequently your attitude and outlook on life. Irregardless of how well prepared your friends, family or even the government is to protect or care for you, there is nothing anyone can do to save you if you have given up hope. Your mindset is yours and yours alone. It exist independent of any physical situation you may find yourself in.
Knowledge is a wonderful thing to share. Given the vast array of things to know, none of us can know it all, we need to rely on each other. That being said, in order to live a good life, there are things that you need to know, and only your understanding of these things will help you. Training, or the process of transforming knowledge into skillsets, can only be accomplished through your own hard work. No amount of other people training a skill or their bodies will improve your ability. Similarly, your health is up to you alone. No amount of someone else’s exercise will make you healthier. No matter how well someone else eats, only your diet will effect your body.
Of course this doesn’t mean that you can’t have help with any of these things, you absolutely can, and should. But understand the difference between having a workout partner and expecting someone else to be able to keep you in shape by doing your workout. One of these thoughts is a pretty good one, the other is delusional.
Because each of the most important elements in your life can only be achieve by you, there is no other alternative but to accept that you are ultimately responsible for you own wellbeing. By all means, get help, find support, and make friends, each of these things will help you, but always remember that the ultimate responsibility for your life belongs to you and only you.