YOUR FIRST PREP IS YOU

Photo: Alonso Reyes @alonsoreyes

Your first prep is you.

Resolve any health issues you have. Get your eyes checked, your teeth repaired. Control your eating. Calculate and then track your macros if you need to. Train everyday for functionality, mobility, strength, endurance. Lift weights, run trails, run hills, ruck, hike, HITT, Calisthenics, stretch, labour…move daily. Make your goal to be 1% better everyday. In a year that is a 37% gain.

If you smoke, stop. If you drink, keep it to 2-3 on very special occasions. Drugs are your business. If it keeps you back, it doesn’t help you.

Build a positive images of yourself in your mind and focus on bringing that person to reality. If you see yourself as a jacked, hard bodied bad ass who can run with 30lbs for 5km before needing a sip of water, then become that person. Remember, 1% + per day. Become the person you want to be. It takes will power, hard work, and effort everyday. No way around it.

Train your mind. Build in resiliency training. Do hard things, push through and overcome. Release the dopamine - the drug that your body makes and then rewards with. Put yourself in challenging situations. Test your limits, define them and then advance them.

Develop your memory. Have a look at Moonwalking with Einstein by author Joshua Foer. Learn and then practice the ability to remember a vast amount of things, numbers, places, details.

Learn to read people. Body language and what it reveals. Learn human hacking (Christopher Hadnagy) Learn about behavior analysis. How to use this for offence and defence. Know when you are being manipulated, or what your body language is saying about you. The general masses of people today know nothing about this. The ability to apply this knowledge would be invaluable to a survivor.

Build your skill knowledge. Learn useful things; be curious about your world. Pick up skills, experience. Learn the edible plants around you. Grow your own food. Go tracking, hunting, fishing, stalking. Learn new languages. Learn about weather, land navigation, marine navigation, celestial navigation. Learn trade skills. Gunsmithing, advance medic care, herbalism, butchery, blacksmithing, mechanics….Keep your mind continuously engaged and supple. Be open to new ideas, seek them out. Never stop learning.

Train to fight with just your body. Invest in learning from a professional in either Jujitsu or Israeli Krav Maga. My preference is for Krav Maga. Good to know both. But do this. It will be a massive transformation of your character. Krav Maga literally means “To Walk Without Fear.” Most people know nothing when it comes to unarmed combat. A massive advantage for those of us who do.

Practice handling knives. Build these skills now. Knives for cooking, knives for butchery, hunting, fishing. Knives for combat, defence and offence. Find the knives that are right for you. Practice with them. Learn how to care for your knives.

Learn to shoot, how to handle firearms, how to clean and maintain them. Become a crack shot, a marksman/ women. Build the muscle memory of shooting. Pistol, rifle, shotgun. Learn them all, practice them all. Practice rifle at distance, pistol in close quarter, and shotgun as defensive and clearing. You can practice all three when hunting…depending on your local laws, which you should know. Consider bow and crossbow as additional good to know options.

Should you find yourself as a member of a family or group that plans for any future together, ensure other members follow the directions above as well.

Northern Survivalist