Survival Skills - The One Skill You'll Need

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What is the very least amount of money you could live on? I am not talking about house payments and car payments, credit cards or shopping cards. Take a look at your life and evaluate it what is not necessary vs. what is absolutely necessary. Then apply a monetary value for what you could get by on if you had to strip down your life. For me, the magic number is $600 a month. I have walked away from everything before, in fact, quite a few times, lived with the absolute basics and did it the last time on $475 a month. That was 6 years ago, and due to inflation, it means increasing that a bit. I did not have any form of welfare, I worked, and by no means did we have much in the way of extras, but it taught me so much.

• I learned to really manage money.

• I learned what a true necessity was and what a want was.

• I learned that I really did not need to depend on any other person.

By no means am I advocating that you need to walk away from your life and start over. It is very hard to do. I am asking, however, as a means of survival, could you?

Let’s say you were dropped off in a remote area with very basic supplies – matches, beans, knife, and were wearing clothing and boots to withstand the terrain. (Matches for fire – I am no girl scout. Beans are hearty and can be stored dry, light in weight, and reconstitute easily. Knife – if I could have only one weapon, I would choose a good knife over a gun any day.) Would you be afraid, panic and whither or embrace your circumstance and find a way?

Do you possess the necessary will to do what you’ve only seen done and at any cost survive?

If the next couple of years would depend on how you react to stress, fear, and your ability to cope, how exactly would you measure up?

I have the ability to meet with and speak to people every single day. In fact, for someone like me who loves to talk, I will actually shut down and not answer a phone just to have a break. People will call, invite me to their homes, or come to my home to ask my opinion on America’s political standing and where I believe things will be in one – five years. Lately, I have found myself having conversations with them on two topics: God and survival.

No matter whom you are or what you believe, man has to believe in right or wrong, morality v. immorality and good v. evil. To know what is good you have to face evil. For me, it means believing in something much larger than myself – God. I know that everything within me, my absolute power to survive is all due to Him as I have survived so much before now and that gives me the ability to face whatever could come. I ask no one to share my belief – not even my daughter. It’s a personal path one must find on their own, when they are broken and can only look up from the bottom of where they are and where they’ve been and evaluate what is inside of them. If you have no moral compass then you will believe anyone as a lie is easy to tell and even has a formula: 2 parts truth and 1 part lie.

Survival – a basic instinct we all contain. It ranks right up there with the need for individual achievement and free will. So I ask these people – some friends and some not – where are you with your survival and coping skills? What have you read or done to make sure you can live on $600 a month if you had to or drive to a remote place and live off the land if it were necessary? Where would you go if they come to take your guns and you don’t want to give them up? What would you do if they told you to give up who you are inside to live?

For me, I couldn’t give up who I am. My life until I was 28 years old was all about some cookie cutter mold. I tried to make everyone happy – everyone but me. If I didn’t obey their rules, I was considered rebellious or the bad seed. Why couldn’t I be more complacent? In fact, there was nothing wrong or rebellious with me – I just didn’t fit into their mold or what they wanted for me.

A couple years ago, I asked my sister what turning 40 was like. She told me it was liberating – that you stop caring what people think. Then, almost snidely, she said, “oh, you stopped caring about that a long time ago.” She was right… I learned to value myself and my opinion above what others could ever think or say about me. I learned to appreciate who I was as an individual in spite of anyone else’s opinion.

• Have you found that place within yourself – to be secure with who and what you are? You will need that skill of survival.

• I can’t tell you what this year will bring. I cannot tell the future.

• I do know that self-reliance is what made America great and that welfare has slowly destroyed it.

• I can tell you that the political administration leaving office had no value for America and would rather see the country destroyed than to protect it.

• I do know that many people have come to this country with a lot less than $600 a month and survived.

• I do know if it came down to kill or be killed, I could kill.

• I do know that if I had to get in my truck right now with my sons I could walk away, I know where I would go, and I know how I would survive.