When it comes to my personal level of preparedness or my family’s level of readiness and resilience, you need to listen and hear me clearly when I say …. I am not competing with you.

So very often in the world of preparedness, in forums across the spectrum and in every specific area of interest, one of the realities is that those that are seeking to learn more about how to best prepare their families quickly become overwhelmed at the prospect of it all.  This is very common and virtually all of us have been there at one point or another.  This is because tackling the idea of personal preparedness is, indeed, quite a task.  I’m not re-inventing the wheel by pointing this out.  However, I point that out to focus on a more insidious and disheartening obstacle that makes everyone’s journey towards better preparedness more difficult, especially those new to the subject matter.  This obstacle presents itself in a myriad of forms, from the overbearing and extreme doomsday prepper that makes you question your sanity, to the know it all prepper that offers nothing more than a voice telling you that you’re doing it wrong, to the “look at all my stuff” prepper that takes a not-always-so-quiet glee in showing off their preparedness “stuff” and telling you all about how far behind the curve you are type prepper, to the zero sum prepper that let’s you know in no uncertain terms that it’s you or them.  There are others too.  Some are obnoxious, some are dangerous, and some are ridiculous, but ALL are counterproductive to the greater goal of advancing the idea of preparedness.

The “on the ground” reality of my level of preparedness, however great or small, doesn’t diminish or increase your level of preparedness in any way.  Rather, I hope any effort I choose to make to open a window into our journey that exposes all of our successes, as well as my failures, will help you as you travel your preparedness road.  No one can tell you the best way to prepare you and your loved ones for an uncertain future better than you.  My situation and circumstance is not your situation or circumstance.  My weaknesses are not your weaknesses.  My resources are not your resources.  How then can I expect to be able to tell you how to achieve your preparedness goals, and furthermore, why should you listen?  Now, by all means, take a look around, listen and learn from anyone you think has something of value say, show or share.  Take what works and leave the rest behind.  Just remember, at the end of the day, it comes down to what you want to accomplish and how best you can make that a reality.

What you’re doing and how you’re doing it should be absolutely comfortable for you.  Forget peer pressure.  It’s easy to get caught up in this trap, especially once you’ve got the basics covered.  Again, this is a common misstep, even among those of us that have given this topic a great deal of consideration.  Remember, no one will have to walk a mile in your shoes except for you, so make sure they wear well.

As you look around the landscape of the personal preparedness universe, you will undoubtedly find people with perspectives that you value and appreciate.  I hope you will seek to build beneficial relationships, maybe even from some of the people behind those voices and perspectives, and hopefully you can and develop a community of your people from those relationships.  You can think of this as your tribe.  You can’t, and shouldn’t, do this preparedness thing alone.  It will wear you down.  Building relationships and aligning yourself with folks that share the same moral and ethical perspectives as you, the same character type as you, and even the same general world view as you, will prove to be a tremendous resource in the long run.  Especially if they just happen to have a skill set that you may be lacking.  The cold, hard truth is you have to sleep some time, you can’t be everywhere at once, and certainly none of us know everything there is to know.  A strong community is a tremendous asset at any time, but especially during a time of crisis.  Start building yours today.

Finally, please remember to enjoy the journey!  You’re doing all of this work, research, and training to be ready when the occasion demands it of you.  It can become quite the anxiety triggering grind.  I would like to encourage you to look at the other side of the coin and remember that you are providing yourself with entertainment, social activity, physical activity, continued education, and perspective, just to name a few benefits.  And please don’t forget why you’re doing all of this in the first place.  Doesn’t that make everything you do worth it?  Never forget, you can handle this.

I am not competing with you, but I sure am pulling for you.

If you want to better understand my thoughts on personal preparedness, please check out my books ( http://www.practicaltactical4you.com/shop/ ) or wander deeper into this blog.  I hope this website ( www.practicaltactical4you.com ) will help you along your way, especially if you’re just getting started.  Keep up with everything Practical Tactical by subscribing to our mailing list at our website and be sure to LIKE, SHARE and FOLLOW us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/practac4u/ and FOLLOW us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/PracTac4U ( @PracTac4U ) as well.

Randall S. Powers is a graduate of the Grady College of Journalism and the University of Georgia. A journalist with a career spanning over 20 years across all forms of media, including radio, print, digital and television. Since 1998, Randall has worked with an international broadcast media outlet with credits as a media manager, editor, producer, speaker and lead trainer and has been a contributor on three projects that were awarded the prestigious Peabody Award in 2005, 2008 and 2010.

Using the skills gained during his career as a journalist, Randall has also widened his focus to include disaster preparedness, becoming an entrepreneur as the founder and Chief Managing Partner of Practical Tactical. From this new platform, Randall works as a personal preparedness consultant, strategist, public speaker, and author.  

Additionally, when he’s not busy working around his north Georgia homestead, Randall is the producer and host of Practical Prepping. Period. on the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network, focusing on a “whole-istic” approach to personal preparedness that strives to help listeners better understand what’s going on in their world and why it matters to them.