I think we all know it is important to be prepared for emergencies. However, I'd bet that not many of us are emergency prepared right now.
The great obstacle I faced in becoming emergency prepared was feeling overwhelmed.
I knew I should be prepared, but I wasn't sure what that entailed. And when I tried to figure out what I should do to become prepared I would get overwhelmed.
This past year was different for me. I have made lots of progress in my preparedness. Here is my tip to anyone who gets bogged down and overwhelmed at the thought of becoming emergency prepared:
Slow and steady wins the race!
(Little by little. Don't bite off more than you can chew. "Just keep swimming". One step at a time.)
I become prepared faster if I take it slow. I make a big long list of everything I think I need, but then just choose one or two to work on. That way I'm not overloaded and overwhelmed. Then pretty soon I'm done with those two things. That gives me a sense of accomplishment. And I notice that it wasn't all that difficult. Then I choose another one or two things. And that process continues.
Over the past year I have been taking small steps to become emergency prepared. I'm listing steps I have taken so you can see 1) that each step is pretty small and 2) that those small steps actually add up.
1. Attended a preparedness fair where I learned a lot of good information to get me started and received some free gifts to help.
2. Put together a small first aid kit for the car. It fits easily in the glove compartment. The case is clear so I can see what is in there. I actually use it all the time.
Because it is small it does not have everything, but is has the basics that I need fairly regularly like band-aids.
Don't worry if something is not 100% ready for everything. Start with the basics first.
If you don't have a case, use a plastic ziplock bag. It doesn't have to be fancy.
3. Put two baby blankets in the car. (I have two kids. This way if we get stuck somewhere late and its cold I can at least keep the kids warm.)
4. Created the habit of cleaning out the car every time I get home. (This keeps the car ready to go. Clear of junk so it will fit the whole family and anything we need to quickly throw in there to take with us. This would help in an emergency, but it helps us all the time with day to day life as well.)
(I would like to add that I created the habit of filling the car with gas every time it reached the half way mark, but right now it's almost on empty. I guess I can't claim that habit yet. Perhaps that will be the next thing to work on.)
5. Built up a food storage. I was going to do this by buying a few extra cans each grocery trip to set aside, but then I had a friend move out of country who had a year worth of food storage she needed to sell. We ended up buying a good portion of her food storage. So, now we have a bunch of bulk food storage in the garage. (I think God helps us out with our goals when we put in our efforts.)
6. I bought some yeast and learned how to bake bread. I have several large buckets of wheat in my food storage, but I didn't know how to bake bread. I figured I should develop some skills so that if I ever had to live off of that wheat we could actually have something good to eat. I have found some pretty good recipes, some pretty simple recipes too. And as I practice I am getting better at tweaking recipes to turn out how I would like or work out even though I'm missing this ingredient or adding that ingredient.
7. I put a stash of coka-cola under my bed. For me, the caffeine acts as a medicine for migraines. If I put it in the cupboards, then my husband will drink it and it won't be there when I need it for a migraine. This has already helped in minor emergencies when I have had a migraine and wasn't well enough to drive to go get "medicine" from the store.
In conclusion, I hope that my steps will help you choose steps you can take to become more emergency prepared. Don't become overwhelmed. Just take one step at a time, and each step will help you. Then take the next step after that.
In the spirit of St. Patrick's Day...
Good Luck!
The great obstacle I faced in becoming emergency prepared was feeling overwhelmed.
I knew I should be prepared, but I wasn't sure what that entailed. And when I tried to figure out what I should do to become prepared I would get overwhelmed.
And so, I would put it off until "later". After all, it's not urgent right now!!
The thing about emergencies is that when they happen it is too late to prepare. So, we do need to prepare before it becomes urgent.
Slow and steady wins the race!
(Little by little. Don't bite off more than you can chew. "Just keep swimming". One step at a time.)
I become prepared faster if I take it slow. I make a big long list of everything I think I need, but then just choose one or two to work on. That way I'm not overloaded and overwhelmed. Then pretty soon I'm done with those two things. That gives me a sense of accomplishment. And I notice that it wasn't all that difficult. Then I choose another one or two things. And that process continues.
Over the past year I have been taking small steps to become emergency prepared. I'm listing steps I have taken so you can see 1) that each step is pretty small and 2) that those small steps actually add up.
1. Attended a preparedness fair where I learned a lot of good information to get me started and received some free gifts to help.
Because it is small it does not have everything, but is has the basics that I need fairly regularly like band-aids.
Don't worry if something is not 100% ready for everything. Start with the basics first.
If you don't have a case, use a plastic ziplock bag. It doesn't have to be fancy.
3. Put two baby blankets in the car. (I have two kids. This way if we get stuck somewhere late and its cold I can at least keep the kids warm.)
4. Created the habit of cleaning out the car every time I get home. (This keeps the car ready to go. Clear of junk so it will fit the whole family and anything we need to quickly throw in there to take with us. This would help in an emergency, but it helps us all the time with day to day life as well.)
(I would like to add that I created the habit of filling the car with gas every time it reached the half way mark, but right now it's almost on empty. I guess I can't claim that habit yet. Perhaps that will be the next thing to work on.)
5. Built up a food storage. I was going to do this by buying a few extra cans each grocery trip to set aside, but then I had a friend move out of country who had a year worth of food storage she needed to sell. We ended up buying a good portion of her food storage. So, now we have a bunch of bulk food storage in the garage. (I think God helps us out with our goals when we put in our efforts.)
6. I bought some yeast and learned how to bake bread. I have several large buckets of wheat in my food storage, but I didn't know how to bake bread. I figured I should develop some skills so that if I ever had to live off of that wheat we could actually have something good to eat. I have found some pretty good recipes, some pretty simple recipes too. And as I practice I am getting better at tweaking recipes to turn out how I would like or work out even though I'm missing this ingredient or adding that ingredient.
7. I put a stash of coka-cola under my bed. For me, the caffeine acts as a medicine for migraines. If I put it in the cupboards, then my husband will drink it and it won't be there when I need it for a migraine. This has already helped in minor emergencies when I have had a migraine and wasn't well enough to drive to go get "medicine" from the store.
In conclusion, I hope that my steps will help you choose steps you can take to become more emergency prepared. Don't become overwhelmed. Just take one step at a time, and each step will help you. Then take the next step after that.
In the spirit of St. Patrick's Day...
Good Luck!
1 comment:
I love this post! Thinking about the title, "Make Your Own Luck", I thought about how sometimes emergencies don't seem so bad or extreme when we are actually prepared for them. And so by being prepared, we kind of do make our own luck.
For example, "my child scraped his knee, but lucky us! I have a band-aid right here in my purse".
Also, thank you for pointing out that even doing small things can be helpful in our day-to-day lives, like your migraine medicine as well as the keeping your car clean examples. It's easy for me to imagine being prepared as just stashing things away for a long time, but really it can help keep order in our everyday lives.
One habit I'd like to form is making sure the dishes are done before going to bed each night. It just seems that in case of an emergency (like an earthquake or water shut off), things would go smoother if the dishes were all clean. Same goes for not waiting too long to take my next shower, because in case of an emergency, I would feel much better having just showered than I would knowing I haven't showered in 3 days. :) And of course waking up to clean dishes in the morning makes our day start better, and keeping myself clean and showered helps me feel better and be more productive during the day.
Post a Comment