There are many reasons to prepare. We’ll cover the top points and why you need to be prepping.
BY SEAN GOLD, UPDATED:
July 1, 2024
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Preparing is a basic human function. We prepare for a visit to the grocery store by making a list. Eggs, check. Bread, check. Milk, check. You can even prepare mentally without physically doing anything.
“Prepping” is an extension of these normal preparations everyone already does. That term can be considered extreme due to misconceptions. Those that use prepping to get ready for disasters or emergencies are “Preppers.”
At TruePrepper, we would like to clear the air. Prepping is not about daydreaming about doomsday scenarios, it is about being ready for probable and plausible threats. Prepping is about keeping yourself and your loved ones safe from harm and staying in control during unavoidable situations.
Reactions to terrorist attacks and natural disasters highlight the importance of prepping for the well-being of your family. When people understand that post-apocalyptic doomsday preppers are not the norm and that most preppers are prepared for a wide range of disasters, prepping starts to make sense for everyone.
Here are a few questions you can ask yourself:
Maybe you don’t know the answers to all of these, but maybe you do.
The point of this quick exercise is that these are basic risks, but aren’t even the most common!
Statistically speaking everyone is extremely likely to encounter multiple emergencies and disasters in their lifetime.
We’re big number crunchers at TruePrepper and have put together an entire Threat List to cover broad, regional, and personal threats with a risk analysis supported by EM, FBI, NOAA, FEMA, CDC, and DoD data.
The list isn’t meant to overwhelm but to inform you- not every risk may apply if you live in a low-probability area or have already prepared for the threat.
Common sense personal risks are so prevalent that we hope you have already considered them. This includes the possibility of a serious car wreck, developing a debilitating health issue, losing your job, or having financial hardship- just to name a few.
Unknown threats are threats not conceivable, or we have such little information on them we cannot judge the risk accurately. Don’t ignore your or your family member’s limitations, if you have them. You may have risks associated with disabilities or other personal factors that may also not have made our list.
Authoritative agencies consistently stress the need for individuals and families to be prepared, which in the US includes:
If you aren’t from America, then you likely have these agencies telling you to button up your preparedness:
If you are a rule follower, then this should be plenty of reason- but these agencies aren’t concerned about you specifically. They factor in individual preparedness using population and sample data collected from surveys. We’ve dived into these survey results and they assume that many people will be prepared and adjust government response accordingly.
Response activities focus on underserved communities and those with fewer resources, assuming those with the means to prepare… have done so.
If you aren’t a rule follower or lean anti-government, then you would want to be self-reliant anyway. I haven’t met too many people who heavily criticize the government in one moment and then expect disaster assistance in the next.
Mostly, government skeptics who aren’t prepared haven’t considered what they’ll do during serious emergencies, or have misguided plans. Countless times I’ve heard ‘lone wolves’ say they would ‘take supplies by force’ in whatever Hollywood scenario they have in their mind. That isn’t a viable preparedness plan, and rolling the dice on confrontations every time they need a meal will have them run out of luck quicker than they think.
The word ‘prepping’ brings to mind a small, niche group of people (largely, a result of the decade-old TV show, Doomsday Preppers).
But, getting back to the data- anonymous household surveys show some interesting statistics and preparedness and preppers.
Your neighbors are preppers. Your coworkers are preppers. But beyond that- most people have already or want to be prepared for disasters and emergencies.
If you haven’t prepared or thought about it- you’re in the extreme minority.
You can see more in our latest prepper demographics and statistics update, but the nomenclature of preppers and prepping continues to evolve to be more mainstream and widespread.
Many people set goals and plan for the future. This may include financial goals, retirement plans, professional goals, personal improvements, or even fitness goals. Preparedness fits those goals and is highlighted by most planning tools professional planners and strategists use.
Just look at the common business SWOT analysis that asks you to highlight strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Half of the diagram focuses on potential pitfalls and how you might address or mitigate them, whether they are internal or external.
Preparedness and planning go hand-in-hand, and any type of plan can be better served with a moment spent on ‘what could go wrong, and how could I address it?’
History is ripe with examples of how preparedness helped (or lack of preparedness hurt) entire civilizations and societies.
Most recently, we’ve seen countries with robust emergency preparedness (South Korea, New Zealand) manage a global pandemic with much lower mortality rates while having stadiums and other crowded public spaces open much sooner than the US.
Hurricane Katrina (2005) is still used as an example of poor preparedness around the world all these years later.
Debacles tend to live in infamy forever, including:
Militaries have focused on preparedness for millennia. Although it references combat preparedness instead of disaster prepping- it is still preparedness in a sense. Sun Tzu wrote, “He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.” in The Art of War.
Many historical writers and poets have written about preparedness’ relation to survival, including Aesop’s popular fable: The Ants & the Grasshopper, written around 600 BC.
People approach prepping in many different ways. You have the ones prepared to ride out an apocalyptic event in a bunker (which is a surprisingly large number of billionaires and celebrities). Then you have the ones with a few extra cans in their pantry to buy them an extra week during a hurricane.
Often, the debate comes down to a choice: whether to prepare for mere possibilities when time and resources could be spent on living and enjoying life itself.
The fallacy is assuming that it has to be a choice- there is nothing preventing you from being both prepared for likely issues and enjoying a full life. Prepping doesn’t have to be consuming at the expense of other interests. Some people tackle their preparedness in mere hours and move on to other things, revisiting it once a year or as needed during emergencies.
The second downfall of the argument focuses on the ‘possibility’ of hardship in your life. It is not just ‘possible’- it is probable, supported by historical data, probabilities, and the hard fact that things don’t last. Overlooking events that are probable when compounded is choosing ignorance now with a potentially disastrous future cost to yourself.
“Prepping your way” is a bit of a mantra around here, and it highlights how you have the power to make prepping mean what you think it should be. Because your own preparedness is completely under your control, and you decide whether it is pointless.
At this point in this guide, we’ve covered the risks and reasons to prepare so the choice of what you do is yours and yours alone.
Getting started prepping can be the hardest part, but we can help you prioritize and give you a roadmap forward. This next guide can declutter the way and help prevent information overload.
Action with most of the information is always better than inaction waiting on perfect understanding.
Learn all of the basics here and get started on your prepping journey:
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