Most people believe prepping is pointless. They don’t believe a major catastrophe will ever happen to them.
Do you know why prepping is pointless? Because most people don’t actually know what they’re doing and they don’t have a steadfast action plan for how they’ll handle it when shit goes wild.
Honestly, they are correct in their thinking. A majority of people will not go through a major catastrophe.
Prepping is pointless if you are prepping for the wrong reasons and not fully equipped for when you are faced with an SHTF situation. HOWEVER, prepping is NOT pointless if you truly know what you are preparing for and have the skills to survive after a catastrophe strikes.
In this article, we aim to correctly inform you with the necessary knowledge so that you are not a pointless prepper.
Why Prepping is Pointless
Several misunderstandings make prepping pointless. Being improperly educated for prepping and survival means you will not have the needed skills to survive long term.
Many websites and TV shows just want to sell you something. They will fill your head with fear of an unlikely scenario so you buy their product. They want you in a consumer mentality, not a survivalist mentality.
If you’re buying “survival gadgets” because a random person on Amazon said “you have to have this product in case you get bit by a zombie” then prepping is pointless.
If you are installing the end of the world bunker because you saw everyone has one on Doomsday Preppers, then prepping is pointless.
You have to remember TV shows are designed to capture the viewer’s attention. They are not designed to give the most accurate survival tips and techniques.
As cool as some of the survival techniques are, they are NOT necessarily the technique you need to survive. However, they do make good television!
Many other websites are great resources for survival and preparedness. If you follow and practice the advice given by them you will be much more likely to survive a major disaster.
Why Prepping Isn’t Pointless
Despite what a lot of people say, prepping for likely emergencies isn’t pointless here’s why-
The American government WILL NOT TAKE CARE OF YOU. A glance through recent history will remind you how inefficient and unreliable the government is during a disaster.
It might not even be that the government doesn’t want to help but it has a limited amount of resources available.
We only have to go back as far as the toilet paper shortage of the pandemic to see a glimpse of prepping not being pointless.
The people who were prepared for a common disaster were more prepared for a very uncommon worldwide shutdown and near economic collapse.
After the pandemic, I believe people see a need for prepping, however basic that might be. The world shut down for several months helped some of the more skeptical people to realize our modern way of life is fragile.
That also regularly happens after natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, and earthquakes.
We can look back at Hurricane Katrina and the craziness that took place in New Orleans to see the necessity of prepping for a natural disaster.
Steps must be taken to ensure the survival of oneself and loved ones.
Mistakes also must be avoided to keep yourself and others alive for an extended time.
Top 10 Prepper Mistakes You Have to Avoid
1. Not Knowing How to Adapt.
Knowing how to adapt is probably the most important survival skill you will learn. Adapting to changing weather, changing resources, and other people can be the difference between life or death.
Having the ability to adapt is why humans can live anywhere in the world. We will continue to do so as long as we are willing to adapt to a changing environment.
2. Not Knowing How to Use Your Tools.
Just because you buy and stockpile cool survival tools doesn’t mean you know how to use them properly. While most survival tools are basic and straightforward, learning how to properly use them before an emergency happens is ideal.
You don’t want to be learning how to use a tool during a disaster. Even trying to use the most basic tool, like a survival shovel, with adrenaline coursing through your veins is a disadvantage. You will need every advantage you can get to survive.
For more advanced “tools’ like a first aid kit you have to have the skills to use it finely tuned to avoid serious injury or death.
3. Prepping for Unlikely Disasters.
While prepping for the end of the world by nuclear war or an emp can have a benefit, it is WAY more beneficial to prepare for common SHTF scenarios. Doomsday prepping does cause you to be prepared for a food shortage at the grocery store.
Prepping for more common things like natural disasters will bring a greater sense of confidence when they strike. And they will strike.
Living in Tornado Alley all my life I witnessed firsthand just how devastating a natural disaster can be. I have also witnessed how having an emergency preparedness plan for tornadoes, a likely disaster around here has saved many lives.
4. Not Storing Your Water Properly.
We cannot live without water. Improper water storage quickly becomes a deadly mistake. Running out of water because you didn’t know how to properly stockpile water means all of your efforts are wasted.
Don’t make that mistake. Learn how to store your water. Having water filters on hand is wise in the horrible circumstance your water supply goes bad.
5. Improper Food Storage.
You are storing food for your family members and yourself. If you’re not storing food in a way that prevents rodents from getting it, you’re making a big mistake.
Storing your food supply in such a way that it maximizes the shelf-life of the food and keeps it safe from unwanted intruders is critical. This means keeping food in a cool dry place out of the reach of rodents and located where a looter might not think to look.
6. Not having a SHTF preparedness plan.
What good is having all the preps in the world but no plan on when or how to use them? Even a simple plan is better than no plan. The more detailed plan you can put together the better.
List each possible scenario and the steps you and your loved ones will take if it were to happen.
7. Not practicing your SHTF preparedness plan.
Practicing your preparedness plan keeps it fresh in the mind of everyone who has a part to play in it. This will ensure everyone knows their role and where they are supposed to perform that role.
Practice it at least once a year, if not every six months.
Practice like it’s the real deal. Grab your INCH bag and practice with the gear you have inside. You can make it fun if you have younger children or adults by practicing while camping or hiking.
8. Storing all your supplies in one location
Keeping all the supplies in a single location is convenient. It’s convenient for looters and it’s convenient for you. It’s not so convenient if that location was to flood or burn. I don’t wish this on anyone but having “all your eggs in one basket” is a bigger risk.
Keeping supplies at your home and your bug-out location means you lessen the risk of losing all of them in half. If you don’t have a bug-out location, try storing them at different locations on your property.
9. Showing off all of your supplies.
We all love to show off our cool new gadgets and toys but do you want everyone on Facebook knowing your bunker has electricity now because you just purchased solar panels?
I am a huge believer in community and helping each other out. I’m not a believer in someone wisely preparing only to have it taken away by the unwise and lazy.
Keep your supplies in an area that few people know about so you are not forced into a difficult situation.
10. Believing you can survive on your own.
As humans, we cannot survive on our own. You might be able to live out the rest of your life on your own but it would be a miserable existence.
“Self-sufficient” is a misleading term because we need others around us to survive, no matter how introverted we believe ourselves to be.
I don’t like depending on someone else for my survival but to some extent that is the case, especially with our modern conveniences.
So while I don’t recommend telling everyone about your prepping lifestyle. I do recommend building a community of preppers around you so you all can share your resources and strengths.
Final Thoughts
You might be the crazy one in the tinfoil hat right now but one day your friends and family members will be knocking on your door when a disaster strikes. And you will be thankful that you were the one who dared to have a disaster preparedness plan in place.
You can rest easy knowing prepping isn’t pointless unless you’re doing it wrong. Let’s go and thrive not just survive!