5 Basic Survival Skills

from Code Name Insight by Code Name Insight

When it comes to basic survival skills, you might automatically think such skills would include things like firearms handling, bugging out, and the proper use of camouflage paint. Here's five survival skills that anyone can learn that will be a whole lot more useful (and critical) than the aforementioned items:

1. How to make money. Money makes the world go round. There are very, very few people who can live off the land indefinitely and be satisfied with such a life. For the majority of us, living takes money. Knowing how to make money in any circumstance and situation is a very useful skill to know. To learn how to make money, learn a skill or three, sell your skills to someone who wants to pay for them, and continue to refine the process.
2. How to live a low profile life. This includes everything from not earning a bad reputation to living below your means so that you don't have creditors and the IRS hunting for you. You want to avoid lawsuits, legal problems, court issues, vindictive/psychotic exes and anything/anyone else that can thoroughly disrupt your life.
3. How to take care of your health. An ounce of prevention, you know... The better your health, the more easily it is to survive a disaster or even function on an average day. If you are in good health, keep it that way. If your health is declining, take all possible steps to return it to a better state.
4. How to do for yourself. In most survival situations, you are on your own, at least during the initial stages. This means that the more that you can do for yourself, the more likely you are to survive. I know people who are infinitely specialized (neurosurgeons, international business lawyers, derivatives traders) yet they are clueless about basic things like replacing a light fixture, growing a vegetable, or cooking a meal from scratch. Granted these particular skills aren't critical to survival, you can usually pay someone to do these things for you, but the idea is that the more skills you have and the more experiences you have, the more likely you are to be able to fix problems as they arise if there is no one else around to do it (plus in a disaster, who would you find more useful--someone who can cobble together a meal from stuff found in the forest or someone who can trade a now worthless financial instrument?).
5. How to be flexible and creative. Life isn't always linear and it doesn't always turn out how you expect. Rolling with the punches and handling difficulties with creativity instead of stress and frustration will go a long way towards lowering your blood pressure, solving small problems before they explode into something huge, and making others more likely to respect you (and offer a helping hand if needed).

Original: http://codenameinsight.blogspot.com/2009/07/5-basic-survival-skills.html