What is a Prepper? What is Prepping?

Awareness is important in prepping – it allows you to know about solutions – and it affords you choice. Choices in how you prep. Preppers are aware of the potential for difficult things and disasters to happen. This gives context to a prepper – and gives a tangible roadmap. Awareness for preppers is crucial.

Open-mindedness is important for Preppers because things change. Innovation is happening every minute of every day and the risks of not being prepared change every day. Who would have expected a Pandemic? Some Preppers anticipated – but not all of them. And seeing the drastic changes that took place during the pandemic helped to reopen the minds and the planning of many preppers. The best preppers are continuously opening their minds to new ideas and changing landscapes.

The best preppers are constantly on the lookout for ways to optimize their planning. Even if their plans are quite focused and specific – they are looking for intelligence in the things they read about current events. They look to historical practices. They evaluate current best practices. They seek for betterment in their base of understanding and in their skillsets.

Preppers don’t prep so they can rest on their laurels. Sure, it can give peace of mind, and allow for some respite, to know that you are ready to take on many things. But preppers are always trying to find how to streamline, how to improve their plans, how to own the better gear, and how to use it more efficiently – among other things. Preppers can find nuance in their planning, and improve incrementally almost everywhere. Most preppers focus their prep at first and diversify their preps over time, as they learn how to adapt and improve. Once their specific plan for the “most likely event” or for the most realistic outcome, are in place – they start looking for ways to improve beyond that space. Prepping covers a spectrum usually – one that helps the prepper understand their place in this big world.

A prepper is all about continuous improvement. A prepper knows that there are risks everywhere, and being more capable of responding to risk adequately gives them better peace of mind. But preppers are more than jsut gear and concepts – preppers want to see continuance as an option. Whether it be in the aftermath of a natural disaster, or because of a poor economy or job loss – preppers are ready to stay competitive, even when the unknown occurs.

Financial fear is not something to be ashamed of. We live in a world that is ultra competitive, and doesn’t function solely on being good at something, or being willing to succeed. Sometimes – in fact many times, money can be affected through no fault of your own. And it’d be disingenuine to state that preppers are all well-off, or that all preppers have less to worry about regarding money. Furthermore, money does not a prepper make. What IS IMPORTANT when it comes to money and prepping, is understanding how to utilizing funding, be responsible with finances, and furthering goals by using money. In a fiat system, it may be more difficult to source the proper goods and services to stay ahead of the curve, but we can help you with our practical, proactive financial discussions. 

Part of what defines a prepper is being ready for things. And what is a better focal point than a natural disaster? A natural disaster is both hard to predict, and hard to measure overall impact from. That is: you don’t know when it might come, or what may result during or after a natural disaster. That goes for California earthquakes; volcanic eruptions, Kansas tornadoes, or Florida Hurricanes. Flooding, fires, and other natural events can be dramatic, scary and displace you – a prepper knows about the risks they are likely to face, and prepares both for the known and the unknown.  

The mob rules – unfortunately. You never know when a simple protest might turn ugly and cause major issues for you and the ones you love. You see crime rising across the country – and it makes you think about what will result? Legislative changes make it harder to do things as a law abiding citizen, but easier as a criminal. When seconds matter, the police are minutes away. Prepping means understanding real world risks and understanding how to plan for, and react to those risks.

Not everything must be derived from a fear about something that can happen. Some preppers just set and meet goals over and over again. And that’s a great catalyst to help you refine, or redefine your preps. And ‘preps’ isn’t jsut a codeword for gear and items. Preps can be anything tangible or non-tangible that contribute to your potential for success in a given scenario. Preppers need to understand that most situations require a combination of tooling and skills. If you’re a prepper stoked by setting and meeting goals – you’re in good company.

Sure – a 72 hour kit is enough for many people, and many events. But prepping isn’t just about merely getting through an event by the skin of your teeth. Prepping is about meeting real-world challenges head-on. A 72 hour kit will probably get you through the first 24 hours just fine – but so will your adrenaline and a couple of bites of a granola bar. Don’t go throwing out your 72 hours kit though. We’re here to take you to the next level. A 72 hour kit is on the ‘reactive side of proactive’ and it is useful, but prepping is truly about planning, and strategy and improvement, and skill and strength-building. 

Sometimes new preppers feel a huge weight lifted off their shoulders after their first prep. Sometimes it’s after they have hit a first goal. But prepping, like anything that matters, takes time and reevaluation and work to get right. And getting prepping right is one of those things that has a moving target, or a series of goals, not a singular goal. We encourage you to take it a bit more seriously – of course we would – we are a prepper website after all! But seriously: we think you can improve incrementally, and still have moments of great wins too. Let us help you understand how to navigate the timelines and the timing of prepping. Not just as “preparedness experts” but as part of a community of real-world, commonsense preppers. 

There are a lot of people that do prep for the apocalyptic events as a natural focal point. It may seem a bit contrived depending on your frame of reference. But it’s not nearly as comical if you look at it from a relative perspective. Sure there are a few people that like to take it super-hardcore, and that’s OK – we hope we don’t have to square off with them in the apocalypse. But that concept – as in: the worst possible thing you can imagine – or TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it), is a great prepping goal to have. It gives us a somewhat unrealistic, but serious goal to go after, because, if we can get ourselves to be prepared for the end of the world as we know it, what will we be NOT PREPARED ENOUGH to handle? See? It all just requires some perspective. Not all prepping has to be serious all the time, but seriously, isn’t it about time you started prepping? You’re here after all. 

Yes! Prepping can be as easy and picking up a couple of jugs of water at the store next time you’re grocery shopping. It can be as easy as putting another 1% of your paycheck into a special savings account, or making sure you have a gas shutoff wrench in the house if you’re in an earthquake prone location. Prepping is what you make of it – you can get as much accomplished or as little accomplished as you want, as long as you’re in it for the perseverance of yourself and your loved ones. Seriously: there are a lot of preps that can take a few minutes, and give you a huge peace of mind. And really, preppers get the satisfaction they’re after by accomplishing one more thing on their list of ultimate peace of mind goals. Look at what scares you (immediately above if you don’t know that yet) and start thinking about what goal you could set to mitigate that fear. Then you’ll think of a hundred things that will be able to be done ASAP! Look! Now you’re a prepper too.