It’s that time again! Time to make our New Year’s resolutions! This year, though, it may be more important than ever to make some preparedness resolutions and follow through on them! Need some inspiration to help you achieve your goals? We’ve got you covered! Here are the top 12 things to focus on in 2024, with lots of Mind4Survival resources to help you achieve them all!
Resolution #1- Increase Your Skill Set
In an actual SHTF situation, skills may be even more valuable than stockpiles. You can create necessities using your skills if you have skills but no supplies. If you have supplies but no skills, your resources have a limit to them, and therefore, so does your survival. Here are some ideas to increase your skill levels in 2024.
#2- Get Your Finances in Order
The overall financial situation in the United States is shaky at best these days. High inflation, bank closures, credit card defaults, the looming debt crisis, and runaway government spending are all taking their toll on our financial reputation around the globe. It’s time to get your financial ducks in a row. Should you pay off debt or build your savings? Here’s what we think about the financial picture for 2024:
#3- Stay Informed
Watching the news can be depressing lately. Many are inclined to shut it off completely to preserve their mental health. While that logic has good sense you don’t want to go so far as to miss some vital warning signs. Pay attention to the overall pulse of society so you aren’t hit with any surprises due to normalcy bias.
#4- Resolve to Get Organized
All the preps in the world won’t help if you don’t know what you have or where it is. Start the year off fresh by taking an inventory of everything you have on hand. You can break it down into smaller projects so it doesn’t seem overwhelming if needed. This will help you realize areas that need reinforcement and help you locate the items more quickly in an emergency. There are lots of other things you can do to get more organized as well. Here are some great ideas to help you get control of your situation.
#5- Prioritize Your Health
When SHTF, there will be a lot more work to do. All of the automation and assistance we rely on may disappear in a flash. We are going to need to rely on our health to get us through the massive to-do list that will suddenly appear in our lives. No matter what your level of health is now, chances are that there is something you can do to improve upon that. Here’s some of our best advice about staying healthy in the new year.
6- Learn Valuable Lessons From The Past
You know the old saying. If we don’t learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. In 2024, resolve to brush up on some preparedness lessons you can learn from those who came before us. Why reinvent the wheel, right?
#7- Prep for Some Time Off-Grid
The pressure on the US electrical grid is quickly becoming unsustainable. Many predict that there will be rolling blackouts and random outages across large portions of the coastal states as the burden on the grid becomes too much to bear in the next few months. Whether you lose power for a few hours, days, weeks, or months, you should have some plans and preps in place. Disasters are much more tolerable when the basics have been thought through beforehand.
#8- Create a Bug Out Plan for Emergencies
Many people fail to create a plan for bugging out because they view it as a last-ditch effort in the midst of a major disaster. For whatever reasons, they decide that bugging out will be too overwhelming and impossible to sustain and then move their focus toward bugging in.
The problem is that bugging out doesn’t have to mean a long-term abandonment of home due to a society-ending catastrophe. It could be as simple as a hurricane headed for your town, a nearby industrial accident, or a violent protest that breaks out on your block. Even if you only have to bug out for a few days, you’ll want to have a plan in place. When the time comes, you’ll be glad you did.
NY Resolution #9- Increase Your Food Storage
Food prices are out of control. My local grocery store wants close to $30 for six rolls of name-brand paper towels. Ground beef is priced through the roof. I feel like I will never be able to buy a bag of potato chips again casually. That said, having a food reserve is more important than ever for 2024. My stockpile has grown enough that for most things, I can afford to wait until it goes on deep sale and then buy multiple portions of the item. I try to watch for when things hit their pre-pandemic price levels. Then I know it’s probably as low as it will ever go.
If you can start to shift even just a few of your budgeted grocery dollars into buying in bulk, on sale, it can really help to create a larger food pantry to help buffer any food supply chain shortages that occur in the future. Better yet, learn to produce some of those more expensive items at home so you don’t need to buy some things at all! Here are a few of our best articles on the concepts:
#10- Have a Solid Water Plan
Water is a survival non-negotiable. If we lose access to water, survival becomes impossible. What if your well pump breaks, and it’s three months until anyone can replace it? What if your city’s water supply is poisoned? There could be a water main break. A catastrophic drought? Knowing what you can do if your water supply suddenly disappears can help calm an otherwise catastrophic situation. Having a plan can also allow you the time to focus on other facets of the emergency at hand. Here are some water supply things to consider:
#11- Focus More on Mindset
We can’t control so many things these days, so it makes sense to focus on what we can control, like mindset. It requires some dedication and effort, but if you put the work in, you can improve your decision-making processes by changing how you approach everyday living. Here are some great Mind4Survival articles to get you started!
#12- Focus on Family & Home Safety
Lately, it seems like for every right they take away, an additional responsibility is added. We can no longer guarantee that healthcare, emergency services, or law enforcement will be available if we encounter a threatening situation. It is more important than ever to take measures to keep ourselves, our families, and our properties safe from violence. Here are some ways to start taking responsibility for your own protection.
Family & Personal Safety
Home Security
Final Thoughts
In the past, I always enjoyed coming up with something to work towards in the New Year. This year, though, I have a greater sense of urgency to actually follow through on my resolutions because they may become valuable ways to reduce unwanted struggles in the challenging year ahead.
Have you made any preparedness resolutions this year? Share them with us in the comments!
