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The first and best preparation that you can
do to increase personal security for you and
your family is assembling the necessary tools.
Security tools take two forms - physical
and mental. On the physical side, you
can get what you need by merely buying
lots of stuff, which is any equipment
you may need in an emergency. Food and
medicines too, because any emergency
or panic will may disrupt the distribution
process, so you may need more than bullets
to survive, or at least go without too
much disruption.
From the mental perspective you must
be emotionally prepared to deal with
any emergency that arises, and you must
have the basic skills to do so. This
means you need to know just what to
do with all the self defense stuff you
bought and stockpiled.
Therefore, the most important security
tool that you can have is not something
that you can keep in your security kit.
Instead, your most important tool is
kept in your mind - your skills and
your mental attitude. This is because
all the supplies and equipment in the
world will only be useful if you know
how to use them.
When an emergency arises, you will
not have time to read the first aid
manual. So read it today! For example,
do you know CPR (cardio pulmonary resuscitation),
or are you still putting off contacting
your local Red Cross chapter or college
in order to learn the basics? Do you
have enough stores of foods that may
not be available at the grocery store,
and do you have your required medicines?
Alternative energy supplies? Or, do
you have a half-baked approach to preparedness
- a pistol in your home, but you may
not be confident that you have the know-all
to use it effectively if a life threatening
intruder enters your home? If you aren't
sure, then you are long overdue for
a call to the National Rifle Association
or another firearms safety education
provider.
The point is this - when you have
built up a collection of useful security
tools, and you know how to use them,
you can rest assured that you have done
your job and created your own Personal
Security Zone.
Yes, it's important to seek out comprehensive
training courses in how to use the equipment
that you add to your security kit. Yet, don't
let anything stop you from getting started collecting
the tools you will need. When it comes to preparedness,
any amount of knowledge & tools will be better
than having none.
For example, authorities on security all stress
the importance of having a comprehensive medical
kit with plenty of supplies to deal with traumatic
injuries. This is because in an emergency we
may not be able to rely on a speedy-enough response
from police or medical personnel or ambulance
services. Therefore, we need to plan on being
more self-sufficient.
Plus, if you have the right equipment available
when you need it, there's a much better chance
that somebody else may have the skills to use
it even if you don't.
A well-known expert said, Select security
equipment like your life depends on it, because
it might.
Is All This Too Pessimistic?
Sorry if all this talk about preparing for
disasters is bumming you out! Of course nobody
wants to get ready for gloom and doom. Alas,
if we could all just bury our sleepy heads a
little deeper in our pillows and just pull the
covers up a little tighter around our shoulders,
we might be able to dream away any future
risks that life might visit upon us! But, it's
our nature to worry and to prepare. And, it doesn't
need to be such a bummer.
The ability to define what may happen in
the future and to choose among alternatives
lies at the heart of contemporary societies," according
to Peter L. Bernstein in his worldwide bestselling
book Against
The Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk.
According to Bernstein, Risk management
guides us over a vast range of decision-making,
from... safeguarding public health... waging
war... planning a family... paying insurance
premiums to wearing a seatbelt...
Once you realize that preparedness is just
another type of risk management, like wearing
your seatbelt or brushing your teeth, then it's
no longer such a bummer to think about! Instead,
we learn to view preparedness as more of an interesting
preoccupation: a topic that has kept mathemeticians,
engineers, politicians and insurance brokers
bustling with interest since the Renaissance.
In fact, it's our innate human capacity to manage
risk, and with it the appetite to take risk and
make forward-looking choices, that improves our
lives and drive our society forward.
So now that we have a new and improved attitude
about preparedness, let's find out more about
building your own Personal Security Zone.
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