The problem with the “When SHTF” Mentality

Did SHTF for the guy that owns this car, caught in a flash flood? I'd say it did.

This is something I keep seeing all over the community or even during conversations with other like-minded people.

“When SHTF” I’ll do this or that.
“What gun are you planning on carrying … when SHTF?”
“When SHTF, I’ll go to my ranch/homestead/bunker/friend’s house”
These are precisely the people that end up not being ready when it counts because they keep waiting for some kind of invitation, email or notification so as to official know that as of right now, shit has indeed hit the fan:

  Dear Sir, we are contacting you in regards to recent events and would like to inform you that as of right now shit has officially hit the fan. Start wearing full camo throughout the day, board your windows, booby trap your back yard (its ok, kids no longer jump around the back yard playing any more once SHTF) and start carrying your battle rifle everywhere you go. Feel free to shoot that guy down the street you never liked. Its ok, authorities won’t respond again, ever. Go around scavenging stores and houses as you see fit. That’s perfectly acceptable after the world ends. Oh! One more thing. Expect sports illustrated swimsuit models to join your brave group of survivors and idolize you like a god for the preparations you made… for when SHTF.
Good luck and enjoy the end of the world!

It just doesn’t work that way. In places where shit has very much hit the fan there’s people with this mentality. I still see if from people living in true hell holes, places like Venezuela, still talking about what they will do when it gets worse.

Prepare now. Act now. I live in a very safe part of the world, one of the safest countries in Europe where going around for a walk at 3 AM is still perfectly safe. That doesn’t mean bad things don’t happen. Purses get snatched, pockets picked and stuff still gets stolen. A girl getting drunk in a beach party can still end up getting raped. At the end of the day you can get into a violent altercation with someone (especially now during the holyday season). So arm yourself as well as you can now and learn how to defend yourself if you don’t already know how.

Not looking after your health will get you killed SHTF or not, so get that blood test you’ve been postponing NOW, not after SHTF. Put that fire extinguisher in your car now, keep one in your kitchen now. Have a kit in your vehicle now because you can still get stranded on the road.

As rare as home invasions are around here, a while back someone broke into a neighbor’s house. His teen daughter was home alone when it happened. She locked herself in the bathroom. She called her father who was abroad at the time. Whomever broke in tried to force the door open, failed, so they took a few things quickly and left. Teach you family how to defend themselves now.

Believe me that when there’s not a drop of water coming out of the faucet, that’s not the time to go fill up that empty “water bob” you were supposed to fill … when SHTF. Have enough water for a week now. Learn to cook with your food stash now. Store what you eat, eat what you store so if there’s ever riots, lootings, food shortages or if for whatever reason you need to dig into your food supplies there will be no hard learned lesson or adaptation period.

Whatever important change in your life or idea you have on what you would do, do it now. Trust me on this, if you cant pull it off today, you wont when things get worse.

Stop thinking in terms of “when SHTF” and thing of how you will act if things make a serious turn for the worse tomorrow, or right this moment. That’s just life and that’s how real SHTF, the kind that change your life in an instant, hit you when you least expect it.
FerFAL

Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”