For many of us, the past few months have been a crash course in facing difficulties and dangers. Handymen and caregivers became isolated and unavailable. Emergency services were overwhelmed. Even the little pleasures in life — from those buttery eggs at the diner to the nooks and crannies of your favorite museum — were suddenly out of reach.
Chances are, you took this opportunity to teach yourself some skills — from trimming your spouse's hair to mastering a new recipe to making your own art. Deprived of your community, you took matters into your own hands, and you survived. But as the future continues to look uncertain, now's a good time to ramp up your general survival skills — to become a true master of self-sufficiency in any dangerous situation. Because when emergency care doesn't arrive, we need to feel confident that we can provide it ourselves.
"Fear is your worst enemy in any bad situation,” says Mykel Hawke, a retired U.S. Army Special Forces captain and author of Hawke's Green Beret Survival Manual. “Most fear is a result of ignorance; it's fear of the unknown. But by sitting down in ‘Fort Living Room’ right now, learning what to do and gaining confidence in your knowledge, you are putting yourself in a better position when you're in a real hurt box."
So pull up a stool. Be prepared, as the Scouts say, by learning some useful lessons — for life.
