Dangers of becoming complacent

[Straight Shooter]

Lately I have noticed that I see complacency creeping into the way I conduct my prepping activities , not so much slacking …more sloppy than anything else .

Even my gardening is suffering a little bit , slowing up as time passes by , where I used to seek out work …….I now sometimes hide from it , and make plausible excuses to myself why I have not done something that needed doing …….so the question is ….is anyone else in the same boat or am I in here on my own ? .

[Skean Dhude]

SS, I can't speak for everyone but suspect I do. I hit that years ago and watched with envy as you kept going.

In your case I wouldn't worry about it. You have done more than most except our governments and they were spending our money not their own.

[Mortblanc]

Complacency has its various levels. One of the goals of working a homestead might be reaching the goal of being done!

You get it the way you want it and the rest is just maintenance. I now wear myself out just trying to keep the place presentable.

Sorry but I am too dang old to start any new ten year projects, break new garden spots, or start a new orchard. If someone wants a shade tree after I am gone they had best plant it themselves.

[Pete Grey]

(1 July 2023, 01:10)Mortblanc Wrote: Complacency has its various levels. One of the goals of working a homestead might be reaching the goal of being done!

You get it the way you want it and the rest is just maintenance. I now wear myself out just trying to keep the place presentable.

Sorry but I am too dang old to start any new ten year projects, break new garden spots, or start a new orchard. If someone wants a shade tree after I am gone they had best plant it themselves.

Well MB you’ve summed up things well.

Prepping is always a compromise between what your goal is, and what you can accomplish. What you can afford to do and what you can do.

I’m a few years older than you and things have caught up with me over the last few months and some jobs I can no longer do, unfortunately there are no preps to counter age.

Thankfully we are in a good position and will be able to deal with most events.

I think complacency is a young persons thing, they’re fit enough to do the gardening and maintenance work, they know things can go tits up, ignore the signs, do not plan, and do not prep, would rather spend money on a holiday or out to a restaurant.

[Mortblanc]

And cope with "whatever comes" we have now done.

At our age we have coped with the stress or living under the nuclear threat for the first half of our lives. We say heroes assassinated, our cities burned, then burned again. We saw crime rates soar, then drop. We have raised our children in a drug infested lunatics' society, we have lived through destruction of the manufacturing capabilities of our nations, and the replacement of our traditional economies. We have seen global control attempt to strip our nations of our natural borders and erase our sovereignty . We have seen and survived one of the worst financial crisis in world history (once each decade). We have lived through a "pandemic" engineered to strip our rights and expectations, destroy our personal wealth and health.

And for some reason there are folks still sitting in expectation of something they refer too as SHTF.

When I started this journey, back in 1960-something during the Cuban Missile Crisis, all of these things were the SHTF I was preparing for.

My concept of complacency is probably modified by my thought processes having a convergence with reality. The concept of "been there, done that".

[bigpaul]

my personal thoughts are that SHTF is something different to TEOTWAWKI.
we have all, as preppers, been through all the events listed above by MB and probably a few others as well, but we are all still alive and kicking.
I keep referring to myself as a Societal Collapse Survivalist, that is what I am preparing for, some event that knocks the hell out of social cohesion and collapses all those systems that everyone relies on.
compared to that SHTF is a walk in the park.

[Pete Grey]

Yes MB we’ve got the t shirt, so whatever comes along we just get on with it.

[Midnitemo]

I have reached a level where i feel content enough with my preps , still adding here and there , still reading and interested but now i'm concentrating on the kids getting established in the world and enjoying life where i can , will probably wish i had done more when the time comes though! but for now it's a question of balance.

[Sekwo]

I'm still working out what I need to do to prepare. I don't see a lot of realism on most prepper sites which seem to be run by people who are selling expensive equipment with an intension to make a lot of money and retire. As such, there's a whole industry manufacturing a concept of "prepping" which just makes them money. They don't really have any idea about the risks we face.

[Skean Dhude]

Sekwo,

I believe it is a lifestyle and that simple steps can make a big difference. I believe that prepping isn't getting ready to live as you do now forever but either a life-raft to keep you afloat which the world recovers, best case, or support during the transition from plenty to subsistence living.

I did put a suggested guide on the main web page to help people prioritise for their own circumstances.