Prepping and the Positive Attitude

During a recent conversation with a gentleman I consider not just a client but also a friend, we turned to the topic of "prepping" or preparing for disasters. He's a smart guy, his family is on board with the process and he has a lot of his bases covered: a 3 month food supply, stored water, first aid and medical training, military experience, weapons and ammo and solid skills to use them, and more. I was surprised when he told me how worried he was about his family's situation and began describing what he felt were deficiencies in his preps and his plans. I'm going to paraphrase and elaborate on some of what I told him.
You must maintain a positive outlook. Do it now. Do it when things go bad. Understand that you can do it. Everyone involved in prepping does some war-gaming -a mental exercising of working your way through a disaster or other scenario- from time to time. If you do it often enough, you will eventually come up with a situation you are not ready for. (Let's see, I know if the power goes out for the night I have flashlights ready with fresh batteries I change every 6 months. If the power goes out for a week I have a plan to go stay with so-and-so because we've already discussed it. If the power goes out for a year and aliens invade with armies of radiation babies... What will I do?) It's the nature of the beast, you can't possibly be ready for every imaginable scenario. War-gaming is a good and fun exercise, but you need to focus on Threat Assessment- the reality of how likely you are to encounter a specific scenario- and prepare accordingly. (I know my area floods every few years and that knocks out power for up to a week. I'm going to set myself up for that. The flooding also has a habit of contaminating the water supply, so we'd better put back some stored water, too.) Don't get upset about the things you don't have or the skills you haven't learned. There are all kinds of cliche quotes that fit here: " Rome wasn't built in a day" or "The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step." Here's my philosophy: Your preps should always make you feel better about your situation- not worse. If just today you came to the realization that you need to be better prepared for a situation, congratulations, you are doing better than you were yesterday. If you went out and bought a simple $1 first aid kit to keep handy, congratulations, you are doing better than you were yesterday. If you spent last Sunday learning how to make fire without matches, congratulations, you are doing better than you were and you should feel good about yourself! The process is continual. It's great to continue down that path and learn more and be ready for more situations. You'll also learn along the way that situations can and do overlap, and something you prepared for a year ago set you up pretty well for another scenario you're working on now.
What you'll need to avoid is the paranoia of writers trying to sell books and retailers pushing the latest gizmo. They use fear to motivate you to part with your money. (Now before anyone throws a penalty flag at me: Yes, Black Bag Resources, LLC does retail merchandise. However, I will never pressure anyone to buy anything. I simply tell you what works for me-  if you'd like to use the same item, I try to make it available to you.) You do need to re-examine your skills and preps from time to time. It's good to have someone else take a look, too. They may find something you missed. However, this is only good to the extent that it shows you what areas need improvement. When you identify them, work on them, but do not loose your positive attitude regarding your situation or your preps.
Remember:
Your preps should always make you feel better about your situation- not worse.