Avoiding Panic in Preparedness

all right welcome to season five of inside my canoe head this is a Canadian podcast it's all about the integration of leading an incredible awesome life individual responsibility individual emergency preparedness and how do we navigate life's incredible wild disruptions that we see among us sit back grab a beverage and enjoy the episodes all right welcome back to the Ottawa studios inside my canoe head thanks to take time out of your day night evening afternoon whatever this may be to listen to our little episode today on avoiding panic in preparedness I swear the world's on fire you just turn on anything today we're going to talk about how do you do this journey of this thing called preparedness you know what is preparedness provided for us what is panic based upon and basically how you avoid creating a sense of doom gloom and panic in your life and then trying to fill it with preparedness when you're actually not achieving anything reasonable and you might have just missed that whole awesome incredible idea of rocking an incredible life so sit back grab yourself a beverage here we go all right so here we go talking about avoiding panic in preparedness but everything in preparedness basically everything in your life is about accepting personal responsibility for your outcomes right it's not somebody else's job to rescue you it's not somebody else's job to pay your bills um and so you got to set your life up for success right that's what we're all trying to do we all make tons of mistakes we learn lots of lessons as we go but in the end it's really up to us and if we cross the finish line with our hands up in the air we're dragged across by kicking and screaming either way it is based upon decisions we make but when you look around the world when you look on social media when you watch your favorite youtuber uh when you listen to some podcasts it is nothing but a pocket talk right the world is in chaos we are days away from a chinese invasion of taiwan um the american society is going to collapse into this massive civil war where florida and california will become two separate distinct republics texas will get mad that they weren't included in the bun fight they'll leave to the northeast they'll realize all their woke policies have caused nothing but destruction of society like it doesn't matter where you go it seems that this entire world is on fire and don't forget talk about our climate alarmists out there and you just add it all together in this case so how do you navigate that we've done a couple episodes on that but today what i want to talk about is the idea that you should be or are likely already in some form of state of panic like you're really concerned you're really worried about your future your family's future the world around you everybody's telling you to stock up two years of food supply on your rural location except for like over 80 percent of us in north america you actually live in an urban and suburban environment right you've embraced suburbia you live in a downtown condo you don't have a place to put two years of food supply and if everything goes pear-shaped like they say it is your neighborhood is not going to be a place to move into and live in so why are you going to have two years of food supply when you're going to evacuate 10 days into it because you can't carry that so none of that seems logical but that's all you seem to have there so the first question i'm going to ask you today is reflect upon what does preparedness provide right we do things we action things whatever you want to phrase it normally in human existence to fill a gap like i'm a researcher i'm trying to fill a research gap we don't know what's going on over here so we go ask some questions to try to figure out in your life you do things because there's an opening there's a lack something needs to be provided and it's not there so what does preparedness as a greater activity provide for you here at inside my new head and in my personal life we look at it as it's a blanket to permit you to rock an independent awesome dream chasing life that's the idea of preparedness is it doesn't replace your current life it doesn't take over all of your spare time like you're not spending your saturdays and booking six hours off to count your cans of veggies that are in the basement right preparedness is those activities you undertake within reason based upon the circumstances you live in that allow you to chase those dreams like we all have dreams just because the world is chaotic and it seems like it's on fire you shouldn't be putting your dreams down you should not be giving up on anything you want to pursue if it's a sports related activity if it's an education related activity if you're looking for a job promotion if you're starting a new business if you want to get into a new relationship if you want to whatever it may be this current state of the world should in no way shape or form prevent you from doing that the idea of a blanket of preparedness is it provides that insulation so as life's disruptions occur as there are bumps in the road which there always are but in a chaotic world they might be a little bit more significant you've taken the steps necessary to just bounce around a little bit get bumped around but you're still chasing that awesome incredible dream you should be able to have an awesome life in a downtown urban core in the middle of a chaotic world and that's what preparedness does for you so you have to reflect on yourself answer that question what does your efforts and preparedness provide for you now let's understand panic right so panic is a response based upon fear now we know fear to be in any research in any theology psychology sociology anthropology we could go on forever fear is the most powerful human emotion it is literally the top of the order of emotions irrespective of what study and what great author you seem to be following on any given day fear is the number one so fear works until people understand right fear is a motivator because it's a fear of the unknown it's like if you roll back to the beginning of the pandemic nobody truly understood covet 19 and the potential outcome right we didn't you it doesn't matter who came to a microphone everybody until more and more data became available over a period of months everybody was guessing pontificating thinking about based upon what we know of the spanish flu epidemic that was on over 100 years ago they were done so people were fearful their fear of the unknown so a lot of peddlers of information use that fear that people had to create a sense of panic if you go outside if you do this if we allow people to get together and out of fear and the resulting panic that comes from that a whole bunch of rules were put into place in because we just didn't know now roll yourself several months forward when we started to do studies we started to understand what covid was and we started to realize the danger level comes way way down the fear related to covid 19 pandemic plateaus and then more fear mongering by people to try to bring their agendas for it doesn't matter what side of the coin you are both sides use fear mongering to try to get you or convince you that they were correct it became less and less effective because as you know about something as a human the ability of fear to affect you in that area is far less right so we have this idea of panic out there that works very short so how do you avoid panic in preparedness right how do you avoid it well the first thing and we said this on i think it was episode 114 or 115 somewhere around there about understanding the threats that you face now i can tell you global nuclear war is a threat okay but i mean you right now living your awesome incredible life or trying to where do you live do you live on a floodplain do you live in an earthquake zone do you live in a wild uh wild land urban interface and you are therefore at a wildfire risk do you live along a major water artery that has a history of flooding do you live on the coast of north america where you get smack and walloped by a hurricane understanding the threats you have or that you face takes away the fear of like if you live in an earthquake zone in southern bc right well my mentors out there and a lot of fabulous wonderful human beings and i have the privilege of knowing live in southwestern bc british colombia if you don't know you live in an earthquake zone you need to drop the ostrich act and take your head out of the sand right so you know it's like the stoic say it's amorphatic you can't do anything to prevent an earthquake from happening that's why i hate the word prevention and emergency management there's absolutely nothing you can do to prevent an earthquake from happening there's absolutely nothing you can do to prevent damage from an earthquake what you can is mitigate that damage that happens to you so where do you live right if you're living in a high-rise building in downtown vancouver you probably should make sure that it meets code for retrofitting and it's up to the top possible standards to survive that earthquake aka the building won't kill you when the big one happens uh and then one of the secondary order effects the idea being is that you know i'm not going to a whole show i could uh about earthquakes and all the things that you should do but the idea is that you understand your threat you understand your risk profile we know in the most general sense risk is probability by severe multiplied by the potential severity of the outcome right so you understand the threats that you're faced based on where you've chosen to live you understand the risk of them happening is a really low high risk but a really horrible outcome or a really high probability but a really low outcome right so when you understand your what we refer to it inside my canoe head as your threat profile when you understand your threat profile which is that combination of risk and threats you then can make some informed decisions about what you need to do to prepare for that to mitigate against the effects of this threat or hazard is referred to in the business being realized what that does is that takes away panic you're not panicking anymore you know very well by living in southwest bc in victoria the gulf islands you live in vancouver you're going to get walloped by a massive earthquake there's a great chance that that's going to happen sometime in your lifetime there's going to be wall sweats of death and destruction but you've taken the necessary measures to mitigate your life as much as possible and by remaining to choose to live in an earthquake zone you accept that risk and you now take your precautions and then you go out and you rock an awesome incredible life and chase your dreams that's what preparedness does for you doesn't eliminate things it doesn't create this big you know bubble boy effect around you that keeps all the big bad people out the big bad world way but it gives you that so it doesn't allow panic to come in you're not going to get panicked about the potential outcomes because you have a strategy to deal with it right it defeats uh without fear of the future you have no anxiety about the future and we know one of the four construction elements of your blanket of preparedness is your mental health so if you're able to dramatically reduce the things that cause you anxiety bam you've now taken away a big problem related to a blanket of preparedness as you're improving your personal mental health and how is this done it's done by your three p's we love acronyms here at inside my canoe head you have to plan you have to prepare and then you got to prosper so you're planning in preparedness to avoid panic is about understanding your threat profile understanding where you live and what likely could happen to you it's about looking at those four constructed elements that we talked about of your blanket of preparedness call them your four quadrants you can come up with any cool name you want to but the four big elements that help you knit that blanket of preparedness together they're in the last uh podcast episode you know those being your animalistic requirements that's your shelter your food your water your health and safety and security you plan for those for the length of time you want to be prepared are you happy with 48 hour preparation plan or do you want a two-week preparation plan that's completely up to you based upon your life your risk tolerance and the size and issues with the people you're responsible for the other is your financial independence it's nobody's job to pay your rent and to feed you when you can't so you need to sort out your own financial independent that doesn't mean you're rich you can do it and rock an awesome incredible life on minimum wage it's easy to do i've got a podcast episode coming up on taking somebody making minimum wage in a busy urban center and then show how you can lead a rock awesome life chase all your dreams pay all your bills and plan for retirement off of minimum wage the next thing is your physical health and your mental health are the last two parts right so those four elements are the four parts of your blanket of preparedness and when you plan your plan prepare and prosper the plan part is setting up everything you think you need to do to meet your time horizon and get yourself good to go you're taking away panic in preparedness you've set a plan the next one is prepare the time is going to take to prepare it's going to be different with everybody and it's not a question of money i say this over and over again preparedness is largely almost completely free it doesn't take money it takes attitude time and commitment right if you're like me and you're 30 40 50 pounds overweight that's not going to disappear in a week right i can plan to lose the weight i can set up an exercise schedule i can read about eating healthy food and getting quality sleep okay i've done the planning the preparation the prepare part of this is you actually have to go out and do it and then you have to do it over a sustained time frame there's a great um interview on a motivation and i forget the guy's name and he talks about how you know why do people quit the gym well you got a great plan for a gym you go to the gym you work out for three weeks in a row three days a week you do great you feel great you look in the mirror you see nothing right you see you don't see you might not see changes for six to eight weeks and you got to have the patience to stay with it so none of this is going to happen overnight but if you plan for those four quadrants or portions of your blanket of preparedness you take away panic you're not worried about preparedness you've got a plan and you're doing the prepare aspect you're taking the necessary things to improve your mental health your physical health you're meeting your animalistic requirements over the time horizon that you think is proper for you and your situation and you've literally gone out and you've realized you got a plan for uh financial independence and you're on route no that doesn't happen overnight either that takes years potentially but you've got a plan and you've got it set forth so what you're doing is you're preparing you're executing so why not just go out and prosper right this is where panic goes away when you're taking all the necessary steps to meet your plan you're not there yet 99 percent of the people listening to this podcast are not perfect preppers or survival is ready for the end of the world we all have something we're working on and we're chasing towards and so what we do is if you have a plan and i periodically go back i've actually got it booked into my calendar once a month right once a month i go back and have a look at did i hit generally kind of on plan of what i was intending to do it's like a 30 minute appointment i book with a cup of coffee once a month to just check in to make sure the plan still makes sense and carry on no it's not going to happen overnight etc but that's how we do it and the last place is prosper right you can't wait to be prepared to then chase your dreams you see this is not a successive it's a concurrent activity preparedness is not about a state like you don't look yourself in the mirror and say i'm not prepared therefore i'm putting everything that i want to do in life off until i get this preparedness thing completed right it doesn't make any sense and you don't know when this preparedness thing would be complete so what if your financial independence takes you eight years your plan set out as based upon your resources and your level of commitment you're going to be financially independent in eight years so does that mean you're not going to chase any of your goals for eight years simply because you don't have that uh quadrant of your preparedness blanket checked off no right you're going to avoid panic and preparedness by setting your plan you're going to go out there and you're going to take the necessary steps to meet your plan and get it closer and closer to the level you want and then you're going to chase your dreams right you chase your dreams you do the things that make you smile this was an old boss of mine and he said to me one day he goes do you swing your legs out of bed in the morning when you wake up with with you can't wait to get at whatever you're planning to do that day for work whatever you do for work like if you're not doing that right if you're not doing that then you should be planning to do something else and this guy's intent was not you know the quick culture like going to tell your boss off and quit your job it's like if this job you're in right now this salary you're in right now this position you're in right now is not putting a freaking huge bloody smile on your face every morning then you got to figure out what you would put that smile on your face and pay your bills and then start a plan and prepare to do it your transition may be three years so for three years you're swinging your legs out of bed in the morning smiling and having an incredible time because you know you're in a process of transitioning to your world's greatest job not because today's job is giving you a huge smile but you're on a plan so the idea of today if you take anything away from today's podcast if you're still here with me thanks very much inside my head greatly appreciates your listening at time listen we don't like panic and preparedness the world is on fire but i would argue all of it is beyond your ability to influence so make the choice not to let it cause you stress and anxiety realize what preparedness does for you in your life while you're on this preparedness jersey journey just look at a couple of the things and some episodes that i throw when i talked today about how i construct that blanket of preparedness the four quadrants to it how you work and individually get those up to speed all the details are in the previous episode that takes away panic you greatly reduce the stress and anxiety about the world around you you have a plan crafted by yourself which means it's far more likely for you to follow through you're on the journey it may take several years to get to the end of this journey of called preparedness to you get to a point you're ready for and then while that's on the go you got to remember to get out there and live an awesome incredible life because here at inside my canoe head that's our mantra right we want everybody out there rocking an incredible awesome number one life wrap yourself in a blanket of preparedness that allows you to navigate those disruptions that are beyond your control so thanks again for taking the time to listen to us today at inside my canoe head if you got suggestions for upcoming episodes comments on this episode good bad or indifferent drop me a line at jeff at preparedness labs.ca hop over to our websites preparedness labs.ca or inside my canoe head.ca all the links to our social media platforms are there we're taking a bit of a summer break until labor day weekend and then we're going to ratchet it up and get back to full-time production of content so thanks again for all the ongoing suggestions and again if you have an episode suggestion if something is really picking away at you and you want somebody to yammer about it for 10 or 15 minutes fire me a line at jeff preparedness labs.ca and uh and i'll look into it and if i can put it together for you maybe i'll bring you on the podcast and we can chat about it right all right take care stay safe and enjoy the coming adventure life's an adventure get out there and have some fun it's worth every moment you