Mission fatigue sets in from time to time. Let’s face it, getting ready for the zombie apocalypse (or whatever flavor of KoolAid you prefer) starts to wear you down after a while. Sometimes you’re too busy worrying about getting tickets to the ballgame, to worry about getting more freezedrieds into the bunker. And then more life occurs and you push the preps further down the priority list. The kids need shoes, so that new GLock can wait a month. The car needs tires, so the generator can wait. And, eventually, you suddenly look up and realize that three weeks have gone by without you doing anything survival-related and -surprise!- you’re just fine. So then you start to lose momentum…yeah, you meant to go to Costco for more canned beef this weekend, but you wanted to go geocaching instead. But you can always go next weekend, right? The end of the world won’t really happen tomorrow. You’ve got plenty of time. And then you wind up never getting those cans from Costco. Or the batteries from Walmart. Or the case of .223 from Cabela’s. Or the filled gas cans from Conoco.
And then, one morning, you get a phone call waking you up at 6am and it’s your family member on the other side of the country and the first words out of his mouth when you answer the phone are “Are you watching the news?”
And that, my friend, is when it alllllll catches up to you.
I wish I wasn’t speaking from experience, but I am… Look, my identity is predicated on being some sort of super-secret-squirrel survivalist. It is, literally, my only claim to fame. And with all that, even *I* let my foot way off the gas sometimes and just drop the ball on keeping up on preps and maintenance.
What fixes it? What refocuses my efforts? What makes me sit up, cancel Thrusday movie night, take the phone off the hook, and Get Real Serious Right Now? Good question. For me, its either a close call or reading something that inspires me. At the moment, I bought a new copy of “One Second After” to replace the copy I loaned out and never got back. After reading that I find it virtually impossible not to grab a clipboard and make sure things are topped off and shopping lists planned.
You need to find your impetus if you suffer from these motivational lapses like I do. For some people, it’s watching the news. For others it might be reliving a previous experience that made an impression. Or it could be as simple as watching some homeless wretch on the street eating out of a dumpster. But…find something that motivates you and gets you back on the path. When life decides to suddenly go sideways, all those “I meant to” statements will be worth less than nothing.
Now, back to reconciling my spreadsheet inventory of stored food with the actual physical inventory…………..