Prepper Personality Traits

I have been thinking a lot lately about what kind of a personality it takes to be a prepper. I really wondered what it takes. Do I have the ability to be a prepper? Or am I just drawn to it because it is the fashionable?

Lately I’ve been seeing a billion political posts from certain people on my social media, complaining about the state of our country and the world. That’s fine. I have my views. However, that is not part of the topic today, as that just gets too heated for me. I read these posts from friends and family. They are worried about the direction things are going. For me, I’ve noticed a shift in my response to these posts since I’ve started prepping.

My first question has become, what are you doing to prepare for something that you’re worried about? How are you going to protect yourself and your family? It has very much become a different mindset for me. Going from complaining about something or listening to someone complain about something, to asking the important questions. How likely is it that X Y or Z could happen? What would you do? Do you even have the right mindset, or are you just someone who wants to complain and worry about it?

This shift in my response really started me thinking about what it takes to be a prepper, and I have made a list of the key personality traits and things that will help a prepper.

Organization. Organization is absolutely essential to prepping. I’ve seen many preppers who spend all of their time collecting and buying stuff. I’ve often wondered if prepping is a pretty word for a hoarder. Or, if it’s just one step behind being a hoarder. Well it’s really not… if you’re organized. Being organized can keep you safe. Rotating your food supplies, knowing what items you have and where they are. Knowing how to use them as well This is essential to being a good prepper.

Patience. A prepper’s work is never over. It is a constant mindset and you can’t ever be too relaxed, or think you know it all or have everything you could ever need. The truth is, you’ll never have everything you will need or have all the knowledge you need. If you stick with it and keep stocking up and learning, you will be far ahead of most people though. Prepping isn’t just a trip to the store and a bunch of stuff. It takes time to accumulate, and practice to use.

Willingness to Learn. Prepping is so much more than stocking up on stuff. You have to be willing to learn new skills. You don’t have to be a master at everything or a genius. Think about when your grandparents were your age. They were farmers, car mechanics, veterinarians, chefs, doctors, butchers, and so much more. All of these skills rolled into one person. Were they perfect or knew everything? Not even close. They had general knowledge of everything, but the expertise of none.

But, they had the basic skills down, so they rarely had to call in an “expert” unless something big happened. I want to strive to be like that. Where at least I have the basic skill set to take care of things myself. Start simple. Ask someone to teach you to change the oil in your car. Or trim your pet’s toenails, or try growing something in a pot on your porch. Start with basil this summer. Research things, and try it out. Be willing to fail as well. Failure means you try something different and learn.

Ability to Adapt. What happens when a plan fails? You adapt. Try something different. Or try doing it yourself. Learn and grow. Use it as an experience to help you in the future. Life doesn’t give us wisdom from a book. It comes from experience. Experience equals failures. We need to adapt and keep on moving. This would be where flexibility comes in as well. Nothing ever goes exactly the way we planned it. That is life right there. We have to be flexible and willing to adapt and keep on going.

Planning. You want to plan things out to the best of your ability. Nothing ever goes according to plans exactly, But without a plan to even try following there is just have chaos and panic. That way when things don’t follow that plan, you’re still prepared and you can respond accordingly. Planning is training for your mind. You’re training your mind to be ready in the event of an emergency. I wrote a post about fires recently, and one of the things I spoke about was exits from your home in the event of a fire.

Typically the front door would be the first exit we all think of. Ok, you’ve planned to do that. Now what happens if the front door is blocked by the fire? Where do you go then? Keep planning, and be a step ahead. Obviously the first plan of using the front door may not be viable. Go to the next plan. It’s the ability to think several steps ahead and be ready for things. This includes far more than home fires. You will want to plan everything as much as you can.

Drive. What drives you to prep? For some it would be fear, others to protect their loved ones, Others just want to be self-sufficient and live away from society. There are a ton of reasons why people prep. Think about why you are prepping, or even simply thinking about becoming a prepper. What is your motivation? There has to be some sort of driving force there to make you want to be successful at it, and keep moving forward. If there isn’t, prepping is probably not a lifestyle for you, to be perfectly honest.

Think of it like this… if you hate cooking, you wouldn’t open a restaurant, right? There is no drive or passion for owning your own restaurant and serving food. You’re pretty much doomed to failure. Think of prepping the same way. You need a drive, motivation, or passion to do it, and keep doing it. Without it, prepping is pointless. It’s hoarding at that point.

Introverted. Prepping requires some amount of secrecy and protecting your assets and skills. If everybody knew what you have, and they don’t have it in an emergency, guess where they’re going? They are all going to see you and demand your supplies. This can quite frankly get you killed. Some people are good and want to share their skills and help rebuild things if it ever came to that. Other people just want to take things because they were not prepared, unfortunately. It is good to keep things more of a secret, being very careful about who you trust and talk to. A listening ear can be a running mouth as well.

Prepping is a very complex skill set and isn’t for everybody these days. Think about if you are someone who has the ability to possess the personality traits that I talked about. Some people don’t have these traits. Some people do, but they don’t practice their skills. It is important to do this. Keep your mind moving and if you do start prepping, keep learning. We should all strive to learn new things everyday anyway. This is absolutely essential if you are a prepper.

I always recommend that everyone have the very basics that are essential in being prepared. My recommendation is start with a blackout box. Add in storing water. From there move onto food storage. With these items, at least you have the basics. From there, decide if being a prepper and continuing that journey is right for you.