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| Mt. McKinley from the north |
Crisis preparedness is by necessity a unique and highly
personal endeavor. Your needs, skill sets, physical condition, comfort level,
budget considerations, and other factors help define how you can create an
effective preparedness plan that delivers peace of mind.
One primary facet of how you approach preparedness that gets
little attention is how you see and understand the world. Clearly, your view of
reality, your position, and the context of your day-to-day existence in
relation to your global horizons are going to largely determine the course of your
preparedness path.
Your Base Camp
It’s important to make sense of who and where you are, as
well as where you want to go in your quest for preparedness.
Allow me to quickly illustrate …
Mt. McKinley in Alaska is the highest mountain peak in North
America--20,320 ft above sea level. Let’s say that vast chunk of granite geographically
represents the challenge of crisis readiness. Some folks aspire to being at the
peak of the mountain, while others would be quite satisfied with finding their
place somewhere on the slopes at an elevation that makes sense for them.
Those eyeing the preparedness challenge surround the
mountain—yes, there are millions of us. We are scattered in every direction all
around, admiring the beauty and recognizing the reward if we succeed.
Does this mean we will all take the same path? Of course
not. We are each starting from a different point and we all have our own unique
objectives to reach on that mountain.
But it even goes beyond geography. Yes, we are looking at
Mt. McKinley from the North or the South, East, West, or points between. We are
at the base of the mountain or maybe 100 miles away. We all see the mountain,
but what we perceive is influenced also by the season, weather conditions, AND
the lens through which we are viewing it.
Polish the Lens
Focus is key at the early stages of our preparedness
journey. The lens we are using to look upon the objective, as well as the rest
of the world, is our own special portal or filter that no one else has. As individuals,
we have shaped, grinded, polished, centered, and coated our own lens through
which we see life. Perhaps that work continues as you make your way.
But for
the preparedness journey, if you know where you stand and why it is you are
seeing things the way you do, then you are going to have a far greater chance
of succeeding … not only in your preparedness ambitions but in life itself.
