What Does It Take To Survive?
Alot of people have their own ideas about survival and
what it takes to survive. Whole (expensive) books have been written on the
topic. This is how I feel on the subject, with the most important qualities
listed first:
1. ) THE WILL TO SURVIVE:
Among survival experts and survival communities it is
generally accepted that the preeminent requisite for survival - beyond all the
doo-dads and geegaws and training and know-how - is simply this: the WILL
to survive. Without the will to survive, there is no hope, no desire,
and no chance whatsoever that, barring rescue from an outside source, anyone can
survive a perilous situation. It doesn't really matter what the situation is or
where it is taking place: a fire at home, a shoot-out at work, a pile-up on the
freeway, a combat mission in Iraq, or being lost and stranded in the
wilderness... without the WILL to survive, all is lost.
There are countless astonishing tales of people surviving
well beyond the expected norm - people who have had no significant survival
training, skills or tools - simply by refusing to lay down and die when
circumstances, the pain in their bodies, and the ravages of their minds told
them that there was nothing left for them to do but die. Babies, children, women
and men - few people really know how to survive, but the common
denominator among those who do is the indefatigable desire to make it through
one more day.
Happily, having found this website and actually making it
this far down the page, you too have demonstrated a certain degree of
perseverance in your quest for knowledge of survival topics. Whether this is
because you actually have an interest in surviving trying times and difficult
situations, or because you are simply doing research for a paper on "those
nutty survivalists" is beyond my ability to discern. If you are here to
learn to survive, go ahead and pat yourself on the back - for you are in fact
exercising, through your own will, that gift that nature has provided each of
us: the instinct for survival.
If you are only here to research an article because you
are "curious" about what makes us tick, you might be surprised to know
that most of us are just as curious about you - and at what point it was that
you decided to turn your back on the natural inclination of self-preservation
and relegate your personal well-being to that amorphous entity (society) that
you seem so smugly content with. I have my own theory about "civilized
society" and how its insidious effect is to numb natural instinct to the
point of despair... witnessed by the rise of suicide and suicidal tendencies in
direct proportion to the size of cities... but that's a discussion for another
time.
2.) THE ABILITY TO SURVIVE:
The term "ability" might (and usually does)
encompass many things, but in this context it focuses on mental and physical
freedom of thought and action. If you can't think straight (because of dementia,
intoxication, etc.), can't think for yourself (cults, taboos, peer pressure,
etc.), or are physically restrained (shackled, imprisoned, restricted by
"authority") from acting in your own best interest, then your chances
of surviving a direct physical or environmental threat are severely limited.
This does not necessarily include physical handicaps. If the will to survive is
stronger than feelings of self-pity or helplessness, a physical handicap may
only serve to enhance other aspects of a person's capabilities - including the
determination to succeed where others might simply give up. If you are healthy,
clear-headed, free to act in your own best interest, and have a developed will
to survive, your chances are very good that you can weather most hazards...
provided that you've been paying attention...
3.) SURVIVAL AWARENESS:
Survival awareness is a developed faculty which, like
a muscle, grows stronger and better with practice. If abused, however, it can
also become "sprained," resulting in harm. Sprained awareness may
result in an over-abundance of caution, hesitancy where action is required,
indecisiveness instead of a clear sense of purpose, or - in the extreme -
paranoia, instead of a sense of assuredness and the self-confidence of knowing
what's going on around you (and which way to jump if things go wrong).
School buses stop at all rail crossings for a reason.
Sometimes things don't work the way they should, and everybody knows that
trains love to eat vehicles. We live in a wonderfully intricate world filled
with all kinds of potential hazards. In the "civilized" areas we have
traffic and crime and drive-by shootings. Various solid objects occasionally
tumble from unseen heights for no apparent reason. Buried gas, sewer, and water
lines in obvious as well as the most unexpected places. High voltage lines and
toppling construction cranes. Innocent looking stairways and cracks in the
sidewalk. Chemical plants, and aircraft that fly into buildings. Muggers,
molesters and panhandlers. In the wilderness we have storms and crevasses and
wildfires. Hungry - or just exasperated - wild animals. Ticks and chiggers and
gopher holes. Crumbling trails and avalanches. Bad water - or no water at all.
Poison Ivy, oak, sumac - and those boys from "Deliverance."
Survival awareness is about recognizing where you are
and where you are going and understanding the potential hazards that might
confront you on your journey. It's about thinking through the task at hand and
understanding the consequences of a failure to focus on what you are doing. It's
about being proactive, avoiding unnecessary risks, acknowledging unavoidable
risks, and doing whatever you can to ensure a positive outcome. With the
acknowledgement of unavoidable risk also comes a plan for handling them, should
they present, and minimizing their effect after an event.
This sounds like alot of work, huh? It's not, really.
The more you exercise your survival awareness, the more "automatic"
and effortless the correct proactive solutions become.
4.) SURVIVAL KNOWLEDGE
Survival knowledge could be an endless odyssey. With
something in the neighborhood of 800 pages and tens of thousands of links
on this site, I'm still finding new information or things I've forgotten about -
as well as many I never knew. I'd have to say that it is, if not completely in
the realm of then right next door to, impossible to find it all, learn it all,
know it all or even compile it all. I've given it a pretty good try - but I've
got way too much time on my hands. Aside from us obsessive compulsive types, no
one should feel compelled to know everything there is to know about
survival in every conceivable circumstance. None of us operates in every
conceivable aspect of life, and so you should learn to "let some of it
go" when it comes to survival techniques. If you don't expect to be sailing
or flying or mountain climbing or hiking to the North Pole, chances are your
need for survival techniques specific to those actions and environs, while
interesting, are of little value to you in the real world.
Survival knowledge is as much about knowing what
you need to learn as it is in knowing about the topics you eventually choose.
Knowing 1001 things about tsunami survival in the middle of the Gobi desert may
be a source of fantastic amusement to the natives, but unless they are really,
really desperate for entertainment it is not going to help your chances of
survival. Knowing which mosses and lichens are good to eat in the arctic is
unlikely to keep your belly full in west Texas.
5.) SURVIVAL
SKILLS
Knowing how to start a fire, build a shelter,
set a broken bone, or fly an airplane is not the same thing as actually doing
each of these tasks. Knowledge is not skill. "Skill" is the well
practiced implementation of knowledge in the correct manner and to the
exact degree necessary to produce the desired result - under any conditions you
are like to face, with or without the preferred and recommended assortment of
tools. The only way to develop and perfect your survival skills is to actually
do them - over and over again - until they become second nature to you.
For instance: To learn how to start fires, you begin with
the easiest method under the best of circumstances - on a clear, dry, warm day
with little or no wind, in a secure location. You learn how to set up a proper
fireplace, how to collect available fuels in your area, which fuels burn best,
hottest, longest, and produce coals or smoke. You learn about tinder, what types
are available to you, which types are best and what will work in a pinch. You
learn how to prepare a fire and then you learn how to start it. You burn fires
of various fuels and sizes, in various places, and learn how the fire and smoke
patterns change with the conditions or placement or configuration. You learn how
reflectors affect heat and light output and burn conditions. You learn all this
by doing it. In doing it - even under the best of conditions - you learn about
smoke in the eyes and lungs, flare-ups and sparks and burns (and burn care).
Cuts and splinters and blisters, and how to treat each of them. Once you become
proficient and confident in your ability to start a fire under the best
conditions with the best tools, you begin to throw in variables: wet or cold or
windy days, damp or poor quality tinder and fuel. When you can successfully
create a proper fire under adverse conditions, with inferior material, while
using the best tools, you begin to vary the tools and methods. Eventually you
will be able to start a fire under nearly any condition, with or without modern
tools and techniques. It is then that you have acquired the survival skill of
"firemaking."
6.) SURVIVAL
SAVVY
Survival Savvy is a combination of INTUITION
(knowledge + awareness), CREATIVITY (will + skill), and ADAPTABILITY (intuition
+ creativity + ability) and is the ultimate culmination of the above five
qualities developed to a degree of confidence. With intuition, creativity and
adaptability there is little that life can throw at you that cannot be turned on
its tail and taken advantage of. Developing and perfecting these qualities is
essential to nearly any circumstance in life and, having been once attained,
cannot be lost, broken, or taken from you.
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