CHAPTER 1

Preparing Your Survival Mindset

To survive a life and death situation you must — above all, completely, and without a single doubt — believe that you will prevail, no matter your circumstance! You must have no doubt at all, only absolute, unwavering faith that you will get through this.

To prepare for survival, you must adopt the attitude of a warrior and train your mind, body, and spirit. Only in this way will you understand what it really means to be resilient.

Survival ability begins with knowledge, knowledge builds self-confidence; together, they serve to control fear. Control of fear creates opportunity for action. Action equates to self-responsibility. Self-responsibility fosters self-reliance. Self-reliance equates to resilience. The resilient become leaders. In times of great uncertainty and fear, people need resilient leaders.

Never confuse gear or equipment with actual survival capability. You must look inwards to find the tools that assist you to make it through tough times. Your survival is always hinged to your attitude, so choose one that will allow you to prevail.

Prepare well, survive easily.

Discomfort and inconvenience are valuable experiences that teach us to cope with adversity. Do not shy away from these great teachers.

You can read, watch, and study survival and bushcraft skills all you like, but until you convert that interest to actual "dirt time," it counts for little. So don't count on just your research to keep you alive, get out there and do it.

Muscles do not ensure your survival; only your mindset, determination, and tenacity can do that. Be sure to train each of the latter as much as — if not more than — the former.

Your body is the vehicle that you will likely be attempting to survive in. Prepare it before hand, feed it well, train it well and understand how to keep it strong and resilient. The importance of this principle far outweighs going out and buying another survival gadget that you put in your back pack. In many cases you'll be asking your body to carry that back pack at some point, so get the vehicle prepared before you load it up.

The more you learn about your body's physical and psychological requirements before you face adversity, the less you have to learn about these things during an ordeal. You will have enough things on your mind at that time, so do all you can to reduce the burden by preparing beforehand.

"Knowledge weighs nothing, so carry as much as you can of it in all things related to the survival of yourself, your family, and your community."

— Captain Graham Brammer (Ret.) Australian Army Survival Wing

Good preparation for disasters and crises is more about how you condition yourself to think than it is about what you carry in your pack.

If you never consider the what-ifs in life, you will not expect the unexpected. Accordingly, when calamity is upon you, you will be stunned and unable to respond. To prepare is intelligent, to plan is logical, and to do neither is to accept failure before you even begin the game.

Bad things happen to people just like you all the time, every day, just as they were thinking exactly what you are thinking right now: that won't happen to me! So choose to do something about it. Make a choice to be ready.

Plan! Prepare! Practice! What could I do if A happens, B occurs, or C manifests? What do I need to deal with those things? What alternatives are there likely to be? What do I need to research, practice, rehearse, and upskill on? I choose to plan for survival. I choose to start that plan now!

"Proper prior planning and preparation prevents pathetically poor performance."

— Anonymous Australian soldier

Learn to recognise the stars and the constellations in the night sky, and they will soon become familiar old friends. No matter how far from home you find yourself, look up, and there they are, friends looking down at you. Nothing is quite that bad now is it?

When you condition yourself to be capable with nothing — not even the clothes you wear on your body — and you enhance your ability to draw on intrinsic survival knowledge, emotional intelligence and muscle memory, you can survive anywhere and without anything. This is the essence of resilience. Anything you happen to have with you when adversity arrives is simply a bonus, expect to have nothing and you can't be disappointed.

Pack list for a real survival kit: Initiative Improvisation Creativity Trial and error Grit Determination Adaptability Imagination Visualisation Humour

Always remain cognisant of the fact that: "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change."

— Charles Darwin

CHAPTER 2

Accepting the Now

Accepting the now is perhaps the hardest yet fundamentally most vital aspect of survival. You are where you are. You are in the situation you are in. You are there now. Accept it and get on with it!

The Survival Oath

I accept full responsibility for the situation I am in right at this moment. I will not waste energy of any kind attributing blame to others for this circumstance. I am the master of my own destiny. I will not be a victim in any way. I will respond to the challenge the universe has presented me with. I will prevail.

Anger can be a very useful tool; use it to focus your mind and body intently on the tasks you must complete. Never let it be converted to rage, however; this path only leads to despair. Control your anger! Use it to your advantage!

When at an impasse, activate the mind of a child: play, sing, be curious, and allow yourself to imagine. Solutions will then appear!

When the veil of fear and panic closes around you, just breathe; in for four seconds, hold for four seconds, and out for four seconds.

Control and clear thought will return. Practice this survival breathing as often as you can!

When you find yourself paralysed by fear and indecision, doing anything is generally a better option than doing nothing at all.

When the shock of a life-threatening situation you face finally hits you, STOPA: Sit Think Observe Plan Act

Strive to be like water, and go with the flow. Don't resist the situation you find yourself in. To do so only wastes precious energy.

To survive or not to survive is a choice you consciously make. It's your decision which of those choices you go with. It really is up to you!

No matter how bad things are right at this moment, other human beings are facing and have faced similar situations and have prevailed. That is important knowledge because they were not superhuman. They were people, just like you. They came through, and so can you!

The Survival Tea Ceremony

When it is all too much and you feel completely overwhelmed, sit down and make a cup of tea. Make that tea with your full attention. Make it very deliberately, and use the physical actions of the process to expunge all thoughts of your predicament. Allow your mind to be still. Ask your heart rate to lower and your breathing to slow. Drink the tea deliberately, focusing on its flavour and warmth. Honour, the Time, Energy and Attention (T.E.A) you have invested. Only after the tea is finished should you pay attention to thoughts regarding your situation. At that moment, you will find that you are now in a different emotional space, one with which you can see with fresh eyes the problems you face.

"Tough times don't last; tough people do."

— Anonymous

When you get knocked clean off your feet, stand back up, brush off the dust, and face up again. Never stay down; keep getting straight back up.

The longer you spend denying that something has happened to you, the longer it will be until you do something about it.

In the game of survival, you must focus your thoughts on what you need to do and only what you need to do. Your thoughts must be empowered by imagination and creativity such that you become adaptable. Adaptability is the key, non-linear and unconventional thought patterns are the path to an adaptable mindset. So focus your thoughts outside of the box.

If we allow ourselves to be a victim of our circumstances, we remain imprisoned. Emancipation from that prison is achieved by accepting total responsibility for our immediate present and our future. Ignore totally how, why and who led us to arrive at this place we now find ourselves. It is already no longer relevant to the present or the future. Leave it behind and walk forwards.

Whining and complaining thoughts and words weaken your resolve to prevail. Do not tolerate them in your own mind, do not speak them and quell them in others around you. If your words are not contributing to the solution then they are adding to the problem.

CHAPTER 3

Maintaining the Mindset of a Survivor

Survival in any context is simply a very personal combination of dynamic change management and risk management. To prevail in such circumstances, we must — above all else — be adaptable.

What you need to survive and what you want to have at that moment are not necessarily related.

Be grateful for every cup full of water, every morsel of food, every piece of firewood, and every branch you build your shelter with.

Be truly grateful in your heart; these simple things allow you to survive yet another day. That is a true gift!

Prioritise, prioritise, prioritise! Do only what is important to keep going. Keep moving forward, keep making everything you do count towards your survival.

You cannot waste even a drop of sweat or a joule of energy. You must make every effort you expend count for something that will improve your lot. Every cost to your body must be rewarded with a positive gain. Slow down, think, prioritise, and act wisely.

Consider that you are even here: The odds have been totally against you from the outset of conception, throughout your existence in-utero, birth, and through the journey of your entire life to this point, yet here you are, reading this. That qualifies you as a survivor right there!

So back yourself! No matter what it is that you face, you can get through it and keep surviving — just as you have always done.

When you light fire in a survival situation, you ignite a powerful feeling of I can!

In a survival situation the external environment impacts on your body directly and your internal thoughts, emotions and capabilities indirectly. Through the power of focus, we can empower our minds to shift the equation such that the internal dynamic we experience affects the external environment to our advantage.

Everything around you is a resource willing you to use it for something towards your survival.

In survival we can use our psychology to influence our physiology. By that I mean that we can use breath control to slow our heart rate and expand our awareness. Doing so eliminates fear and panic. We can employ strong personal body language to shift our emotions from that of a state of victimhood to action by simply standing up, standing tall and stepping forward. Bring it on!

Release the full power of your imagination and creativity. Never has your life depended on it as much as right now!

Every single item designed for one particular purpose can always be made to do at least three other things — when you engage your imagination, release your creativity and tap into your unconventionality.

A survival kit may come in a box, but to survive, it is imperative that you think outside of that box.

One way to sum up the attitude a survivor must adopt is that they must:

"Improvise, adapt, and overcome."

— US Marine Corps mantra

Home is a place in your heart that you can re-create anywhere.

The shelter you build is your castle; it fortifies you in every way. It protects you from the elements, but most importantly, it provides you with a sense of place, a focal point, and a sanctuary in a situation over which you have little control.

When your campfire burns brightly in the darkness, the creatures lurking out there in the gloom are driven further back. Always have a good supply of firewood before darkness settles in.

When you lie down on the bare earth to sleep, the Great Mother will embrace you, so do not be afraid. Humans have always realised that they belong to the Earth. You are safe. You are home.

When the going gets tough and the tough get going, survivors rest in the shade and conserve sweat and calories.

Real survival is simple. Pick up the left foot, and place it in front of the right foot. Pick up the right foot, and place it in front of the left foot.

Now just keep doing that. Left, right, left, right.

Before you do anything:

"Observe, orientate, decide, act!"

— Colonel John Boyd

Keep your hands busy and your mind quiet. When time drags and you think too much you start believing things that are simply not real. Your mind conspires to convince you that you need to do more than you are doing. You start putting deadlines on things where there is no necessity to do so. You start making decisions that don't need to be made. You start wasting energy and you start dying. Busy hands; quiet mind!

In a survival situation, you are going to have low moments.

That's just the way it is; accept it. Tell yourself not to react to those low-vibrational thoughts; let them pass. While in their tenacious grip, don't do too much. Definitely don't make any major decisions. The low feelings and sense of despair will pass.

Talk all you like, but do more.

Hang on for another minute, another hour, another day, another week. That's your only task. Hang on!

Survivors are rarely the loudest, most vocal, or most popular individuals in a group. They are the individuals who simply begin doing what needs to be done.

In a survival situation, everyone involved has a stake in the outcome, so everyone must have a voice in the decisions that are made. Regardless of this process however, decisions must still be made. You can't just talk about it forever. At some point after everyone has had their say you have to convert words to action.

The quietest, youngest, most inexperienced and unlikely person in a group can come up with the most practical solution to the most complex of problems. If you are the leader, be sure to listen to everyone.

"No matter how bad you feel, how much you wish to wallow in your own misery, when things need to be done, you just need to get up and do them!"

— Rebel H.

Live by your wits and intelligence, and trust your intuition.

Boredom while waiting to be returned to civilisation can be a significant test. Each day plan and accomplish some small task, something you can do easily without great effort. Something that will improve your lot in some small way. Make a tool, improve your shelter, go fishing, build a fishing net, it doesn't matter really what it is. Boredom can actually kill you, keep it at bay and let small successes add up to survival.

Pain is a good thing; it means you are still alive! Use it as your compass.

Quitting is always a choice you will regret later. Focus your attention on never entertaining or tolerating any thoughts of giving up, ever.

Your life matters; it matters to you, and it matters to the people who love and care for you. You have a duty above all else to make it back to them in one piece. Commit to that duty, get up and keep going!

Anchor your emotions strongly to the desire to return to your loved ones. To hold them and cry with them, to see their smiles and look into their eyes one more time. With such a powerful anchor, you will succeed!

When your number is up and it is finally time for you to leave this world, so be it; accept it with grace. However, until that choice is made for you, you just keep going, keep surviving, and keep living.

If you work aggressively against nature, fighting it and viewing it as the enemy, you will waste a lot of energy, and survival will be hard. Learn to work smoothly with the natural rhythms, ebbs, and flows of nature around you. You will instantly discover that things get easier.

In a group of survivors you have to hand a library of many books, all with knowledge, wisdom, and experience to draw on to help you overcome the obstacles you face. Alone you have just one shelf of books to seek answers within. There is consequently real power in the group.

Keep it simple stupid (KISS); the simpler anything is, the fewer things can go wrong with it, and the easier it is to do when you are exhausted.

When you look deeply into the warming flames of your campfire, you may discover that you can go anywhere in your mind. You can achieve anything with the many gifts you have been blessed with, and you will then know that you will get through whatever is next.