10 Preparedness Skills To Learn – Rogue’s 31 Days To Readiness [Day 16]

Gear is certainly helpful when it comes to preparedness. Gear is great, I love gear!

I also love skills, though. I always feel way more empowered when I learn a skill that I didn’t have before.

When I first learned how to use a flint and steel, I was ecstatic! I had a chip on my shoulder, even. Flint and steel is pretty intimidating. It’s hitting steel against rock to create sparks in order to light tinder to get a fire going. In the old days, they’d crack rock against rock which is about the same process, though steel creates a tad more sparks.

My point is, the more skills I learn, the more empowered I feel about my overall preparedness and survivability.

Oh and trust me, the more skills you learn, the more addicted to learning you’ll become. Gaining knowledge is the start, then actually physically putting that knowledge to the test is where it’s really at.

Here are 10 preparedness skills to learn today:

1. Cooking – I know, this doesn’t seem like a ‘preparedness’ skill, but with how often people have been ordering out during COVID-19 pandemic, and how many people have baked bread for the first time; it’s pretty clear cooking is certainly a skill that needs to be learned. One of the most often requests I get is to show how to cook with our food storage. My best suggestion is to find a base then find a recipe based off of that base. For instance, let’s say I have ground beef, what meal can I make with ground beef? Pasta with red sauce and meatballs with some canned veggies? Boom. Meal!
2. Exercise – Exercising is actually a skill that needs to be kept up with. Even if it’s something as simple as jogging/walking around inside of your home, something is better than nothing.
3. Making things from scratch – Like candles, your own healing salve, soap, bread, etc.
4. Sewing – Stitch up your clothing or gear by hand, it’s a very easy and effective skill to have around.
5. Maintenance – Home and vehicle maintenance are certainly skills and ones that I’m learning all the time. Learn how to use basic tools, make basic items, maintain basic things on your home and car.
6. First aid – Learning basic first aid skills is often overlooked and very ‘boring’. I love it and am always eager to learn more. You never know when you or someone you love, or even a complete stranger will need some medical attention, especially if there’s no help coming. We live off grid, an hour away from the nearest hospital so we have to be careful about prevention and have an advanced knowledge of first aid.
7. Mindset – I talk about having a proper mindset all the time. I’m speaking from experience when I say that having the right mindset will propel you forward more than anything else in this world. I’ve had really hard times and the only thing that pushed me forward was my positive mindset that continued to lunge me forward. We all have our ‘days’, but because I’ve trained my mindset, those ‘days’ are actually more like ‘little tiny moments that dissipate quickly’ because I’m able to quickly adjust my mindset and move forward. With a proper mindset, you’ll be able to make decisive actions much quicker.
8. Self-defense – You’d think this wouldn’t be as overlooked as it is in the preparedness industry, especially with how gun-heavy the majority of preppers are. However, advancing our self-defense skills outside of simply buying guns and ammo, is quite overlooked. I believe preppers truly need to spend more time on their own personal self-defense skills, as well as home defense skills.
9. Fire – Learning how to make a fire is a really good skill to know. Start a fire for warmth, cooking, water purification, security and just for fun. Fire can do so many things for us and the more often we practice with it, the more we can understand it and the better we’ll get at it.
10. Homestead/off grid – Alternative energy such as solar, wind or hydro. Learning wild edibles. Knowing how to hunt. How to garden. These are all skills that can help us thrive in any situation, especially just everyday life.

Nobody is saying you have to learn all these skills RIGHT NOW. In fact, so that you don’t get overwhelmed, start by writing down a list of all the skills you’d like to learn. Do an internet search of some other preparedness skills and write it all down.

Then set a schedule to start learning! Maybe 1 skill a month? Can you devote a few minutes a day or week to one skill a month? I bet you can squeeze it in somewhere.

The most important thing to remember is: JUST START!

See you in day 17!