The Right Attitude, The Most Important Survival “Tool”

Amidst all the work of stockpiling supplies and preparing survival equipment, it can be easy to forget about preparing the most important piece of survival equipment of all. In fact, some people do the exact opposite, fueling their fear. If there’s anything that can kill you in a survival situation, it’s having too much fear.

Fear is s normal reaction when you are faced with a situation that threatens not only your important needs but also your existence. People fear a lot of things. But in all wilderness survival situation, the fear of getting lost ranks on top of the list. Every individual reacts differently when they are afraid. And being afraid can negatively influence a person’s behavior and will to survive. That is why fear should never be hidden, instead, it should be accepted. It is a natural reaction to any survival situation and the best thing to do even when afraid is to control your fears and  try to make the best of your predicament to increase your chance of survival.

Another aspect that should be considered in any survival situation is panic. Panic is an uncontrolled urge to run or hurry from the situation. Panic is triggered by the mind and imagination under stress. It results from fear of the unknown, lack of confidence, not knowing what to do next, and a vivid imagination. Panic can make a person do bad decisions. It makes a person’s rational thinking disappear resulting in an unwanted situation that sometimes causes tragedy. A panic state can sometime lead to exhaustion, injury, and in the worst case scenario, death.

When placed in an unexpected survival situation you will be forced to rely upon your own resources; improvising needs and solving problems for yourself. If you want to survive then you must ultimately decide to take care of yourself and to not count on others to help you. You must continually strive towards a goal of survival. Picture your goal in your mind and visualize yourself reaching it. A person with a stubborn strong will power can conquer many obstacles. Never give up your goal to live, because without any will to live those lost in the wilderness will likely despair and die.

In any survival situation, there is nothing and no one you can depend on except yourself and your survival abilities. You should overcome every challenges that comes your way. Even challenges that you are not accustomed to. Learn to adapt, overcome and tolerate any discomforts like hunger, pain, darkness, thirst, cold, boredom, and heat. Tell yourself that all of these are just temporary. Always try to keep your cool and collected because it is very important that the right decisions should always be made especially in survival situations.

When things get difficult, you need to be ready to face that difficulty eye to eye and growl back at it. The difficult should challenge your will, causing you to get your back up and get ready for a good fight. That’s a whole lot different than the people who look at that difficulty and defeat themselves in their minds, before they even get close to the problem. Those people are doomed, not by the problem but by their own attitude.

Attitude makes a hung difference when faced with any crisis, let alone a survival situation. Doctors even recognize this, especially cancer specialists. Many cancer patients have succeeded in surviving, when all odds were against them, simply because they believed they were going to make it. They kept fighting until they won the fight. The number of times this has worked is significant enough that medical science is now teaching the importance of helping terminal cancer patients develop a positive mental attitude.

Having the right attitude is such an important part of survival that every military manual which deals with survival starts out with a section talking about attitude. That’s because those with a positive mental attitude are much more likely to survive, than those with a negative one.

Creating that positive attitude isn’t something that happens automatically, it takes time and effort. Even people who are normally very positive and upbeat have to work at creating a positive survival attitude. Their normal optimism may not overcome the circumstances otherwise, simply because the circumstances will be so far beyond their normal lives that they are shocked by it.

So, how do you create the right mental attitude for survival? To start with you have to realize that the only right attitude is one in which you are convinced you are going to survive. You need that positive attitude to get you through. That comes from having confidence and that confidence is based upon your training and ability. So, if you want the right survival attitude you need to get yourself trained up. You need to know what to do and when to do it, when a survival situation comes along.

More than just book learning, you need to try it out for yourself. You need to put yourself in hypothetical training situations where you can use those skills. That way, you will truly know that you can do it. Be careful when you do this though, giving yourself a good safety net of protection, just in case something goes wrong.

As you go through these practice scenarios, you’ll make some mistakes. That’s okay; mistakes are part of the learning process. The important part is that you’ll have some successes as well. That’s what you build on. You take those successes and find an opportunity to use them along with skills that you haven’t yet mastered. Your confidence in the part you can do will help you stay positive through the part that you’re trying to learn. As you conquer that new skill, you add to your confidence, increasing your chance of success by that much more.

This is a gradual process, not something that you can do overnight. Waiting until the crisis hits to start working on your attitude is the wrong thing to do. The shock of the circumstances will be bad enough then, that coupled with an unprepared attitude, it could cause you to make a fatal error.

You see, when you have that positive attitude, you will take action. Maybe your actions won’t be the absolute best actions you can take, but they’ll always be better than just sitting around waiting for something to happen. Action leads you in the right direction for survival; and if you truly are trained, you’ll catch on quick enough if you find yourself going in the wrong direction.

That attitude not only puts you in action, but it keeps you moving when all seems hopeless. Often, it only takes one more step or one more attempt in order to have success. In survival, you can’t ever give up. You have to keep taking that one more step or making that one more try. Otherwise, you never will have success.

Remember the story of the Little Train that Thought He Could? That story is all about attitude. The train was convinced that it could succeed, even though larger trains had failed. It kept telling itself it could and it kept on going until it succeeded. That train needs to be our role model, helping us to keep on going until we overcome.

Attitude also helps you stay focused on what you need to do and not become distracted by irrelevancies. There are always plenty of things to distract you; things that will rob your time and strength, so that you don’t have the strength to do what you need to. One who isn’t focused on survival is much more easily distracted by those things, to their ultimate demise.

When you plan to go on a survival adventure, it is important that you should learn some survival skills and techniques. Because knowing  some basic survival skills can go a long way. It may even be the difference between life or death.

Here are 6 important basic survival tools you need to know for any wilderness survival situation.

1. Maintain the right attitude
2. Know how to build basic shelter
3. Know how to find clean water
4. Know how to build a fire
5. Know how to gather food
6. Hone your natural skills

Survival preparation starts with accepting that emergencies happen whether we like it or not. The only thing we can do is to be prepared when that happens. So, work on your attitude. Make that part of your survival prepping  and get the skills you need. Practice with your survival equipment, always be prepared for the worst and do anything to  give yourself the best chance of survival. Sometimes in survival situations, you can also rely on untested improvisations. Always have a strong will to survive and also wish that you have luck on your side. Learn what you need to and develop confidence in your own abilities. Then, when the time comes, you’ll be ready to growl at your difficulties.