Be prepared. I may have said this before but it bears repeating: I am more of a resilientist than a true prepper or survivalist. However there is a lot of crossover, so much so that at times it is hard to tell the difference. I think my distinction between them lies in the purpose or approach of each. A prepper is planning for disaster(s) that they feel are eminent, whereas a resilientist is looking at having more liberty and freedom in their life whether a crisis occurs or not; and a survivalist is prepping for the worst possible scenario to happen. Another difference between a prepper and a resilientist is this: a resilientist is trying to develop personal liberty with a community mindset, whereas a prepper has more of a soloist mindset.

There is a great sense of security and peace of mind that comes with knowing you are prepared for various hardships even if it is highly unlikely that you will ever need those preparations.  But there are some scenarios that aren’t terribly unlikely, like tornadoes, hurricanes, and ice storms.  They happen to someone on a yearly basis, could your family survive it?  The loss of a loved one is almost never a national or international disaster, but to the family it happens to, this event can be defined as a disaster or crisis because it could be devastating on a personal level. Could your family survive it?  Something as routine as a job loss can be a crisis or disaster to some families. This is where thinking outside the box – seeing things from different perspectives – comes into play.  Some of the steps taken in becoming resilient will help you survive these seemingly mundane “disasters”. Though unsexy and unsensational, they are the most likely types of crisis to occur.

So here’s a good way to start that can help you to show your wife that this is actually a good thing you are doing. Go to the dollar store and buy some $1 toilet paper, $1 toothpaste, and any other $1 household consumable and stash them somewhere that you can use as a storage place for all things like this – but don’t let her know you’ve done it and stash it someplace she won’t find it! Then one evening when y’all are out of toilet paper and she is hating the thought of having to go to the store to get some more, come to the rescue by retrieving your stash of tp. Be sure you do this without her seeing where your stash place is! Let her know you picked some things up to keep around for storm preparedness. After a few times she will start to see the benefit of having household items stockpiled.