Survival and Preparedness Resolutions For 2026

The New Year celebrations are over and it is time to get down to the business of setting and executing some positive plans for the year ahead. For preppers and survival minded folks that can have a different feeling than for the rest of society. The resolutions made may be the deciding factor between success and failure if the poop hits the paddles.

Here are a few suggestions for some resolutions for survival purposes for this new year.

1. Fill the holes in your planning before you fill the holes in your pantry. There will never be a point where you have "enough" of anything. There is never enough food because you really can't know how many mouths you will have to feed and for how long. There are never enough bullets because you don't know what level of conflict we might get to. The old adage applies here that "poor planning precedes poor performance". Lets look at just three plans that will help you get ready for the year ahead.

   1. Evacuation plans. Where will you go if you have to leave and why might you have to go. Include maps and brief packing lists so you can see how this connects to the rest of your planning

   2. Rally point plans. How do you get your family back together is the crazy comes on quickly. Where do you meet if home base isn't an option? I would suggest making a little cheat sheet that every member of you family has access to. They may keep it in there vehicle or their backpacks. Something that they have a high likelihood of having with them, On that sheet list meeting locations with codenames and perhaps even codes for specific routes to get there. This may be just for the purpose of saving time in a text and increasing the odds that it goes through. It would be wise to put phone numbers on that sheet too. If you phone gets lost or damaged they might not have the numbers committed to memory like we did it in the old days.

   3. Ration cards. This is just a simple exercise to create small index cards that are a single planned meal using food you have stored at the house. Consider the macro nutrients and calories and balance that with the food you have. This will allow you to have a better idea about how much time you have with the food that you have on hand. It will show you whether you are weak on proteins or fats in your diet planning. It is much easier to fill the pantry when you know what it is you are really short on.

2. You personal fitness is more important than you think. I could go on for days on this topic but let me just start with some very simple basics.

   1. The way you look effects how you feel and how you show up every day. Losing a few pounds and toning your muscles is a simple start.

   2. Your impact that you have on others has much to do with how you look. You want to look capable but not threatening. Dangerous and controlled. It is a harsh reality of life about how we judge everyone that we meet based on these criteria. If you are using situational awareness you will size up everyone in your vicinity and if they look fit and strong you notice. So let them notice you too.

   3. There is no guarantee that we will face a crisis capable of triggering our preparedness in our lifetimes but it is 100% guaranteed that you will face aging and muscle loss as you age. Your health is your responsibility and is a preparation that will not spoil or go out of date.

3. Teamwork makes the Dream work. When there is a crisis who do you expect to have at your home that you will be responsible for? With that many people be enough? Take a little time and do a walk around your house or apartment and try to create a duty schedule for how you would defend the place if you had to. Where would you post guards and checkpoints? What should the rotation be? How long are the duty schedules? You should either realize that you need more people than you have or you need to find a better place to ride out the storm. Team building can help in either case. Start making better contacts with those who think like you do. Look at comments on posts that you like and reply so some that sound aligned with your thoughts. The point is to make digital friends that may turn into real friends. There is strength in numbers and maybe your new friends might want to come play ball on your field or will invite you to play ball on theirs. There are many more ways to accomplish this but the point is that we need to come together in teams quickly in a major crisis because the enemy will be acting on need and will be forced to before you may even consider it.

Planning is the first branch of training in my SL7 system and it spans all the levels of training. Team building is the focus of the last two levels because their is strength in numbers.