If you’ve been watching the news lately, you probably heard about the man they found who had been surviving, lost at sea, for a year. One full year on open water. Sure he had a boat, but if he hadn’t had the right mindset, he would have died. This is illustrated most clearly by the death of the young fellow who had also been aboard when they got stuck in the situation. Several weeks into the ordeal, the young man died because he was unwilling to eat an uncooked bird.
Now, granted that is not the most pleasant thought, but survivable. We are used to being so terrified that raw meat might hurt us that we would rather starve than eat it. Sure, the young man didn’t die from Salmonella, but he still died. Sometimes you have to drink questionable water. Sometimes you have to eat something you aren’t really interested in eating or that scares you. It isn’t always about knowledge.
Sometimes it is simply mindset. Willingness to do something, anything, before accepting death. Having sampled insects, most of them turn my stomach when not specially prepared. If I am in a survival situation, I will do my best to find more substantial food first. If I fail in that, you can rest assured I will be eating every creepy crawly that isn’t poisonous I find. Don’t let your ‘civilized’ nature get in the way of your continued existence. Just something to keep in mind going forward.
I would suggest thinking over situations that could occur in your day to day life that might put you into a bad place where you needed to take actions you didn’t like to survive. Once you think of a few, focus on the idea of doing those things. Don’t ask yourself ‘could I?’, just say ‘I will.’ and reinforce what you would do to stay alive. Our minds are interesting things. The more we repeat something, the more strongly it becomes a part of us. We create reflexes simply by repeating an action or thought over and over again. The more we play it out, the less it requires our conscious mind to be involved and the more readily we can just do what must be done without thinking about it.
God forbid you ever get stuck on a boat lost at sea for a year, but if you did it would be good to know you can do what it takes to be the survivor, not the casualty.
