The skills we have now and the skills we will need in the future could be two entirely different things. I wrote a post in the past about just that titled “Skills of our past could be our future.” And learning these post collapse skills now will increase our chances for survival in the future.
We might have some of these skills right now but most of the skills we have acquired over our lifetime involve what it takes to survive in modern society.
We need to have computer skills because just about everything we do now involves some kind of computer program. We need accountants, we need book keepers and we need short order cooks but how many people actually go outside and do something that was a part of everyday life 100 years ago.
None of us know what is going to happen in the next 20 years, but as they say “if I only knew then what I know now” and wouldn’t it be nice to learn some of those skills now…just in case?
20 years ago I would have never guessed that I would be living in the “boonies” and married to the love of my life. 20 years ago it was beyond my realm of possibility and only a pipe dream I had occasionally. I was stuck with my “wonderful” ex-wife and a dead end job working week to week. I’ll spare you all the details but I was going down the wrong path and if I didn’t choose to change I was going to be stuck in that rut forever or worse.
Because I chose to change the way I did things and chose to take a realistic look at my future and change who I was, I put myself in a position to take advantage of the opportunity that presented itself 10 years ago, living with Lisa out in the boonies wearing my tin foil hat.
And no I did not write this because I know she will read it…but it doesn’t hurt 🙂
Now I see this country going down the wrong path, I see how brittle our society is and can’t help but wonder how long it will be before the economy crumbles, the food is no longer being delivered to Walmart and we are basically responsible for our own survival?
This is exactly why I want to learn these skills that will allow me to grow my own food, protect my family and heat my home without flipping a switch that the public service company supply’s power to.
Whether we have decided to bug in or we are bugging out when the SHTF there are some skills that will be absolutely necessary, we can choose to learn some of these skills now, or we can wait until it becomes a reality to grow food or die to learn these skills.
What are some of these skills?
Let’s say we do decide we need to bug out, and we only have the supplies we can take with us or already have stored. We are going to eventually run out of supplies and need to be self-sustaining.
Let’s say that things have not totally broken down but because of hyperinflation and over usage of natural resources again we are forced to become self-sustaining. We are going to need these skills whether we like it or not.
Gardening
This is something that is a hobby for most of us today. In the future gardening could become the only way for us to feed out family. Gardening as a hobby is far different than gardening for survival, if you plant corn and the crows come and eat 90% of your crop sure, it’s going to make you a little angry but today you can go down to the local grocery store and but some corn. If this were to happen and there were not a Walmart around this could have much more dire consequences.
Construction
A skill some of us are very good at and some of us have no clue how to pound a nail into a 2 X 4. I lie somewhere in the middle. I can build a dog house but it might take me a few tries.
In the future there might not be a handy man to call when your roof springs a leak, or you might not have the means to pay for those services. You might be able to patch the hole with a trash bag and some duct tape but that is only going to last so long.
Hunting, trapping and fishing
This will become a part of our daily lives just as gardening will. Getting meat to eat involves more than just hunting, trapping or owning animals. You need to skin them, clean them and preserve them because depending on where you live you will need to have some stored for the leaner months.
Food Preservation
Growing food, hunting and ranching are great ways to become more self-sufficient but you need to be able to can that food, dehydrate that food or somehow preserve that food. There are many different methods that can be used alone or in conjunction with each other but remember redundancy is key and that goes for food storage as well.
Primitive skills
Skills such as making tools, clothing, weapons, building shelter, finding water, Foraging for wild edibles, hunting and making Fire are skills that have been lost in modern society. Today we can just use some store bought charcoal and flick our bic and bam! We have a fire. How many of us can actually make a fire without using a half a container of charcoal fluid?
When the Poop Literally Hit’s the Fan
Sanitation is going to become a bigger issue as time goes on in a post collapse situation. Knowing how to make things like homemade soap and detergent are not only going to be necessary to keep our home from smelling like a boys locker room but it will be an important safety measure against disease and sickness.
As time goes on in an SHTF scenario trash will build up, death and decomposition could be everywhere and not maintaining our personal hygiene could lead to sickness and even death.
First aid
This is going to be a skill that everyone will need to know and unfortunately have to use at one point or another. Knowing the basics of wound care, how to treat injury’s such as broken bones and even knowing how to stitch up a wound are skills that you do not need to go to school and become an M.D. to utilize.
You will not be able to go to your local Walgreens or local pharmacy and pick up a prescription so researching herbal medicines might be your only option post collapse.
Alternative Energy
What happens when the power grid goes down? Do you have another form of alternative energy like solar power or a battery bank? Or do you know the process of making candles, making fuel or turning fuel into electricity?
Without the grid if we don’t have these systems in place we are going to be forced to learn on our feet. If we are put into this situation we frankly might not survive. If the power goes out in the middle of winter and you don’t have a way to heat your home you are not going to last very long.
Water Safety
Water filtration and purification could be one of the most critical skills to have. Even if water is clear and looks drinkable doesn’t mean it is. There are all sorts of microorganisms like giardia and cryptosporidium that could make you very sick or cause death.
Knowing the difference between what filtering does, what purification does and chemicals you can use to make water safe to drink are an absolute necessity. Without water it doesn’t matter how much food, water or fire wood we have.
The Survival Mindset
One skill that encompass all of the skills above is the survival mindset. The situation is going to be different than they are today, and people are going to make different decisions than they do today.
People will do things in the future that they never thought they were capable of, good and bad. It’s up to us to decide what side of that fence we want to be on…
Do we prepare now to avoid those situations? Or do we just cross our fingers and “see how it goes.”
Protection and Self Defense
Weapons and crime are going to be part of everyday life and knowing how to defend yourself, your family, your food and your property are going to be an ongoing struggle, especially in the early stages of a collapse.
Whatever your opinions about guns are now you really should at least think of them as an option because your views now could be very different than they are in the future.
What skills do you have that will be valuable if everything we know gets turned on it’s head? You might be interested in this post about post collapse skills that will make you a valuable member of a SHTF community.
Leave us a comment below and tell us what you bring to the table?
I have read lots of lists that tell me what I need to know but I don’t know where to learn it from aside from taking a first aid class from the Red Cross. Are there groups or individuals that use their knowledge to teach those of us without the knowledge how to do any of these things? I am in Southern Missouri.
Hey Emily, I live in Australia and I found that without taking any first aid courses, you can learn a lot of essential first aid skills and techniques from books or YouTube videos, of course it is essential to have practice in the practical application of these skills but some skills can be learnt easily without a first aid course such as the correct technique for bandaging or suturing. While a first aid course is important, you need to know to essential things, how to triage and problem solving, more likely than not, you are going to come across an event that hasn’t been taught to you in a first aid course, keeping a cool head, a knowledge of anatomy and knowing how to improvise first aid equipment may one day save somebody’s life.