On a scale of one to ten I'm a twelve in respect of my level of preparedness in many aspects. Overall though, I'd have to rank myself at a hard eight pushing to nine. Being prepared for everything isn't possible - something is always going to come out of the blue - covering every single possibility is not a possibility.
Knowing first aid, financial planning, household fire evacuation plans and fire extinguishers, insurances, situational awareness, self and home defence, having a go-bag ready, knowing where the exits are, protecting passwords and crypto keys, understanding and mitigating threats, preparing for a date-night, educating one's children...the list is endless...all are being prepared. Generally, preparedness is reasonably easy to do and not all that costly either...so being prepared is achievable for everyone.
The expected and being ready
The expected is a mindset a person has, an understanding.
Things go wrong every day and in many different ways. I don't just mean volcanoes erupting, tsunamis, cyclones and floods, earthquakes, wars, assaults, rapes, murders, vehicle accidents, hold-ups, home invasions, riots and civil unrest, house fires, loss of electricity, neighbours who don't bring your lawn mower or power tools back and so on...I mean everything that might possibly go wrong. Cutting oneself when chopping carrots in the kitchen, partners walking out or having affairs, getting fired, flat tyres, losing wallets and purses, no toilet paper at the supermarket, bad hair cuts, failing to get a hard-on when one is required...There is an endless list of things that can go wrong in a human's life.
So the mindset, the understanding, is that one should expect things to go wrong because they will. It is inevitable. Planning and preparing for it is being ready. Sure, it may not stop the situation from occurring, but it may lessen the chance of it and reduce the impact or ramifications.
As I said above, I'm very prepared for so many scenarios and situations and there's no secret to it; I just think about what's possible, what could happen, and expect it to happen. That way, I can move through to risk-assessment and mitigation strategies and techniques resulting in a better level of preparation and increased confidence and self-reliance.
But something is always going to come out of the blue.
The unexpected expected thing
On Friday afternoon I took a phone call telling me there was something wrong with the automatic roller door to the side-road carport at my other house, meaning not the one I live in. Apparently, someone had hit it with a car. I went to look.
I found that no car was involved at all. It was clear a person, (I think persons) had attempted to prise the door with pry-bars or crowbars and gain access to the back yard of the house. The door had been torn off its side track-rails and was mangled. Fortunately, they couldn't get it open far enough to gain access and a thorough look around the property, inside and out, revealed nothing amiss, nor forced house-entry, loss or damage...except to the roller door which is totally fucked.
I reported the attempted break-in at the police station, (a whole story in itself and a total what the bloody fuck moment #WTBF), to get a report number for my insurance company and after a call to them a claim is in play. The door will cost around $1,800 to replace (door, track-rails and motor) and it'll be good as new...until next time.
I use this property, a residential house, for storage.
I keep my off-road camper trailer and box trailer there, kayaks, some tools and other various equipment, most of my big Lego builds and so on inside the house and in a couple garages on the property - a lot of stuff I don't want to lose. Of course I have some risk-mitigation measures in place, but could I ever be prepared for every threat? No, I cannot. All I can do is prepare as best I can and be insured for any loss; not a great level of preparedness, but it's something.
The insurance company will pay for the door and motor replacement, and should I have lost my camper trailer or anything else, they wold pay out for that also. They also sent a crew out to do a make-safe repair as the door was so damaged and the property was not secure. I met them there Friday night around 9pm and before long it was done. The door was battered back into as close to a closed condition as possible and 2x4 lengths of timber were tek-screwed into place from the inside to prevent possible ingress. If the would-be thieves want in, they'd need a fucken M1 Abrams tank.
Something is always going to go wrong in life; the break-in attempt even went wrong for those assholes who fucked up my roller door. It would have gone even more wrong for them had I been waiting on the other side of the door too...I wonder if they prepared for that eventuality? Having the understanding that things will inevitably go wrong keeps me a little more ready for when it does, it's a state of being that I prefer and actively work towards.
What about you folks? Do you put any thought into what may go wrong, the risks that exist around you, and what methods or strategies you could employ to mitigate them?
Do you even feel the need to do so or are you one of those people who believe someone else will come along to help? (I call those people potential victims). I don't know what the police response-time is in your location but here, if I was home-invaded and managed to call the police as the invasion was happening, it'd be over before they got here and I'd be dead, or those that entered would be. I get it though, for some, it's easier to delude oneself that nothing will go wrong or if it does, someone will be there to solve the problem. In reality...well, what do you think? Feel free to comment below.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised so be humble and kind
The images in this post were taken by me.