Grounded and Ready for Whatever

Prepared, Not Panicked

• Shay • Season 1 • Episode 1

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We explore the difference between a prep mindset and a panic mindset and show how calm planning, situational awareness, and simple drills help you make better choices under pressure. Practical steps, real examples, and clear priorities you can use today.

SPEAKER_00:

Peace peace to all my good people out there. Welcome. So this episode I'm going to talk about the prep mindset versus the panic mindset. When it comes to being prepared and just being ready for shit, basic functions of life, I feel like, and again, don't do anything that doesn't resonate with you. This is just me giving my opinion on some shit, and if you take it, cool. If not, that's okay too. So the prep mindset versus the panic, you're always thinking about how can I leverage the best scenario or the best course of action in this particular scenario. Meaning, let's just say you're out at the grocery store, minding your business. Before you walk into the store, know exactly where all the exits and entrances are. And I try to be pleasant uh presently mindful of all the people coming in and going out of the grocery store. Now, I do understand that's a lot to do, especially if you have kids with you or you're pressed for time and you're trying to focus on the task at hand. I get that. I get all of that. But what I just want to convey is that you gotta be more present of your security now more than anything, and your situational awareness because there are fucked up people out here and they do fucked up shit every day, B. And we are just trying to go about our everyday lives, and these people have their own mindset or agenda. They could be going through their own things too, and they decide today is the day that I'm gonna fuck shit up, and you just going about your way. So if those things are gonna happen, if everything happens for a reason and that's what it's gotta be, I would want myself to put me in the best possible scenario or situation so I can come out on top. So I'm looking at the entrances and exits, I'm looking at the people coming in and out the store. I'm making sure I'm looking to make sure if there's anybody sitting in random cars or if anybody's acting erratic, or you know, whatever. I might not be hyper focused on those things, but I'm focused on those things. And that is just a preparation of a mindset of being situationally aware. Having mental resilience, I think, is more important than the gear that you carry or the preps that you make or the plans that you try to put in place. Because if you don't have the mindset to do the things when you're supposed to do the things, all that other shit doesn't matter. Because you'll get to that scenario, you'll get to that situation, you'll get to that time where you have to make a decision and your mindset ain't right and you're already done. Because you didn't know, or you didn't think to know to prepare yourself for this particular moment or any moment that's just like it. For instance, let's say you make a prep for an earthquake. You have your water, you have your food, you have your first aid, you got all of that stuff, but you don't mentally prepare yourself for the devastation that might come after said earthquake, especially if you're in like the zone of destruction. Like you're already setting yourself up for failure in a certain way because you don't know that people are gonna come looking for the preps that you made. You're not already being, you're not making yourself aware of there might not be a street to drive away for for help. There might not be electricity for you to cook those preps. There might not be a door or a roof or anything for you to stay secure in that area. So then what do you do? But at least you have the mindset to know that that shit might happen, so you know to get your preps and maybe have to know how to get out of there. You have to have a map, you have to have the mindset to know that you might have to leave that secure place, even though that might be your secure place. But that is what I mean with having the mental resilience to know that when shit happens, you gotta do the things that you gotta do. And this is called the psychology of crisis versus panic. It means staying calm under pressure and not just calm, but rationally think about it. I know people that the second that there is a crisis or situation or something, they fold up into a ball or they immediately go from zero to a hundred and just always attack a thing or just get rah-rah at it. And these people are not the way to let them lead in a situation or a scenario. You have to be calm, even under pressure, and if that's something that you know that's a flaw of yours or something that you're not strong in, you gotta practice at it because that is that is a key thing. Breaking problems down step by step. That sounds a lot easier. Actually, for real for real, that is a lot easier than a lot of people don't um say that it is. If you break a problem down versus going 100% to the solution before you even know how to get there is a key. Let's say you have a leak in your ceiling, let's say that, and the first thing you think of is oh my goodness, we're gonna die from mold. How? How do we get there for that? No, the problem that we have right now is that the ceiling is leaking. So let's get a bucket and stop it from ruining the floor, and then the next problem would be to stop it from leaking. What do we need to do? Let's cut the water off. Let's hope that stops it. Step by step with the problem, and then coming to the solution. The solution ultimately is stopping the water, and then next level up, how do we correct this water? How do we fix this? You know, that's what I mean by breaking it down step by step. Don't go from solution to problem just like that. It has to happen in steps, especially in a high pressure situation, because so many different things are happening. You need to have a focus and you need to slow down your thinking in order for you not to make mistakes or for things to happen that you didn't really plan on happening. Preparing in advance. If you have a roadmap, when disaster strikes, you at least have a better idea of people that don't. If you know you live in a flood zone and it gets bad, listen to the notifications. Don't think that every little thing is going to be a torrential downpour. Because the way that weather is weathering lately, a light little uh rainstorm could end up being a mtoon. And if you're in a low-lying area that you know floods, what is your plan just in case it does when you're there? Where do you go if it is there? Do you stay? Do you leave? Do you have preps for that? Do you have a raft or um life vest? Part of your planning. If that's the situation. Again, I understand that this sounds like a lot to do, especially with all the things that we have to do in life. But if you just look at it and just take it in pieces and build on what you can build on when you can, it's a lot better than doing absolutely nothing. But the most thing you can do is focus on what you can control. If you can make plans today to at least safeguard certain things for tomorrow, do that because that's what you can control in your inner world. If you can uh buy an extra prep item today and not next pay period, cool. Let that be what you can do in your capacity, the things that you can control. That is what planning is. And what's panic? Panic is feeling overwhelmed by the fear and the stress of all the things. And I know I know that that is a lot easier said than done. But when you let that overwhelming fear cause panic, that next level of you're so flustered that you don't know what to do, and that you're so out of sorts that you start doing dumb shit unnecessarily, then that is when panic has ensued in you. And that's when you have to reverse it and see the signs of it, so you can make a conscious choice to stop it. Freezing or reacting emotionally without a plan is panic. If a situation is happening and you ultimately think on emotion that this is the thing to do, that's panic. Impulsively doing something without a clear plan is panic. Now, if you make a choice about something because you've thought about it and said, you know what, it's flooding and we ain't got we don't have a way to get out of here, but we do have a wrath, I'm taking that raft. That is an impulsive decision, but it is it was based on clear planning from the get-go. Saying that, oh, it's flooding over here, I'm just gonna go hide in the corner and hope that it doesn't, it it misses me is panic, is a panic action. And that leads to, if you're panicked and certain shit goes down, that leads to forgetting to get the things that you already planned to get, like your gear, or getting lost, ultimately for plans that you had a place to go. You knew you were gonna go to site B, but you panicked and said, I don't know where I need to go. Or making unsafe decisions, like going into somebody's yard at night and not knowing whose yard that is because you're in a panic situation. That is panic, making panicked decisions. Don't do that because we have the capacity in our space right now to plan accordingly for things and to make better decisions if we don't panic. Train your mind to default to calm planning versus panic planning by just practicing situational awareness daily if you can. Observe your surroundings and think about what if scenarios, even just like the grocery store or going to work, riding the metro, riding the train, riding the bus, driving your car, going to the park, practicing situational awareness daily is a big help to just you know focusing your brain on these scenarios and situations to make you come out on top. Ask yourself, what would I do if this place lost power? If a fire broke out, and if I had to leave immediately, what would you do? And if you have kids or you take care of people, or your spouse or your uh whoever you live with or whatever, that's an added stress onto you that you have to focus on them, those people as well, not just yourself. That's another thing that has to be prepped and planned for, too, mentally. Some people like try to do you know, training for the stress, which is a good thing. If the more you experience controlled stress, the less likely you are to panic when real stress hits. So if you do little drills or simulations of a thing and you're mentally going through the steps, that can help you. So when it actually happens, it's just like you practice and you're controlling your stress level before it happens. So when it does happen, it doesn't seem like stress, it just seems like another drill. But that's also why a lot of times, you know, they they do active shooter drills now because they happen so often, which is so fucked up. Another conversation for another day, anyway. You want to make sure that you develop clear but simple plans to break your bigger problems, like I said before, into smaller, manageable steps. Example, if your power goes out, first check on your family. If your family isn't in your vicinity, if you have a kid at school or a spouse at work, then check on them if you can to see if they have power. Then if you are at home, check to see if you have water, all that stuff. If it's a very small but big problem, or if it's a small problem, that's how you you break them down. You know what I'm trying to say. Anywho, having clear priorities doesn't mean you have to figure everything out in the moment, though. Your brain just follows the plan. So if something happens and you just make a plan, it doesn't mean that it all has to work out at the end, it might not, but as long as you start somewhere, then chaos and panic don't ensue, and you can work the problems out as they come. But having the priorities there doesn't mean that that's what it has to be at the end, it's just a goal to get to. Because when there are stressful situations or emergencies or whatever, you need a goal, I'm telling you. Because there will be instances where you don't know what to do. But if you have a goal, like, hey, the world is crashing down around me right now, but as long as I know that there's power, we're okay, or there's water, it's okay, or I know that my family is okay and they're on their way home to me, or they're going to shelter in place, whatever. Learn to recognize your body's panic signals too. If your heartbeat is faster, it's shallow, your breathing's getting real shallow, you'll have shallow, you're having tunnel vision, any of that stuff. Recognize that that's what your body is going through because it's like a warning signal to your brain to say, Hey, something is happening right now, and we need to focus. And if your body doesn't focus properly, is when panic ensues. So learn to slow your heart, recognize it, but learn to slow your heartbeat, recognize your breathing, practice deep breathing or mindfulness exercises regularly to calm your nervous system. If your body starts giving you these panic signals, and in a crisis, you take few fewer deep breaths, and that can break the cycle, the panic cycle, and help you think clearly. If you can, you know, it's kind of crazy if if I don't know, an earthquake is happening and you're trying to focus your breathing so you don't panic. It sounds crazy, but if you focus your breathing when stuff like that is going on, it can calm your body in so many different ways that panicking would never help. In just the simple act of breathing. Staying in physical, healthy and staying physical and healthy is another thing, too. We all know our body's tolerance and limitation levels, and so we know what we can and can't do, and we know if our body isn't in the right shape it needs to be to do the things. We need to make conscious efforts to do those things, and that doesn't mean you have to go to the gym every single day. But if you get out and walk and do what you can do to make your stamina a little bit better, or your breathing a little bit better, or your steps a little bit stronger, that shit matters too. If you consciously try to get better sleep, to eat better, to exercise, that matters. When your body is strong, your mind is strong, and you can handle pressure better that way too. If you're tired, if you're hungry, if you're irritated, a stressful situation can make life so much more fucking worse. I swear it does. So if we can consciously do these things just regularly, if those situations are what come up, one less thing to worry about. Um, lastly, build a support network. If you know you have people you can trust and communicate with, you can make a plan with them, and that reduces the panic and fear a lot more. I know it's hard out here now to actually trust people and fuck with people, whether it's family, friends, whomever, community, but you have to have people in order, you have to have certain levels of trust with people in order to accomplish certain goals. That don't mean trust everybody, but that does mean to trust them at certain levels, that's okay with you, if you know what I mean. Certain people don't deserve a level of trust as other people, if you know what that means. So knowing that you have a certain level of trust with certain people helps calm the panic down as well. And if you're with a group or your family or your cohabit, your cohabitant, practice group drills to build shared confidence and teamwork. If everybody in the house knows the drill, everybody's a little bit more confident. If you know it yourself, yeah, you're confident, but your family ain't gonna know what to do, and they're gonna look to you too. And so that could be an added stress too. Because I know people who know the things and who do the things and who are prepped up and down, and they're ready to take on that leadership role when shit goes left because that's what they prep for, that's what they're ready for. But then there's other people who who are on that same level of having all the things, but they're not mentally prepared to be the person to be looked toward when shit goes left. They just know that I need to prep for these things, but someone else will probably take the leadership role. No, my friend, that'll be you. And the sooner you get mentally prepared for that, the better you'll be as well, and you can prepare for that leadership role, unless there's somebody else there who wants it. But anywho, in summary, all of the stuff that I've shared here with you today, you could take it or leave it, but practicing situational awareness is probably the number one thing. There are so many different situations and times where you need to go out in public and interact with people, and depending on where you live and who you go around and who you have to interact with, interacting with people these days is a heavy lift, and on a constant basis for certain things, it's an even heavier lift. So having proper situational awareness just strengthens your your own inner strength of getting through the day and dealing with the shit. That's all I have for everybody today. I really appreciate everybody who listened. Um I appreciate each and every one of you for listening to me today, and I will catch you on the next show. Peace.