Mental Toughness is Required - Part One
It all starts in the mind. If you want to live an off-grid lifestyle, you must prepare your mind and heart. This isn’t a suggestion. Let’s be clear, mental toughness is a requirement for a successful off-grid lifestyle. Mental toughness has three key areas of performance. The first area of performance is maintaining a positive attitude. The second area of performance is living in the present, with a small window to the past. The third area of performance is learning to live by the 'slow is smooth, and smooth is fast' mantra.
Maintaining a positive attitude may be the most essential survival and off-grid skill. A positive attitude is a game-changer for individuals, families, teams, and small units. Individuals who maintain a positive attitude, which can be defined as a state of mind that envisions and expects favorable results, and sees the bright side of life (successconsciousness.com), are likely to be dramatically more successful than those who do not. As Walter Scott suggested, “ for success, attitude is equally as important as ability”. It was C.S. Lewis who said, “We are what we believe we are.”
As the US Army Ranger handbook suggests, preparedness begins in the mind. The off-grid lifestyle is not about weakness, because Murphy does not care about your feelings, and doesn’t lose a hand when you need it.
The third stanza of the Ranger Creed is as follows: “Never shall I fail my comrades. I will always keep myself mentally alert, physically strong, and morally straight, and I will shoulder more than my share of the task, whatever it may be, 100% and then some .”
The off-grid lifestyle is all about 100% and then some. When most people think they are at 100%, they are not. Outside of catastrophic injury, you can always give more and do more.
That said, you always have to live in the present. Glory is fleeting, and being prepared for every contingency is an everyday process of preparation, work, and steadfastness. Freedom means preparation, and preparation means living in the present, with understanding of the past, and both eyes looking toward the future. Living in the present means learning from Jesus and not “worrying about tomorrow, because today has enough troubles of its own.”
In any great endeavor, obstacles and setbacks are inevitable. We are constantly reminded of Shackleton and his journey/voyage on the Endurance. Imagine the negative attitudes and emotional “garbage dumping” that could have resulted from everyone being shipwrecked and stuck in the ice. There were no safe spaces.
Yet, despite the ice crushing the ship they were in, and without modern equipment such as snowmobiles, freeze-dried meals, satellite phones, and Gore-Tex, Shackleton managed to bring everyone stuck in Antarctica home. That is being present, and definitely not stuck in the past.
It could only have been done with a group, and individuals set positive attitudes. Positive attitudes are contagious. Toxic emotions are also contagious. I’m not suggesting that people didn’t have bad days while stuck in the ice on or next to the Endurance. What I am suggesting is that they did not fuel a negative attitude; they dealt with it, contained it, changed it, and moved on.
Are you prepared in your off-grid lifestyle to do the same?!
