Step 9: Repeat Steps 1-8
The preceding eight steps have outlined the basics for your family’s preparedness plan by covering the basic needs, supplies, and training needed to thrive during a critical event. Periodically, the plan will need to be adjusted as your surroundings and family change. As our environment changes we must react accordingly. For example, the construction of a new nuclear power reactor will change the type of threat facing your family. New construction projects can alter the floodplain of your community, increasing your homes vulnerability to flash flooding. By maintaining the mindset of an independent self-reliant person you will naturally become more aware of potential threats.
New additions to your family will obvious require you to begin the planning steps again, moreover, as children grow, so to do their nutritional and caloric needs change. You may need to alter an otherwise adequate food inventory to accommodate their new appetites.
As new neighbors and friends enter our lives, introduce them to the concepts discussed in these lessons. Challenge your existing friends to find holes in your plans, and do the same for them. Use one another to keep each other in check, and brainstorm new threats and measures of protection. Take classes together. Being prepared creates a new outlook and confidence toward life, although we are never completely finished. New threats emerge every day, and new technologies are always being invented to serve as force multipliers to our success.
Keep pushing your food and water stores to a further survival timeline. Many people have preparations set aside for neighbors and family who do not have the means to acquire such an inventory. In the end, no one ever suffered from over preparation.