At one point or another in our preparedness journey we are bound to lose our motivation for prepping. Battling complacency and “prepper burnout” is something just about everyone goes through. Even though it’s completely natural, it’s important we don’t let it drag on for an extended period of time.

While the odds are we have plenty of time to prepare, we just never know when something that turns our lives upside down will happen. The danger of becoming complacent for too long is being caught off guard when disaster strikes. 

Why We Get Complacent

There are a number of different things that can lead us to becoming complacent, or just plain getting burned out. As with everything in life, too much of a good (or bad) thing can burn us out. 

Because preparedness is a lifetime shift and long term, it can seem at times that there is no light at the end of the tunnel. This can lead us to say “what’s the point?” or “I give up”. 

One common reason people become complacent about preparedness is because life happens. While prepping is very important, it’s only one part of the puzzle. Sometimes other issues take precedence over preparedness.

How to Avoid Burnout & Complacency

The 80/20 rule: This basically means 20% of what you do will get you 80% of the results. This rule applies to everything we do in life, and is surprisingly accurate.

If we can focus our attention on the 20% of people and the 20% of tasks that have the biggest impact, we can eliminate some headaches, stress and overwhelm. 

Avoid Long Stretches of Doing Nothing: It’s completely normal to need a little time to relax, but we need to be careful that preparedness doesn’t fall off our radar completely.

One week can turn into one month, and one month can turn into one year before we even know it. Even some of the smallest things we do in preparedness can have a big impact, just make sure you are doing something.

Stay Focused: I call this “just in time learning” and it means to start saying no. While there is no end to what we “need” to become better prepared, drinking from the fire hose will not help.

Focus on 1 or 2 things at a time and put some of the other things on the back burner. Don’t allow yourself get overwhelmed by focusing on too much all at once.

Stay organized: Being unorganized will lead you to say “I don’t want to deal with that right now, I’ll do something else”. Doing periodic inventory and rotation will help keep your prepping supplies organized. 

When we clean the house everyday it’s much more manageable than if we wait a month. After a few weeks of letting thins go, that small task turns into a large chore.