So when we’re talking about how to prepare for
tough times, we are right now in Tampa Florida. And this is going to be showing
a few weeks from now so we’ll be surely gone by then. But at this moment in
time, there’s a hurricane headed our way! Here’s what’s interesting: we get all
kinds of news flashes like hurricane, tropical storm, upgrading, downgrading,
dissipating – we don’t know! And every day it changes and gets more crazy,
depending on which channel you’re turned on. I try not to watch it overall because
it is distracting and it does takes us out of life but for those emergency
reasons, I do check in every now and then to see what’s going on.
Here’s what’s interesting: as they start to upgrade this from
tropical storm to possible hurricane, I started watching how my neighbors are
preparing for it. Or not preparing. And here’s what I noticed: many, many, many
people kind of just ignore it. They go, “Oh
it happens all the time. It happens so often. We just have a party. We hang
out, kick back and relax”.
And so I look at that group of people, it’s a lot of people down
here. And I see them as the people who just ignore what’s going on. They look
at something in their life that’s starting to not go the way they want it to
and instead of dealing with it, instead of preparing for it, instead of really,
truly strengthening the mental, emotional, physical muscle to be ready for it –
they just go, “Oh who cares?” And
they end up into a lot of trouble if it does go the way that people say it is
on the news. If it does turn into a huge hurricane, that group of people lands
into a lot of trouble because they did not prepare properly, they don’t have
the necessary tactics tools or things needed to really get through it: a
generator, extra food, water, all the other things they need. And they end up
really in a bad position – go into shelters, out of their homes and that kind
of stuff.
Now the second group, this group prepares. They go out and they get
a couple jugs of water, little bit extra food, throw them in the fridge – but
they don’t really prepare. They make themselves feel like they’re ready but
they only have enough to get to maybe a little bit of time. So they slightly
prepare, they go through the motions, but they don’t really put in the effort.
And the final group, these people overly prepare. They take time to
make a list of everything they’re going to need – extra food, extra water,
generator, back up energy, like all these stuff. They go buy and shop for all
of it. They put it on the right place, they label everything, they get all the
whole family together, they have a meeting of how it works, and they are fully
stocked and prepared. Now what happens is if the big one does happen, they
breeze through it like it’s no big deal because they were overly prepared for
the challenging time.
Now how does this relate to you? If you think into your future,
whether you like it or not, life is going to throw you some curve balls.
There’s going to be things that happen in your life that you do not expect, that
you don’t see coming. Whether it’s a physical ailment, whether it’s a mental,
or emotional, or spiritual challenge, whether it’s a financial challenge –
here’s a question: what do you do every single day to prepare yourself for
challenging times that are going to show up at some point in your life? Some
people just ignore it, pretend like it’s not coming – “Fine, who cares? Live life to the fullest! Screw it”. And they just
go for it, forget it, act like it’s never going to be there. And when they get
hit, they get hit hard. Because they have zero preparation whatsoever,
mentally, emotionally, physically.
Now the next group of people, they kind of go through the motions.
They do the minimum amount of preparedness possible. They might work out a
couple times a week, you know maybe work up a sweat. They might read a book
every now and then, like maybe one a month if that. Based on most of the ti
