Im taking a course about Management & Organization Behaviour. One of the assignments was about how to motivate employees. (My preferred method, “Do your work or go find a job elsewhere” is apparently not the best method.) There was some interesting stuff about when incentives work and when they don’t, that sort of thing. But then there was the question: “List five forces that have motivated you to attain goals (both simple and complex) in your life:”

This was interesting to think about because my motivational imperative has always been my own self-interest. After all, isn’t it reasonable to expect people to put their own self-interest at the top of the list? In fact, I would think that anyone who doesn’t operate out of a sense of self-interest is acting irrationally. Of course, then we have to figure out exactly what we mean by ‘self-interest’.

But the question asked for five forces. Self-interest is just one. So I gave it some thought and realized that as a survivalist, my actions and behaviours follow a pretty simple rubric. I’ll share it with you, not because I think you should adopt it or that its groundbreaking, but rather because perhaps you should think about the framework that you use for your motivations when it comes to preparedness.

Although the question asked for five, I could only come up with four. But, to me, and for me, these four give me a pretty good foundation for how to move forward:

• Self interest – does this benefit me? Or does it at least not hurt me? Does this improve my situation?
• Security – does this keep me from needing the help of others? Does this provide a stable platform or environment for me to operate in?
•  Safety – will this hurt me emotionally? Financially? Physically?
•  Satisfaction – will I regret this? Does it please me to do this?

Example: I really want a Barret 82A1. And, technically, I can open a new browser window, visit my vendor (who has the things on sale right now, dang it), hit a few keys, and have one here Friday. Should I do it?

• Self interest – does this benefit me? (Yes, it gives me massive firepower) Or does it at least not hurt me? (Uhm..that might hurt my wallet) Does this improve my situation? (Yes. It gives me a lovely antimateriel/vehicle/Bigfoot capacity)
• Security – does this keep me from needing the help of others? Does this provide a stable platform or environment for me to operate in? (It provides an additional level of protection from ranged threats or lightly amored ones, thereby making my environment safer)
•  Safety – will this hurt me emotionally? Financially? (Absolutely. There are a dozen better things to do with eight grand right now) Physically?
•  Satisfaction – will I regret this? (Probably.) Does it please me to do this? (yes)

There are too many answers there that should not be there. So, no, at this moment getting the 82A1 is a bad idea, according to the forces that motivate me. Let’s try a positive:

Should I switch my car insurance:

• Self interest – does this benefit me? (Yes. Saves me money.) Or does it at least not hurt me? (Yes, does not hurt me) Does this improve my situation? (Yes. I keep coverage and have more money)
• Security – does this keep me from needing the help of others? (Yes, it transfers risk to someone else) Does this provide a stable platform or environment for me to operate in? (Yes, I can operate my vehicle without constraint)
•  Safety – will this hurt me emotionally? Financially? (No, it benefits me, actually) Physically?
•  Satisfaction – will I regret this? (No, I’ll be gad I did it when I shave a couple hundred bucks a year off my bill) Does it please me to do this? (It pleases me to get the same coverage for less)

So, in this case, my little Magic 8 Ball of motivators says “Yes, do it”. Note that this is a decision-making framework as well as a motivational one. In other words, I use this to help me make a choice (Do I or don’t I), but also to make me do something.

All the answers don’t have to be in agreement. Should I take a crappy job after ten months of unemployment? The satisfaction answer would be ‘no’… I would not be pleased. BUT, all the other answers suggest its a good idea. So you don’t have to be ‘in agreement’ on everything, you just need to be aware of the different factors. And you may weigh some more than others. I weigh being pleased far below being safe financially. YMMV.

None of this is groundbreaking self-awareness. In fact, this is basically just ‘sleeping on it’ when it comes to making an important decision. But by having some guidelines to work against you can compare apples-to-apples when it comes to weighing whether a course of action is better/worse than another. And when it comes to preparedness, there’s a lot of decisions to be made.

Again, Im not saying you should copy my list or anything. I’m just suggesting that you think about what it is that makes you do the things that you do…what are the factors that you take into account when deciding whether or not to drop $1500 on an optic, or talk to a coworker about preparedness, or pack it up and move to the hills.

As I said, my own self-interest is the main thing for me, and when expanded it includes those other three S’s – Safety, Security, Satisfaction. Heck, let’s just call it Commander Zero’s 4S Motivational Process. But thats pretty much it….my motivational imperatives.

You ever look at a high-end ham radio or similar product and they have a ‘tuning’ control and then a ‘fine tuning’ control? The notion being that you make coarse adjustments until youre ‘close’ and then you use the fine-tuning control to really dial it in.

Thats how preparedness seems to go. You do the coarse adjustments (basic supply of food) and then you do the fine tuning (specific food items or quantities).

It seems I’ve pretty much covered the main items and now its time to just fine tune them a bit. An example would be, say, your basic first aid kit. You bought some ready-made kit, tossed it in the cabinet, and crossed it off your list. Now you fine tune it…you replace certain components with better ones, or more of them. You add things that weren’t included. You store it in a better, more protective container. That sort of thing.

I suppose it is basically just upgrading or updating everything I already have to reflect new technologies, new threats, or new attitudes on what constitutes ‘being prepared for XXXXX”. For example, if your preps were predicated on a crippling power outage and you lived in Alaska and since then you’ve moved to Florida…well, you might want to update a few things.

A six-month supply of (very) basic foodstuffs from the local LDS cannery is the coarse adjustment, supplementing it with the Mountain House or long-term canned food is the fine tuning. Three months of living expenses tucked away is the coarse adjustment, gradually bumping it up to six months (or more) is the fine tuning. Getting an EU2000 is the coarse adjustment, getting the tri-fuel conversion and a 500 gallon propane tank is the fine tuning.

Covering your bases with the basic is the coarse, upgrading it and tweaking it out at a later time is the fine tuning.

Of course, some people just skip the ‘close enough’ and jump straight to ‘perfect’. Usually the limiting factor on that is money. But, if you’ve got it, why wouldn’t you just jump straight to ‘exactly what I need’ rather than ‘this will do for now until I can improve it later’.

Although, come to think of it, I think ‘perfect’ is alwys going to be just an unobtainable goal…like the speed of light. You can get 99.9999999% of the way there but you’ll never get to 100%. But, I’ll take 99% over the 0% that most of the sheep out there are sitting at.

It’s difficult to not repeat yourself when you’ve been blogging on a fairly narrow topic for over fifteen years. But, I have to remember that not everyone has been here since Day One. Thus, something I may have said ten years ago might seem like a new idea to someone who has only been following along for two years.

Case in point: I’m sure the longtime readers recall me saying, on more than one occasion, that I believe one of the signs you’ve matured as a survivalist is when you start getting as enthused, and spend as much money and effort, on food storage as you did on guns.

Guns are, after all, the sexy part of survivalism. They are also, probably, the least used prep that any of us have. We’ll wind up using a good chunk of stored fuel, medical gear, food, batteries, and toilet paper before we even make a dent in the M855 sitting in the barn. But..when someone gets ‘into’ preparedness the guns are usually the first thing they get worked up and excited by.

Nothing wrong with that, of course. But go ask a cop which one he uses more..his gun or his pen. If there’s anyone who went through Hurricane Katrina and used more than 20 rounds on shooting at people, I’d be surprised.But, we tend to focus on the gun stuff because its fun.

When someone tells me that they’re interested in ‘being prepared’ or ‘having some things just in case’, almost always the first thing I bring up is food. Sometimes money, but more often than not its food. Then fuel. Communications. Consumables. And eventually we get around to the gun stuff.

Is this to say the gun stuff isn’t important? No, of course not…when you’ve taken the time and expense to lay away thousands of dollars worth of supplies that may literally be all that is standing between you and a very unpleasant future it is natural that other people are going to want those supplies. And, sometimes, their level of insistence cannot be dissuaded by anything less than a pistol or rifle. But look at all the disasters and emergencies you’ve had in your life thus far…I’d bet that the overwhelming majority were ones that were remedied with greenbacks rather than green tip. Unemployment, transmission failures, broken water heaters, medical emergencies, etc, etc… all things that, broadly, were remedied with things other than a case of Wolf.

I mention this because I think its worth repeating… the big End Of The World will happen sooner or later, but not before a boatload of smaller, personal End Of The World happens to you. Put away the AR’s and Glocks, but expect to use all the other preps, esp. money, long before the AR’s and Glocks become needed.