Personal Survival Skills For The Everyday Joe And Jane

Personal survival skills are important for everyone to learn. It could mean the. difference between whether or not you survive. Regular challenges such as keeping your apartment safe from hazards, driving or walking to and from work, avoiding criminals or preventing yourself from getting into accidents are just some of the things we all tackle on a day to day basis. Other days, we deal with things like getting lost in the woods after taking a hike. If you think you’re the typical everyday Joe or Jane then, it's just as important to prep by keeping yourself equipped with personal survival skills.

Some Personal Survival Skills For Joes And Janes

These personal survival skills can evolve to fit your current lifestyle. You can practice a possible worst case scenario on a daily basis and formulate a way out of it. The good thing about this is when it does happen, you will react naturally and, hopefully, won’t panic. Eventually, you might be rewarded with your life.

1. First Aid

These are personal survival skills that an everyday Joe and Jane should really have. This could really help you or your loved one to survive and function despite having injuries or being ill. Some of the most common injuries are snake bites, sprained ankles, burns, hemorrhage, hypothermia, poisoning, heart attack and infected wounds. Choking or breaking an arm or a leg is life threatening in itself. Once learned these skill can indeed be a lifesaver.

Basic first aid includes:

• How to perform CPR
• What to do when someone is choking
• How to save someone who's drowning
• How to treat bleeding
• How to treat burns
• How to carry someone heavier than you
• How to deliver a baby from a car, or anywhere

2. Making an Improvised Shelter

At some point in your life you will come to face the elements of nature. Should you be stranded in the middle of the road due to a blizzard or a snowstorm is gut wrenching. Maybe getting caught in a flood or basically stuck in a place with no hotels or inns nearby. You can stay in your car but keeping yourself warm and dry is a must. Having a tent will do. Assuming you don’t have one then a poncho or a tarp is the next best thing. If you still don’t have that then, using broken branches and leaves will do. Learn how to build one here. 

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3. Building a Fire

Keeping yourself warm and cooking food are among the few things that fire gives to meet your survival needs. Starting a fire would surely come as a challenge without a lighter or a box of matches making it one of the necessary survival skills. But do you know that there are countless ways to start a fire? Once you learn to build a fire, it will become a lifesaving technique. However, don’t overlook the fact that you have to maintain that fire. A bottle of alcohol or tinder will do the trick. A firestarter, like the Everstryke Lighter, will also come in very handy. Get yours right here.

The basics of starting a fire:

• Identify your ignition source – (wet matches, magnifying glass, lighters, friction bows, magnesium and flint)
• Gather tinder – (dead plants or grass, pieces of paper, wood shavings, birch bark, dry leaves)
• Gather kindling – dry twigs and wood pieces, cardboard, large pieces of wood cut into small pieces, and fuzz sticks (sticks with shavings cut into them, but still attached).
• Gather log or bulky fuel sources
• Create a small area for your fire
• Pile the kindling loosely in your fire area.
• Place tinder around your kindling.
• Ignite with your ignition source and slowly blow into the burning tinder or kindling
• Gradually add the logs

4. Finding Water

You must learn this survival skill to get drinking water from rainwater or other bodies of water. A portable water filter will do the trick. But there are also other crude ways to convert undrinkable water into something that is safe to drink. You can prevent yourself from getting dehydrated which can result to a number of other side effects making you not to function normally. Oftentimes, it can be fatal.

Some tips to finding water in the wild:

• Keep an eye out for lush vegetation or growth. Trees and plants usually thrive near or above a natural spring.
• If you find a small water source, follow its stream to its big source.

My favorite tool to effectively and efficiently filter water, the Aquastiq is perfect for any survivalist. Shop for it here. 

5. Finding Food

If you run out of food, learning to hunt for game or catch fish can be the next best thing, if you have the tools that is. Plus, you have to put in a lot of effort to do these things. Do you know that foraging is the easiest source of food for survival? Learning where to forage for plants that are safe for eating and how to prepare them can be learned online. If you could watch a movie for a few hours, why not learn these survival skills instead? It could just save your life. Learn more about food preparation in the wild here.

6. Learn to Navigate

Getting lost in the wilderness and not knowing where to go has proven to be fatal for a number of poor souls. Having a GPS is indeed a must, but what if you lose it or find yourself not having one in a survival situation? Some companies build watches equipped with a compass. But it is best to learn the basics. A needle and a small puddle of water, a basic compass and a map, or looking at the sun or the stars are a few tricks that people have been using for ages. Knowing where your bearings are, like which way is North, South, East and West, can truly be helpful even when in an urban environment where asking for directions is very common. You can read more about navigation basics here.

7. Self Defense

Learning how to shoot a gun can be the most basic way of defending yourself. Should you run out of ammo there’s not much you can do. Nowadays, a taser and pepper spray is a great must-have everyday item. If caught without these things, a stick, a rock or even a handful of dirt can be a good way to defend yourself with. Learning basic martial arts skill can certainly be a game changer. Know about the essentials of self-defense right here.

8. Tying Basic Rope Knots

Learning to tie knots like the figure eight knot and the mid-rope clove hitch knot are just some of the most basic knot-tying skills that can help you get through a survival situation. Whether it is rappelling or climbing a cliff, keeping things in place like a splint or just keeping a tent in place, nothing so basic can seem so important when it’s your life that’s on the line. You can learn more about tying knots right here.

9. Mental Preparedness

Oftentimes, it the state of the mind that determines if one can truly get through a survival situation. No matter how prepared a person can be, if they're unable to stay composed when it's needed most, they'll likely end up dead. Of course being physically able still matters. Being mentally prepared helps you function accordingly, even under stress. There are mental tools and certain strategies that can aid people to cope better for these things.

Watch this survival video by Survival Life in how to start a fire using only a 9v battery and steel wool.

The personal survival skills mentioned above are but a few of the things that you need to know about. Even if you think that being alone in the wilderness or getting stranded in a snowstorm is most unlikely, you should prep these survival skills. You must remember that no one wants to be in such life-threatening circumstances, it just happens. The next question is…when it does happen to you, will you be ready? Or just roll over and die?

Did this article on personal survival skills pique your interest? Then you can learn more here.

If you’re looking for useful survival gear that you can’t make at home, check out the Survival Life Store!

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Featured image via Shutterstock | Oleksandr Schevchuk