Survival Attitude

I’m going to tell you three stories that illustrate what today’s post is all about. See if you can figure it out before I reveal the secret.

First story — Forty-nine-year-old Theo spent 3 days lost in the Michigan woods. The weather was nasty and the rain thoroughly soaked him.  At night, his clothes froze. Theo was not a smoker, so he carried no matches or lighter to start a fire.  He didn’t intend to stay overnight in the woods, so he had no supplies with him, and his only food consisted of rabbits that he caught and killed by hand and ate raw.

Next story — Two young women were lost for 4 days in the rugged wilderness area of Yellowstone National Park.  They found some small bird eggs in a nest and ate them.  “The eggs were warm, so they weren’t too bad,” one of the girls later commented.  There were grasshoppers and ants in the area, and the girls said they considered eating them, but they were rescued before they had the chance.

Final story — Seventy-nine year old Francis was lost for 4 days on the rugged slopes of a 4,000-foot mountain in Oregon. She kept herself going by eating wild berries, sleeping on a bed made of ferns, and using survival techniques she learned years ago. When she was rescued, she apologized for the huckleberry stains on her hands, and shooed away photographers as she was carried to safety.

Okay, so what’s this all about? You might be thinking this is about surviving in the backcountry by finding and eating wild foods. But we’re not talking about food — we’re talking about survival. And survival is really about overcoming the odds, reaching down deep inside ourselves and going beyond what is normally required of us.  It’s about attitude.  These stories are about people who adjusted their attitudes and overcame their fears and food prejudices and they managed to live for several days in conditions of hardship.  They all had an attitude about surviving, and it was that attitude that pulled them through.

It is no secret that 90% of survival is psychological, and only 10% is really about the rest of it.  This is easily proven by the countless stories of people who have stunned the experts by living through situations that defied all the rules of logic.  People survive extremes of heat, cold, dehydration, starvation and all forms of misery for only one reason — they are unwilling to accept defeat.

On the other hand, there are countless other stories of people who gave up and died when they should have survived.  Without sufficient will to live, they just didn’t rise to a fighting stance, look adversity in the eye and defiantly spit.  They gave up.

Survival is an individual thing.  The old saying holds true — whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re probably right. On the extreme negative side, there is a condition of psychological dysfunction in which people become exceedingly depressed and simply give up, or they may fall victim to full-blown panic.

In urban survival situations, we often see folks sitting around waiting for someone else to come along and save them. They have an attitude of entitlement, an expectation that the some government agency is supposed to make sure they live through the crisis. They cease to function in pursuit of their own survival. When that happens, the death toll rises.

So it isn’t always the food, water, shelter, warmth or any of the other physical aspects of survival that make the difference— sometimes it’s the attitude.

The question is, “What is the proper survival attitude?”  The simplest answer is that it’s a fighting attitude.  If you’re not willing to fight for yourself, you might not survive.  Somewhere, down deep inside, you must find a controlled level of hostility toward the situation, a burning anger, a righteous indignation. Identify the enemy, no matter what it is, and then fight for your life against every threat. Never give up. Never!

No matter how you choose to define the attitude, control it. It’s a defiance, not a wild rage.  Clench your fist, grit your teeth and hiss, “I ain’t going down!” Then let that attitude motivate you to appropriate action. No matter what happens, you must always believe that you are going to survive.

Your attitude needs to involve four spheres of influence — yourself, the situation, others in the group, and your possessions.

• About yourself: Your attitude must be one of confidence.  It’s normal to feel a certain level of apprehension or even fear. Courage is nothing more than pressing on in spite of fear, and continuing to work toward a positive solution.  Do not allow your fears to grow to the point that you think you’re not going to survive.  You are in control of your own thoughts, and if you need to shout out loud to yourself that you’re going to make it, go ahead.  In fact, the steady sound of your own voice speaking with firm resolve may help calm you.  Use only positive affirmations when having these little discussions with yourself.  Say things like, “Okay, I know I can get a fire started.”  Don’t use negatives in any form, such as, “If I don’t get a fire started, I’m going to freeze.”  The brain and the body respond without prejudice to both positive and negative mental inputs, so focus on only the positive.

• Regarding the situation: You must deal with reality.  Develop a clear and realistic assessment of the situation — where you are, what the weather is doing, your physical condition (illness or injuries), and the condition of everyone in the group.  Make a mental note of every asset, every item of equipment right down to your shoelaces, your survival knowledge and the skills of every person in the group.

• Concerning others: Your attitude must be one of cooperation and compassion. Some may react negatively to the situation. Deal with them in a manner that inspires confidence and a willingness to pitch in and help solve survival problems.  The most unlikely individual might rise to a leadership role. Be prepared that this individual might not be you.  This is no time for office politics — be a good leader or a good follower, whichever position you find yourself in. But always bring a positive influence to the group. If you think you know something that the leader needs to consider, take him or her aside and discuss it calmly and in private in a non-confrontational and non-condescending manner, so there is no appearance of mutiny.

• Finally, about your possessions: Your attitude must be one of careful and protective use of every resource, so as not to lose, waste or ruin anything.  In a group survival situation, there is no such thing as a personal possession, because your knife or your compass might be the instrument that is used to save the whole group.  That doesn’t mean you freely give your knife to some club-fisted oaf so he can ruin it. Retain physical possession, but the benefit belongs to the group.

Survival is all about attitude. Whether you’re a 79 year-old woman who is lost in the mountains, a group of hunting buddies trapped by a severe storm, a young family that is suddenly stranded in the backcountry by a landslide that closes the trail, staying alive is a process that begins in the brain.

Once your attitude is right, you will be more successful as you work through each challenge. 

Let's Talk Terrorism

In light of recent events, it's time to talk about terrorism. Juval Aviv was the Israeli Agent upon whom the movie Munich was based. He was Golda Meir's bodyguard — she appointed him to track down and bring to justice the Palestinian terrorists who took the Israeli athletes hostage and killed them during the Munich Olympic Games. Needless to say, he understands terrorists.

Here is a report that contains a little of what he has to say about America’s approach to handling the issue of terrorism, both on a national scale and as individual citizens.  

So, what can America do to protect itself? From an intelligence perspective, Aviv says the U.S. needs to stop relying on satellites and technology for intelligence. We need to, instead, follow Israel's, Ireland 's and England 's hands-on examples of human intelligence, both from an infiltration perspective as well as to trust 'aware' citizens to help. We need to engage and educate ourselves as citizens; however, our U. S. government continues to treat us, its citizens, 'like babies'. Our government thinks we

'can't handle the truth' and are concerned that we'll panic if we understand the realities of terrorism. Aviv says this is a deadly mistake.

Aviv recently created/executed a security test for the U.S. Congress, by placing an empty briefcase in five well-traveled spots in five major cities. The results? Not one person called 911 or sought a policeman to check it out. In fact, in Chicago, someone tried to steal the briefcase!

In comparison, Aviv says that citizens of Israel are so well 'trained' that an unattended bag or package would be reported in seconds by citizen(s) who know to publicly shout, 'Unattended Bag!' The area would be quickly & calmly cleared by the citizens themselves. But, unfortunately, America hasn't been yet 'hurt enough' by terrorism for their government to fully understand the need to educate its citizens or for the government to understand that it's their citizens who are, inevitably, the best first-line of defense against terrorism.

Aviv also was concerned about the high number of children here in America who were in preschool and kindergarten after 9/11, who were 'lost' without parents being able to pick them up, and about our schools that had no plan in place to best care for the students until parents could get there. (In New York City, this was days, in some cases!)

He stresses the importance of having a plan, that's agreed upon within your family, to respond to in the event of a terrorist emergency. He urges parents to contact their children's schools and demand that the schools, too, develop plans of actions, as they do in Israel ..

Does your family know what to do if you can't contact one another by phone? Where would you gather in an emergency? He says we should all have a plan that is easy enough for even our youngest children to remember and follow.

Aviv says that the U. S. government has in force a plan that, in the event of another terrorist attack, will immediately cut-off EVERYONE's ability to use cell phones, blackberries, etc., as this is the preferred communication source used by terrorists and is often the way that their bombs are detonated.

How will you communicate with your loved ones in the event you cannot speak? You need to have a plan.

Avoid Abduction

I received the following bit of information about a technique that is apparently being used to kidnap women at shopping malls or other locations having large parking lots. Let me pass it along to you with all due caution about dealing with strangers, no matter how nice and helpful they seem at the time. 

"About a month ago there was a woman standing by the mall entrance passing out flyers to all the women going in. The woman had written the flyer herself to tell about an experience she had, so that she might warn other women.  The previous day, this woman had finished shopping, went out to her car and discovered that she had a flat. She got the jack out of the trunk and began to change the flat. A nice man dressed in a business suit and carrying a briefcase walked up to her and said, 'I noticed you're changing a flat tire. Would you like me to take care of it for you?'  The woman was grateful for his offer and accepted his help. They chatted amiably while the man changed the flat, and then put the flat tire and the jack in the trunk, shut it and dusted his hands off.  The woman thanked him profusely, and as she was about to get in her car, the man told her that he left his car around on the other side of the mall, and asked if she would mind giving him a lift to his car.  She was a little surprised and she asked him why his car was on other side. He explained that he had seen an old friend in the mall that he hadn't seen for some time and they had a bite to eat, visited for a while, and he got turned around in the mall and left through the wrong exit, and now he was running late. The woman hated to tell him 'no' because he had just rescued her from having to change her flat tire all by herself, but she felt uneasy . (Trust that gut feeling!) Then she remembered seeing the man put his briefcase in her trunk before shutting it and before he asked her for a ride to his car.  She told him that she'd be happy to drive him around to his car, but she just remembered one last thing she needed to buy (Smart woman!!)  She said she would only be a few minutes; he could sit down in her car and wait for her; she would be as quick as she could be. She hurried into the mall, and told a security guard what had happened, the guard came out to her car with her, but the man had left. They opened the trunk, took out his locked briefcase and took it down to the police station. The police opened it (ostensibly to look for ID so they could return it to the man). What they found was rope, duct tape, and knives. When the police checked her 'flat' tire, there was nothing wrong with it; the air had simply been let out.  It was obvious what the man's intention was, and obvious that he had carefully thought it out in advance. The woman was blessed to have escaped harm. How much worse it would have been if she had children with her and had them wait in the car while the man fixed the tire, or if she had a baby strapped into a car seat? Or if she'd gone against her judgment and given him a lift?"

Use Your Brain

It's tempting, in this day of high-tech gadgets, to switch off our brains and let the electronics do our thinking for us. An example — this past weekend, a Nevada couple followed the onboard GPS in their SUV as it lead them into trouble. They were traveling across the desert of eastern Oregon, letting the GPS direct their route, and they ended up getting stranded in deep snow on a remote forest service road.

Make no mistake about it, I am an advocate of GPS and other technology that can (I said CAN) make life easier and safer. But it is unwise to mindlessly follow a digital voice as it tells us where to go. The GPS has no idea of conditions on the ground — in this case that a huge winter storm had dropped 18 inches of snow that would block the route it was telling the couple to take.

GPS has no way of knowing if a rockslide has closed a highway, or if there is flooding, or a tornado, or a forest fire, or a chemical spill from a wrecked 18-wheeler. That little device, as awesome as it is, can only do so much. The rest is left up to us to figure out.

That's why we need to maintain (oh-oh, here they come, my favorite two words) situational awareness. That means:

• keeping our eyes and ears open to what's happening around us 
• listening to weather reports
• calling ahead to get the latest info about route closures
• watching the sky
• watching for deteriorating road conditions
• and then using common sense in our decision making

As it turned out, this couple finally made it home after an unexpected 3-day delay with their vehicle stuck in the snow. After 2-1/2 days, the couple was able to make a connection with their cell phone, and a deputy sheriff found the couple and used a winch to pull their 4-wheel-drive Toyota Sequoia out of the snow. According to the deputy, the couple was well-equipped for winter travel, carrying water, food and warm clothes.

During winter travel, equipment to add to the list includes a shovel, chains, a winch, and devices that can call for help (such as a personal locator beacon or SPOT Satellite Messenger).

No matter how much equipment you carry, there is no substitute for using your brain to make decisions about whether or not to proceed down a snow-covered forest road in the middle of nowhere. Don't let some digital voice coming from a little black box lead you into trouble.

Save Your Life

There is a piece of equipment that can save your life. Stick with me for a minute, and I'll tell you how.

Tonight, a huge portion of the midwest, from the Canadian border to Texas, is struggling to recover from fierce winter storms that have stranded hundreds of motorists in white-out conditions and blizzard-driven snow drifts. In the midst of the holiday season, traffic is heavy as friends and family members travel to get together, placing more people than usual at risk. Even if you're an experienced winter driver, it is so easy to become blinded by the snow, slide off the road, or plow into a drift and get stuck.

The trouble is that most travelers are not prepared to spend hours or even days in their vehicles awaiting rescue. No — most folks think they're always going to be able to make the trip without incident, so they don't bother to take a sleeping bag, food, water, and other necessary items for winter survival. When they get stranded, they run the vehicle engine so they can operate the heater to stay warm. Before  long, they're out of gas, and now they can't move even if the snowplows come along and clear a path.

If you think I'm kidding, just read this report from the Associated Press — "It's really been horrible," Wichita County Sheriff David Duke said. "Although we live in north Texas and get a lot of cold weather, we weren't prepared for the significant amount of snow that we've received. Only two of the sheriff department's vehicles have four-wheel drive, so rescuers used their own pickups and the heavy 5-ton brush trucks normally used to fight fires to get to motorists, many of whom ran out of gas while they were stuck in traffic stalled by the storm." This is serious business, and people die right in their vehicles — not always from accidents, but also from hypothermia.

So, what's the miracle piece of equipment that can save your life? It's an adapter to allow you to plug in your cell phone to a 12-volt DC outlet in your vehicle. If you become stranded and have to call for help, you don't want the cell phone battery to die in the middle of your communication. By plugging into the vehicle's cigarette lighter, you can keep the phone alive so you don't lose the connection with rescue teams.  Even if you don't know exactly where you are, they have the ability to track you to your location if the connection is still active.

So if you don't already have an adapter in your vehicle, get one and carry it always. It could make all the difference in the world.

Be Prepared Always

The past few days have delivered evidence of why it is a good idea to be prepared always for the situation to run amok.

First to England, where hundreds of travelers were trapped on the underground train when the weather caused a mechanical breakdown of the system. There they sat, no food, no water, no heat or air conditioning, and no idea how long they would be stranded like that.

Next we go to the airports along the eastern seaboard of the U.S. where thousands of travelers were trapped by winter weather and cancellation of flights. Not only that, but ground transportation was halted by blizzard conditions that strangled all routes of travel. There people sat, waiting for Mother Nature to give them a break.

And let's not forget about airline passengers being held like prisoners on airplanes for several hours while their planes sit on the ground unable to fly. In December 2006, lightning storms and a tornado warning closed down the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, stranding passengers on some planes for as long as 9 hours. In February 2007, a winter storm led JetBlue Airways to leave airplanes full of passengers sitting on the tarmac at Kennedy International Airport for nearly 11 hours. From January to June of this year, more than 600 incidents like this kept passengers stranded on airplanes for more than 3 hours without the ability to disembark.  


Out of all this there will be thousands of individual stories about having to endure miserable conditions, living like so many cattle that had been herded into tight quarters and left to stand or sit or lie down on a cold, hard floor and await some future that they had no control over.

Keep in mind that being stranded applies to subways, bus travel, trains, and even your own personal vehicle. The weather can (and does) almost instantly shut down all forms of transportation. When that happens, wherever you happen to be, that's where you'll going to have to live for a while. Might be at your office, at the mall, stuck in traffic, or the places already mentioned. 

As always, there are lessons to be learned from the suffering of others. There are only so many rational things you can do — among which I offer the following:

• Never leave home wearing clothing that cannot serve as adequate shelter and insulation in the worst possible weather conditions for the season and location. A pocketable rain poncho is worth its weight in gold (even at present inflated gold prices) when you're exposed to wet weather.  In addition, wear clothes that will keep you warm if you end up sleeping on the floor at an airport. 
• Always wear shoes that are comfortable enough for you to walk 5 miles, and sturdy enough to protect against damage to your feet from cold, wet, rocky or muddy conditions. 
• Always carry some kind of emergency food such as granola bars.
• Always carry a water bottle, and keep it refilled when you encounter drinking fountains. NOTE: See prior posts about contamination problems with municipal water, and act accordingly. 
• Keep your cell phone charged so you can call for help, or to notify friends and loved ones about your predicament. During the emergency, limit use of the phone to only the most essential calls, to preserve battery power. 
• Carry along with you some form of low-tech entertainment — playing cards, a cribbage board, a book to read — to keep you from going nuts during the delay. By engaging other stranded folks in a game, or lending them a spare book, you will be doing a kindness for others. 
• Check your attitude at the door. Becoming impatient and cranky will not speed the resolution to the problem. Sharing a calm demeanor with everyone around you will undoubtedly help. This is when a good sense of humor, an abundance of tolerance, and a willingness to help others will be like gold. 

Personal Responsibility

One of the funniest, yet ironically tragic, video clips that circulated on the Internet some years ago showed two well-dressed business people entering the lobby of a modern building. They stepped onto an escalator to catch a ride to the next level up. Midway between floors, the escalator suddenly stopped, as if someone had pulled the plug. At first, mild irritation showed on the faces of the two who were riding the escalator. That was soon replaced by foot tapping, finger thrumming and repeated glances at wristwatches as the frustration built. Then came the shouts for help. The man yelled into the empty echo of the vacant lobby, “Hey, someone help us. We’re stuck here.” The woman joined in the effort to vocally summon help. But there they stood, tapping their feet, thrumming their fingers, helplessly waiting for someone to come along and lift them the rest of the way to their destination. As time went on and the escalator failed to start again, and no one came to assist them, their shouts for help became more and more demanding, but neither was willing to simply pick up their feet and walk to the next level.

It was hilarious as a political video clip aimed at pointing fingers at one of the parties. But beyond the humor it was tragic because it perfectly displayed a condition that is all too real in today’s world where, when we get stuck, we expect someone to come along and bail us out. We expect it! We’re entitled to it — at least that’s the concept that’s promoted by organizations (including the government) that profit from keeping people dependent.

The truth is that if I can keep you dependent on me to solve your problems, then I can either tap into your wallet directly or into the government’s wallet (which is really your wallet) to keep me in the lucrative “rescue” business. I won’t even start to go into the vast variety of “entitlement/rescue” operations that are at work in our society, each selling the fable that you are incapable of making it on your own without their help. But just look around and you’ll be amazed at how helpless these organizations want you to feel, so you’ll be intensely grateful to them for saving you from everything; never mind the fact that what they’re really accomplishing is the destruction of the human spirit of independence and self-reliance.

Now, I’m not saying that some people don’t sometimes legitimately need outside help. What I am saying is that, to the degree that we are capable, we need to be willing to walk up the escalator on our own when the thing breaks down, rather than just stand there and scream for somebody to come and carry us the rest of the way. 

My message here isn’t about what you “deserve” or what you’re “entitled” to in life. It’s about how to take personal responsibility for your own welfare and then reach out and help the next person. It’s about reclaiming your human spirit, discovering what you are capable of, and not waiting around for someone to come along and convince you to remain incompetent, impotent, unqualified, powerless, helpless. It’s about the eternal truth that was spoken by a great American president who said, “Ask not what your country can do for you … ask what you can do for your country.” And the beginning of that is to ask what you can do for yourself.

Doing what you can for yourself does not mean that you isolate yourself from the rest of society, become a loner, a recluse, a stubborn person who wouldn’t accept help from someone else if his life depended on it. I’ve known people like that — they get in a jam, you show up to lend a hand and they wave you off as if you’re some kind of irritating gnat. They’re grumpy, bitter, and resistant to any offers of assistance. Well, that’s not what I’m talking about when I say that we all need become responsible for our own welfare.

Actually, it’s just the opposite. Taking personal responsibility extends to how you interact with the community around you. Assuming you live in a free and safe society, you benefit greatly by the strength of that society — it helps keep you safe and offers a type of communal strength that is not available when you’re on your own, having to come up with your own water supply for every drink you take, your own food supply for every bite you eat, constantly having to watch your back lest the Barbarians ambush you to steal everything you’ve got. So, recognizing that the community, the neighborhood, or even just the family provides a lot of comfort and security, you own something in return. If you go off the deep end and isolate yourself, turning your back on everyone else, you violate the core concept of personal responsibility. Because you are personally responsible to contribute to the community.

Don’t misunderstand the concept of personal responsibility and self-reliance. Part of your responsibility is to be willing to help yourself to the degree possible. And don’t shortchange yourself here — don’t set such minimal standards with low goals and ideals that it takes no effort to reach them. Do what you can for yourself, and then look around and see whom else you might be able to help. That’s what it means to take personal responsibility.

If you think you are incapable, consider the true story about Rudy Garcia-Tolson. Born with multiple physical problems, including a club foot, deformed hands, a cleft lip and palate, by the time Rudy was five years old he had already endured 15 surgeries. At that young age, he was forced to face the choice of spending the rest of his life in a wheelchair or amputation of both legs and then trying to learn to walk on prosthetic legs. Rudy, at a time when most kids never make a decision more daunting than choosing between Frosted Flakes or Fruit Loops, chose to have his legs amputated.

Of course his parents and doctors were involved in the decision, but they were his legs, and ultimately it was his choice to make. It’s called taking personal responsibility.

So, what did Rudy do, now that both legs had been sawed off through the knee? He began swimming, then running, then cycling. By age 15, he had won a Paralympics Games gold medal. In 2007, he broke his own world record … twice. He competes in triathlons (swimming, cycling and running), was the first bilateral amputee to complete an Ironman 70.3 triathlon, and has set a goal to complete the grueling Ironman World Championship Triathlon in Hawaii.

During his early life, Rudy was honored with the Arete Courage in Sports Award, the Spirit of de Vinci Award, and many others. He was chosen to carry an Olympic torch, and People Magazine named him among 20 teens who will change the world.

And it all started with what most people would consider a disability (read: inability). Rudy, however, doesn’t dwell on inability; he thinks in terms of ability. What he can do, not what he cannot. What he has left, not what he lost. “I don’t ever really think about the fact that I’m an amputee,” Rudy says.

I call that heroic personal responsibility.