Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
What is more daunting than the list of survival skills one must accrue to be prepared for a true collapse? If you really sit down and think about it, you probably have some skills that would translate to a fallen world. While things like navigation, building a fire, and constructing a shelter are all popular skills, there are still lots of overlooked skills that will be crucial after a collapse.
Dig into these 11 overlooked skills and see what you should learn and what you might already have. We have dedicated the last section completely to the lost art of people skills. Things like good communication are going extinct in our modern society though they are incredibly valuable.
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Survival Skills
Basic Combat Strategy
Sun Tzu’s The Art of War gives you enough to chew on for a lifetime. Beyond that one book, you might also want to understand movement in formation and how to conduct something like a flank or an ambush in battle. Feints, like in boxing, can lay bait for your enemy so they can be taken off guard.
Apocalyptic generals will no doubt be in high demand, but a little basic combat strategy can go a long way in dealing with bands of marauders or even greater forces that assume they are going to ride in and take what is yours.
Treating with Herbal Medicine
There is a lot of focus on herbal medicine in the prepping world. The identification and foraging of medicinal herbs is something people get really passionate about. However, you can't truly get into herbal medicine without making herbal remedies yourself.
Sometimes the idea of a skill in the collapse is more exciting than actually using it. A great example is fever. You aren’t feeling well, you have a headache, which is the time to reach for the tincture or willow or to make that dogwood bark tea.
With herbal medicine, you want to stick to the old survival adage of, “Limit the FIRSTS.” It shouldn’t be your first time giving your child an herbal medicine when the hospitals have been closed for months.
Firearms Training & Maintenance
It is true that America is the most armed nation in the world. The questions are all about training level. Do the Americans know how to use these firearms they possess? From the 9mm to the carbine, have they ever even shot their weapons?
Well, becoming proficient in things like dry fire practice, range drills, gun safety, and of course firearms maintenance can go a very long way. These skills will not only be important from a proficiency standpoint, but they will also be critical in training people who need to secure your community.
Self-Reliance Skills
Butchering Animals
The hopes of many, even preppers, in a collapse is that they will be able to arrow or shoot a deer and add venison to the SHTF menu. How many of you reading this know what to do once you have downed that deer and need to turn it into venison chili?
Not only is butchering an incredible skill for you and your family, but in a survival community situation, there will be plenty of people willing to barter and trade for your butchering skills. If you can skin and break their deer down into usable parts, then you will always have a job!
Not to mention butchering goats, sheep, pigs, cows, and even down to squirrels.
Rudimentary Building and Blacksmithing
Things are going to break in a collapse, and Lowes and Home Depot won't be open. So, how do things get fixed? You can solve a lot of problems if you know how to shape wood and steel.
It only takes a few tools to shape wood. You will need a forge or the ability to make very hot fire to heat and form steel. Here are some blacksmithing basics.
Cooking
Cooking has got to be one of the most overlooked and underutilized skills of modern times. The Door Dash and fast-food age have given way to obesity and the high crime of a $20 burrito, but worse yet, it is stealing away a generation's cooking abilities.
When you understand ingredients, cooking techniques, and baking, then you can do quite a lot with very little. The simple act of making bread each day in your home puts something on the table that everyone can enjoy. Today, a loaf of bread might seem banal, but in a collapsed world, it is a staple food.
Knowing how to prepare tough and undesirable cuts of meat will also have tremendous value in the fallen world. Not only will you be able to feed your family, you could also teach others.
People Skills
What gets left out of many survival and prepping publications are the skills used to manage people. Most importantly, the ability to manage groups of people in a collapse situation. You are going to be dealing with all kinds of emotions and situations.
Leadership
A leader will arise in a collapse. Who will that leader be? This is of major concern as our world is facing a similar situation. Many are calling for the dethroning of western leadership with very little thought to what will take its place.
The point I am trying to make is that a leader will show up, and it is best if it’s you because you know what steps need to be taken. You might even be a decent person. Remember, if a bad leader drives a post-collapse community into the ground, then decisions can get really dark really fast.
Communication
Like leadership, the more dire things the more important good communication becomes. Whether you are managing an entire survival community or just your family, it is going to be important that you not only communicate clearly but that the people you are surviving with know how to do the same.
Gaps in communication can lead to all kinds of problems. Be honest, take your time, and be very clear about what you need or want.
Conflict Resolution
Conflict is unavoidable in a post-collapse world. That will be conflict amongst people within your community and, of course, there will be conflict between groups.
Resolving conflict requires several things but you can have success even in post collapse circumstances.
- Set a Meeting
- Use Neutral Ground
- Consider a Neutral 3rd Party.
- Be Prepared to Compromise
Negotiation
Ask any prepper about barter, and they will know exactly what you are talking about, but I wonder how many have considered bartering skills. For a barter to take place, there is going to be a bit of negotiation.
The barter is not the only place that negotiations could take place in a collapse. Decisions in the community, between neighboring groups, or even to avoid serious conflicts, this skill will come in handy.
Networking
Your ability to network and build groups sharing trust will be one of the most important survival skills of all. From networked groups you will be able to get intel about the bad guys and the resources.
Surviving a long time in a collapsed world is going to take people. You are going to need allies and numbers unless your plan is to remain hidden from all threats. When it comes to surviving things like attacks, I always like the adage, quantity has a quality all its own.
Networking will help you achieve that.
Conclusion
The things about survival skills is that most of them will make your life much better. Prepping for collapse leads you to a life of self sufficiency, and it is a much better life!
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