I have recently watched a Massad Ayoob video on surviving gunfights. He said the keys to this are:

Awareness
Tactics
Skill
Equipment

My own little rules for the day are:

Keep your head
Stay focused
Anticipate what is likely to happen so as to be better prepared.

So I started this out thinking more or less of specific skills that a person should be able to do, but of course the mental side of survival isn't nearly that simple. So what I've kind of come to after reading everyone's posts is there are three rough (and someone overlapping) categories of mental survival skills: mindsets, habits and skills/techniques. I came up with five mindsets and habits and ten skills.

Mindsets:
Face adversity with a can do attitude
Think of your family/love ones and fight to get back to them or keep them alive
Love of the natural world (at least for wilderness survival)
Willingness to learn from mistakes
Keep your head in an emergency (or apparent emergency) and listen to input (even from people you don't necessarily like)

Habits (some of these are also skills, but ones you need to practice constantly):
Cleanliness and organization
Plan
Question everything
Observe
Curiosity

Skills/techniques (these are just the end states, for many I think you should have at least two techniques to achieve the end):
Fire
Meteorology
First Aid
Navigation
Stay warm
Cook
Purify Water/Obtain water
Sew/repair/sharpen
Build shelter
Signal

The skills at least mirror the ten essentials pretty well. Not completely, but basically the same. The skills are also geared toward wilderness survival, but I think they're more or less useful anywhere.

"...A fit and conditioned body is better able to cope with cold, fatigue and pain..."

I am gonna be in a world of hurt!!!

MD must have seen the movie "King Rat"..

A sense of humor.

This may sound glib and superficial but it does several things:

1) Stress reducer both yours and others around you.

2) Requires paying attention (if you aren't paying attention, you're going to miss a good joke opportunity and the snake you're about to step on).

3) Requires looking at things a little differently which opens up opportunities (the "hey that rock looks like my mother-in-law" may actually draw your attention to spring trickling out from under it)


I remember a Magnum PI episode where he was stranded out at sea and had a shark circling him. He gave the shark a name and talked to it (which to me watching the show as a adolescent was funny as hell).

I've used that tactic with my daughter for the "monsters under the bed" when she was little. I had her picture the monster wearing something funny ( a pink tu-tu), and make it clean up her room (that monster always did a lousy job at cleaning).

And here I was, thinking that you were calling your daughter a shark... till I finished that sentence.

PMA = Positive Mental Attitude - often the difference between life and death.

Also, cultivating a Zen Mind, or beginner's mind so you don't rule out the infinite possibilities.

Survival equipment is stuff that if used properly can aid in promoting survival.

Survival techniques are those tasks that, when done properly, result in beneficial outcomes intended to promote survival.

Survival skills are knowing how and when to use the equipment and techniques to generate the desired outcome.

Survival mentality accepting that facing a difficult situation is inevitable, and adequately preparing for the potential that all the above will be necessary, and taking the time to acquire the equipment, learn the techniques, and develop the skills so that when the time comes, we are equipped and ready, both mentally and physically to accomplish the objective, which is to survive.

Survival skills, in their order of importance to me, are as follows:

1. Planning ahead

2. Identifying equipment and techniques that provide the best chance of success.

3. Recognizing value for money.

4. Networking, studying the subject matter continously, and regular practice.

5. Staying fit enough to endure.

Those are the top five, anyways.

Ditto!


(though I am working on it slowly and painfully)

This is something my dad, says, "There are no survival skills, just life skills." He uses this in relation to lots of things, but I tend to think about it with respect to cooking. But when I was in high school, I was thoroughly annoyed that my economics class was mostly concerned with nations and wide sweeping theory rather then how to calculate compound interest on a car loan or balance a check book. These are truly life skills and I think at least half the semester should have been spent on it. Instead all we learned was Keynesian theory. Big deal, I'll never be leader of the World Bank, but I definitely will have a check book and credit card and probably a car and house loan.