One key to successful survival preparation is avoiding common mistakes many of us have made or are making.

Here is a brief list of common mistakes those preparing for a survival setting have made.

Telling People about Your Supplies

This prepping mistakes been mentioned a lot: if you tell all your neighbors about your 3-year stockpile of food and water in your storm shelter, then guess who’s going to come banging on the door when SHTF?

It isn’t just bragging to people about your prep supplies which could put you at risk though. You could inadvertently be “telling” people about your supplies by having them visible. For example:

• Are your rain barrels in a conspicuous location in your yard?
• Are your solar panels hidden?
• Do you really plan on using your generator in the midst of a large-scale blackout?

Not Running Practice Drills

The best way to learn is through experience. And the best way to get “experience” in disaster planning is to run test drills. I don’t mean that you should put yourself in a war zone or parachute into the middle of nowhere with no rescue means. But you can run practice drills of SHTF scenarios. Here are just some of the basic drills you should run periodically:

• Disaster communication drill: disperse your family members and try to get in touch using your communication plan
• Go 3 days without using the electricity or plumbing in your home
• Go backpacking in the wilderness with just the contents of your Bug Out Bag
• Get to your Bug Out Location without a map and on different routes

Failing to Prep for Personal Disasters

Prepping for major SHTF situations like EMP, bioterrorism attacks, or economic collapse is great, but don’t overlook the possibility of a small-scale, personal disaster occurring!

For example, I know a prepper who recently lost his job, can’t pay his mortgage, and might have his home repossessed. Instead of paying for a pricy storm shelter on his property and buying fancy survival equipment, he would have been better off planning a way to pay his mortgage quickly. So make sure you consider all of the personal disasters which could happen to you, like fires, flooding, economic troubles, and home invasions.

Lone Wolf Mentality

This is by far the biggest prepper mistake that I hear and read about. Almost everyone glorifies the idea of bugging out in the woods by themselves with nothing but their BOB and wits to survive. If you have this mentality, then consider the old proverb: If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

We humans are social animals by nature, and this has been key to our success for millennia. It wasn’t our brute strength of speed which allowed us to kill mammoths and climb to the top of the food chain – it was our ability to work together.

Everyone makes mistakes, especially if they are trying to anticipate future events and how they will play out.

Learning from the mistakes of others is one way that we can improve; this list is only partial, but each can pose major problems to a survivalist if not addressed.

To see other common mistakes survivalists make, check out Primal Survival.