Conflicts of interest is defined by Merriam-Webster as “a conflict between the private interests and the official responsibilities of a person in a position of trust.”  OK, but what does that have to do with prepping or suburban homesteading?  A lot, if you think about it.  Having conflicts of interest in your life will keep you from achieving your goals and getting to a point in life where you experience full joy, happiness and serenity.  In this article, I’ll walk you through identifying and correcting any conflicts of interest in your life and help you move towards a more sustainable prepping lifestyle.

What Is A Conflict Of Interest?

We need to define a conflict of interest before we get into how to handle them. Simply put, a conflict of interest in the prepping world is something that adversely affects your survival, sustainability and future happiness.  You are in control of these issues.  Socio-political issues such as who the President is, what Congress is doing or what the countries finances look like are not things you control.  They cannot be considered conflicts of interest.

Examples Of Conflicts Of Interest

Like I mentioned above, conflicts of interest with regards to prepping are things that are within your sphere of influence.

Take your finances for example – are you in debt?  Do you know how long it will take to pay off the debt?  Being in debt directly affects your ability to survive, sustain and be happy and is, therefore, a conflict of interest to your sustainment.

How about your retirement planning – do you know where your money is allocated in your 401(k)?  Do you understand the funds you’re investing in?  Not knowing where you money is invested and how it’s doing is a conflict of interest to your long-term happiness.  You do want to retire someday, right?

Take a look at your kitchen and pantry – do you have enough food to last a week? Two weeks? A month?  A lack of food is a conflict of interest when it comes to your long-term survival in a situation where heading to the grocery store is not an option.

In a general sense, anything that negatively affects your health, safety and well-being is a personal conflict of interest and needs to be dealt with for survival, sustainment and happiness to thrive.  Even something as important as your job c a conflict of interest.  Does it stress you out? Are you seeing negative health effects from it?  Time to start thinking about whether that job is more of a help or a hinderance to you and your life.

Oh Crap – How Do I Get Out Of This Mess?

First things first – relax.  There’s good news here.  Ready for it?

You got yourself into this mess which means you can get yourself out!

That’s right – you did this (whatever this is) to yourself.  You ran up the debt or gained the weight or didn’t stock the food.  And that means you can undo it.  But there’s no easy button.  It’s going to take time and hard work.

And you have to do it!  There’s no team of helpers coming to swoop in and save the day.

You have time.  Remember, it took years to run up those credit card bills or gain that spare tire around your middle.  The next bit of good news is this: it won’t take you as long to unwind these knots as it took to time them.  In fact, you might be able to unwind them in as quick as half the time it took to make them!

How Do I Unwind The Knots?

The first thing you are going to do is grab a notebook and a pen.  On the first page, I want you to write the following:

Things In Conflict With My Survival, Sustainability and Future Happiness

Below that line, write the first thing that comes to mind.  Skip two or three lines and write the next thing that comes to mind.  Continue this process for as long as you need to.  Put the notebook down and come back tomorrow.  Start again.  Do a couple iterations until your staring at the notebook and can’t think of anything that is a conflict of interest to your survival, sustainment or future happiness.

Remember those blank lines you left?  Here’s where they come in handy.  Go back to the beginning and write a sentence on how you can fix that first problem.  Do the same thing on the second question.  Continue this process until you have a sentence or two solution for each conflict of interest.

Do you know what you have now?  A PLAN!

That’s right – you have a plan to address and fix ever conflict of interest you identified in your life.  It might not be easy – it probably won’t be.  It won’t be quick.  But you will be able to conquer all your problems and move on to living a happier, more sustainable, life and know that your survival is not being hindered.

Feeling a little less chaotic and worried?  I hope so.  I know I was when I went through this exercise.

What’s Next?

Your plan probably took up anywhere from five to ten pages in your notebook.  Don’t worry if you took up more or less room. Everyone is different.  Now I want you to turn to a fresh page and write the following at the top:

Things I Need To Survive

Under that, write Food.  Go to the midpoint of the page and write Water.  At the top of the next page, write Shelter.  At the midpoint of that page, write Energy.  Turn the page and write Security at the top.  Go halfway down from there and write Health / Sanitation.  Finally, at the top of the next page, write Money.

These are the seven areas we’re going to concentrate on in future articles for your prepping survival.  Money and financial independence are something we’ve already spoken about previously.  In my opinion, it’s probably the single most important thing you can take care of for your survival, sustainment and future happiness.

Be on the lookout for future Prepping 101 articles on the first six items listed.

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Dan

Founder/Owner at Suburban Steader

I am a middle-age guy with a wife, two young kids and a crazy dog. We live on Long Island, NY and had an interesting experience with Hurricane Sandy. That experience led me towards the self-sufficiency movement and eventually led to the founding of SuburbanSteader.com. I aim to provide suburbanites with the confidence and know-how to become more self-reliant by providing content on topics such as gardening, personal health, financial responsibility, cooking, self-preparedness and self-protection.