I’ve put this list together from a practical standpoint as well as an emotional one, because loosing your home and possessions can be emotionally devastating to say the least, but there are a few things we all could do to help minimize the losses we take in life as well as how to mentally condition our minds to deal with these types of tragedies when they do happen to occur.

1. Having Proper Insurance in Place: I know this sounds lame and obvious, but you’d be amazed at how many people don’t have proper insurance in place for their needs. Renters insurance is cheap, yet very few people that rent have it in place. Homeowners insurance isn’t overly expensive either, but many times lacks the additional riders necessary for a person’s situation. Riders generally aren’t overly expensive either, depending on how extensive of coverage you ask for as well as additional coverage such as flood, earthquake, specialty items, collectors items, etc.

More important than this is actually taking the time to go throughout your entire property and taking video of all of your possessions down to the underwear in your closet, so that when something does happen you have a video list of all your physical possessions.

2. Store Stuff On SD Cards: Along with a video of all your possessions in case of an insurance claim, it also makes sense to make copies of all your favorite photos, family videos, and vital business and personal documents onto separate tiny SD cards. SD cards can be bought in all sorts of gig sizes and are now very affordable to buy.

There are many companies that can take hard copy pictures and put them into high quality digital formats at an affordable price. After you store the stuff you want onto them, make sure you put them in a fire and water proof safe of some sort. You can get a small one for $30 to $40 that will protect your stuff just fine. (Once I get better at this blogging stuff I’ll add links to stuff worth buying, but for now you’ll have to find these things on your own)

You can always put your digital formatted pics, videos, docs, etc, onto any of the applications and social media sites that are online (like Flickr, Youtube, etc), but it is always a good idea to make hard copy files of your most prized possessions and keep them safe, because nobody can guarantee that you will never lose something once it’s stored in cyberspace.

3. Keep Your Family and Friends Close: Regardless of how much we do to protect our possessions, crap happens and many times we have no choice but to rely on friends and family for support through hard times. Don’t ever let life keep you too busy that you forget to let the ones you love know how much you love them (I am so guilty of this sometimes, I feel bad even saying it).

No matter what happens in our lives, our memories of our loved ones is something that can never be taken away, so make as many of them as possible. There isn’t anyone who wishes they had their stuff around them when they are laying in their deathbed, it’s important to not forget the real most important things in our lives. (OK…now I gotta go call my Dad….oh, and then my brother….and also my cousin Nate……….and my old friend Kevin…..)

4. Simplify and Loose Your Attachment To the Status Quo: The more we advance technologically, the more stuff we seem to be amassing in our lives. Now I’m not saying we should all live like hermits in tents, but it does amaze me as to how many of us have these ideas in our minds of what the perfect life or home or car is etc,etc, but never seem to take the time to ask ourselves of whose ideas we are actually making ourselves a part of.

The Media and Advertisers have brilliant ways of tapping into our emotions and making us believe that life is the way they portray it to us. Unfortunately, sometimes the possessions wecontrol…..can control us if we’re not careful.

More importantly it is a very real possibility in this day and age that no matter what precautions we take…..we can still have all of our material possessions taken from us, and or need to quickly leave our homes and possessions behind in the case of an emergency. (So the less attachment we learn to have to the things in our lives, the better off we may be)

5. Make Your Mind Your Most Prized Possession: Regardless of what happens to us in this life, we’re all stuck with ourselves and our own minds. I recently finished reading “Mans Search For Meaning” and I must say that even though some parts were disturbing to say the least, it gave me some perspective on how bad things can get in life and for the lives of others. No matter how bad any of us think we may have it, there always seems to be someone who has it worse, yet our minds can sometimes trick us into thinking differently.

It’s important that we learn to control our thinking and to make sure the voices in our heads are helping us be the best we can be in whatever situation may arise in life. It’s also important that the happiness we feel in life is more attached to the thoughts we have, then to the things we have.

Well, there’s my first list of many more to come.

All this stuff is obviously easier to say than do, (especially while I lay in bed comfortable, while others out in the world are presently experiencing their first real life nightmare),  but we all face the very real fact that the lives we live can be turned upside down in an instant  (I’ve had to face this fact a few times in my own life)

Fortunately we live in a country where we can generally rebuild whatever we’ve lost, at least from a physical possessions standpoint.

Anyway, I hope that at least something here helped someone out, if not…..there’s more topics to come in the future, and on subjects of a more positive note.

Tags: Disaster Preparedness, Family, Insurance, Mental Conditioning

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