If you enjoy adding to your preparedness library, after a while you may become disappointed that there is really not much new information to be learned. Every author has a different perspective, of course, but it’s rare to grab a book that is unique.
That was, until now.
Mind4Survival: How to Face Any Crisis, Minimize Unwanted Struggle, and Live Your Best Life is a long-awaited book from author and podcaster Brian Duff. He has been through a lot, and he shares snippets of his exciting life throughout the book. Brian draws upon his experience as a firefighter, paramedic, Army Ranger, and international security expert to illustrate his philosophy of mental preparedness as the backbone of survival strategy.
Mental preparedness
Brian is very open about what happens when you don’t take care of your brain during stressful times: he is a Post-Traumatic Stress survivor. He uses the knowledge he gained working through his PTS to explain how the brain processes trauma and danger, and how to minimize the effects of trauma.
This book is a deep dive on how your brain works, including:
- Managing cognitive biases
- Why everyone behaves differently in a crisis
- Improving situational awareness
You’ll learn how to make decisions faster, deal with stress better, and reduce your struggles through preparedness and a good mindset.
Brian Duff’s survival pyramid
We’ve all seen Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, but Brian adds to that with his own pyramid, which includes:
- Mindset
- Situational Awareness
- Survival
- Safety
- Self
Instead of doom, gloom, and fear, this book focuses on building confidence and reducing anxiety so that you perform better regardless of what life throws you.
Using metrics for preparedness
As a long-time security professional, Brian teaches you how to make accurate threat assessments. In turn, this allows you to manage risk and get prepared without wasting your valuable time and money.
But it goes even further than that: by knowing what you specifically must prioritize, you reduce the mental load of trying to protect everything equally. You can dramatically reduce your stress and worry by focusing your energy where it is most needed.
Don’t expect lists of what to put in your bugout bag or how many pounds of beans to stock at your remote retreat. While this book touches on the physical aspects of preparedness, the primary focus is your mindset – your Mind4Survival, if you will.
What you can look forward to
This book is so different from others in the genre it would be impossible to list everything that makes it unique. The presentation is what really sold me on it, however.
It’s a mix of personal stories that will have you on the edge of your seat, bullet point lists, and diagrams that make it engaging and easy to follow. No matter what your background is, you’ll have a crash course on mentally managing disasters so that you can think clearly and keep yourself and your loved ones safe in a crisis.
Mental health and resilience are two very overlooked topics in the preparedness world. In most books, these qualities get a few mentions or, if you’re lucky, an entire chapter. This is the only book in the niche that is explicitly focused on your brain.
Better yet, the knowledge imparted here isn’t just useful in dramatic life-or-death survival situations. You can use this philosophy in your day-to-day life so that you can worry less and live more.
I highly recommend this book.
It’s rare for me to wholeheartedly endorse everything about a book, but this is one that you absolutely need in your preparedness library. It isn’t a regurgitation of the same-old, same-old. It’s fresh, new, and optimistic.
I strongly recommend Mind4Survival: How to Face Any Crisis, Minimize Unwanted Struggle, and Live Your Best Life by Brian Duff for any prepper, from the newbie to those who have been there and done that. This number one new release deserves a place on your bookshelf, and you will refer back to it again and again.
Have you read this book yet? If so, what did you think? How much focus do you put on mindset in your own preparedness practice?
Let’s discuss it in the comments section.
One Response
It is a great book! I have been a “prepper” for decades–although for the first twenty years or so I just considered myself an old-school-former-girl-scout-lifelong-camper who aged into one-smart/tough-cookie kind of woman!
Anyway, Brian’s book guides you into a way to thinking and a sort of framework that applies to all areas of the preparing life. I never really think of myself as PREPARED because it is a lifelong adventure; I can never really know how the next truly cataclysmic event will impact us or whether what severely impacts some people is not even a road bump for us.
I found myself agreeing with Brian (sometimes out loud–much to my family’s concern) and being impressed how he thoughtfully explains and gives the reasoning behind his approach to decision making.
This is not a ” go to my Amazon store and buy this, this, this, and you are done.” There are plenty of easily actionable steps but it most importantly is not in any way judgemental. He explains mindset and encourages you to do anything–no matter how small–to prepare to help yourself and those around you in difficult times. (Not that any of us think THAT might happen….could happen….is happening.)
ps-got to give a plug for his podcast and encourage Daisy to be on more! I would love to hear you talk about the psychological part of being injured (when you are up to it) because I have been having some physical problems of late.