Supplies You Need for a Wilderness Survival Bug Out Bag


Few of us have experienced having to flee our homes in the middle of the night and wandering into the wilderness because of an invading army, a natural disaster, or civil unrest.

However, no one is immune to catastrophic events – we’ve simply been lucky enough to live in a period of world history that has been relatively innocuous. If you had to flee your home at a moment’s notice, what would you take with you?  

If you don’t have a bug out bag, then you might grab a gym bag, throw in a few clothes, a few toiletry items, perhaps some food from the pantry, and then be out the door with a mishmash of items.

You would direct your family to do something similar. Once you left the house, how long could you survive with a few t-shirts, toothpaste, and a couple of nutrition bars?  Where would you sleep?  

What would you drink?  What would you eat? How would you stay warm? How would you get your news about the events that caused you to flee?  The more you think about it, the more you may realize that you would be wholly unprepared to support and protect yourself and your family as soon as you left the comfort of your home.

This is a scary thought. What’s the solution?  Preparing a wilderness “bug out bag” (a bag that is pre-packed with survival supplies that you could grab and go when events required you to leave suddenly) would be a pretty good start.

Start with a Durable Bug Out Bag That Can Handle the Elements


So where do you get a bug out bag and what makes one better than another? A search for a “bug out bag” on Amazon gives some immediate options ranging in price from $40 to $700.

So how do you know what makes one bug out bag better than another and which is best for the wilderness over an urban bug out bag? Let’s start with the bag itself. The bag must be hardy, durable, and weatherproof.

It wouldn’t make much sense to have a bag that was going to rip the first time it got caught on a tree branch. Additionally, if the bag isn’t weatherproof, the contents of your bag may be damaged and rendered useless if you encounter rain or snow.

You should have a bag for each family member, which is properly sized. You wouldn’t want to ask your ten-year daughter to lug around the same sized bag as yours. Comfort matters.

Ask an infantry service member, if you have to carry around a bag of your supplies for days on end, the last thing you want is a bag that sits uncomfortably on your shoulders. Forty pounds will quickly feel like 80 pounds with an improperly sized or designed bag.

Above all, don’t skimp on the quality of the bag. The last thing that you want is to be stuck with a bag where the zipper sticks, the straps break, or the bottom tears. At the risk of sounding too dramatic, it’s recommended that you select a dark color, such as black or dark green, in the event, that you desire not to be seen as you are bugging out.

The Ability to Purify Water


A bug out bag is a survival bag. Think about that. The purpose of this bag is to keep you breathing in a scenario that may threaten your life. The bug out bag is not designed for you to pack with your family photos, your lucky t-shirt from high school, or your favorite books.

The contents of this bag are all about protecting your life. The very first thing that you should be thinking about is water. The lack of clean drinking water in the wilderness will threaten your survival in a matter of days.

Surviving the ordeal that you have found yourself in will require a clear mind and a strong body – neither of which is possible if you’re dehydrated. Unfortunately and obviously, water is heavy.

How much water do you need?  A common estimate is one gallon per person per day. One-half gallon for drinking and the other half gallon for cooking and sanitation. At a minimum, you will need one liter a day just to replace the liquid that is lost through urination, perspiration, and exhaling.

Let’s assume you are a family of five, and let us further assume that you want to ensure you have enough water for one week. At one gallon per day per person, that’s 35 gallons of water.

A gallon of water weighs 8.3 pounds, so 35 gallons of water weighs 290.5 pounds. This isn’t feasible to carry as you evacuate your house under the cover of darkness at two o’clock in the morning and head for the wilderness.

Therefore, your bug out bag must contain the tools required for you to purify water that you find in creeks, ponds, lakes, or even puddles. Don’t let the pristine appearance of water found in the wild deceive you.

Non-treated water contains microscopic pathogens that can cause illness, diarrhea, or stomachaches. Your bug out bag must contain a solution to the problem of purifying water.

You have three options. The first is boiling water, but that requires starting and maintaining a fire. Although doing so isn’t rocket science, it is time consuming or potentially challenging and complex – and the existence of a fire and smoke may even put you in danger, depending on what it is you’re bugging out from.

The other two options are filtration and purification tabs. Filters generally come in one of two forms – a straw or a squeezable filter. The benefit of the straw filter is its simplicity – you literally drink through the straw.

The disadvantage is that its lifespan is significantly less than the squeezable filter. Another option is the use of purification tablets, which most commonly contain chlorine dioxide.

If you have the ability to purify water, you will be hydrated. This is a great step towards ensuring your survival.

Readymade, Easy to Cook and the Ability to Source Food


Your second wilderness bug out bag focus will be food. The good news is that the human body can survive for quite some time without food. Although it is obviously unethical to experiment on humans to see how long they can survive without food, most experts agree that a hydrated individual can go greater than two weeks without food.

This is based on the observations of hunger strike participants. However, hunger strike participants are typically not exerting themselves by traveling in the wild in the face of existential danger.

Therefore, food is required to keep your energy levels high and your mental acuity sharp. You have three options: ready-made food, easy-to-cook food, and sourcing your own food from the wild.

In all likelihood, your bug out journey will not be measured in weeks or months, but rather days. Therefore, your objective is to keep moving as much as possible so you can get from point A (danger) to point B (safety) in the shortest period of time.

Therefore, it is advisable to equip your bug out bag with readymade food to minimize the amount of time you are preparing foods. You have some viable options in the readymade food department.

Freeze-dried or dehydrated pouches make a good addition to your bug out bag. However, some people have undesired intestinal effects from these. It’s recommended that you try a pouch or two from the comfort of your home prior to packing your bug out bag.

If you are going to have stomach problems, you want to know so that you can try a different brand or type. Military MREs and Cliff Bars are another option. They won’t win any gourmet food awards, but they are calorie-dense, physically small, and easy to pack.

Lastly, you could always pack items that are readily available in your home – such as peanut butter, canned meats, and nuts. If you opt to cook food, your bug out bag should contain food that is calorically dense, easy to pack, and easy to cook.

Pasta, rice, and ramen noodles are the fail-safe options using these criteria. Keep in mind that this option will require that you pack something to cook the food in. Ensure that your bug out bag includes a pot or pan.  

The bigger the better, as you don’t really sacrifice space in your bag because you can fill the pot with other supplies. Most bug out bags contain enough readymade or easy-to-cook food to last three days.  

Therefore, you will want to ensure that you have at least 10 meals per person per bag.  The more, the better, but 10 meals should be the minimum in your bug out bag. On the off-chance that your journey outpaces your food supply, you will have to source your food from the wild.

You all need to know how to hunt and gather food. You would be wise to ensure that your bug out bag includes a fishing tackle, paracord, and a pistol or knife. If you have access to a pond or a lake, fishing is likely your best option for sourcing food.

If you are forced to hunt, not only do you have to be a really good shot, but you will also have to have the stomach to dress, prepare, and eat small animals such as squirrels and rabbits.

Gathering berries and plants sounds like an option because of their ease and availability, depending on the time of year in colder climates. However, unless you are a survivalist expert, the chances of you knowing which berries are edible and which are poisonous are slim.

You don’t want to experiment to find out. If you think you could not bring yourself to fish or hunt, consider packing a small book that classifies berries and plants in your location for edibility and nutritional value.

Fire Building and Cooking Gear


Your bug out bag must include gear that allows you to build a fire. Boiling water can be done for drinking water and cooking, but you may also need a fire to keep you warm. To build a fire, you need a flame and something to burn.

For the flame, keep it simple – lighters and matches are a good place to start. However, they may not serve you well in inclement weather (although you can find stormproof matches), so it’s recommended that you have a Ferro rod striker.

The Ferro rod is challenging to use, but it lasts forever. Additionally, you can include a solar-powered spark lighter, which can be easily obtained online and packed into your wilderness bug out bag.

As for fuel, you will be surrounded by fuel in the form of sticks and logs. However, it can be difficult to get these sources to catch fire, and attempting to do so can burn through a lot of matches and fuel in your lighter.

Therefore, you will need some tinder. An old survivalist trick is to pack cotton balls coated in Vaseline, which makes for excellent tinder. Alternatively, you can use a tinder cloth, dryer lint, or waterproof fire sticks.

You’ll want some cooking gear to use with your fire. While a stainless steel pot or pan can be used, if you’re not on foot, and instead using a 4-wheeler or other vehicle, you might be able to take something more formidable, like cast iron pots to use over the fire.

You want to make sure you remember to pack a spoon to stir with, a spatula, knife, and other things you’d normally use for cooking. Don’t forget to pack a camping messware kit that has a plate, cup and utensils for everyone to use when it’s time to eat.

You may also want to consider investing in a foldable solar cooker for the times when a fire is not a possibility. These come in a variety of sizes, or you can learn how to make one yourself.

Shelter Options for Extreme Heat or Cold


Keeping yourself protected from the elements will serve not only to keep you comfortable, but can also be necessary to keep you alive. Exposure to extreme temperatures can be life-threatening, so you must ensure that you have a plan for sheltering and sleeping.

When preparing your wilderness bug out bag with shelter supplies, your efforts should focus on warmth, protection from the elements, and comfort. Unfortunately, bedding and shelter supplies tend to take up a lot of space and space is a precious commodity when preparing a bug out bag.

You must be wise in selecting your bedding shelter supplies. In regards to warmth, look for a blanket or sleeping bag that breathes, retains heat but not moisture. However, most that are on the market will only protect you down to a temperature of 40-50 degrees Fahrenheit.

Therefore, it’s recommended that you supplement your primary blanket or sleeping bag with a pack of Mylar blankets also called emergency or survival blankets. These disposal blankets are very thin, but allow you to retain 90 percent of your body heat, which will ward off hypothermia and frostbite in extremely cold conditions.

Additionally, they reflect heat to prevent you from heatstroke in extremely hot environments. Lastly, it’s recommended that you also pack a wool blanket. The wool blanket can be used as a bottom layer of bedding, another layer of warmth, a makeshift tent, or a cape or poncho.

Most survivalists don’t recommend including a tent in your bug out bag due to their size, but again – if you’re using a vehicle or capable of attaching it and carrying it using MOLLE, you can do that.      

First Aid and Communication Supplies


Although you might hope that your situation is not made worse by an injury, hope is not a plan. Include a first aid supply kit in your bug out bag to assist you in responding to insect or animal bites, cuts, burns, wounds, or sickness.  

Although there are many readymade kits on the market, you should take care to ensure that your kit contains items to prevent or treat the most likely situations and ailments you may encounter.

Consider supplying your kit with OTC medications such ibuprofen/aspirin for general pain relief, antihistamine in the case of an allergic reaction, and Pepto Bismal to combat diarrhea in the case of drinking contaminated water, or a bad reaction to your modified diet.

Don’t forget to include any medicines that you are prescribed. Your wilderness bug out journey is not the time for a preventative medical emergency or withdrawal symptoms. Equip your bag with bandages of various sizes, disinfectants such as rubbing alcohol, cotton swabs, adhesive tape, gauze rolls for potential burns or cuts, ace bandages, a suture kit, and antibiotic ointment to allow you to respond to cuts and injuries.

Don’t forget to include small tools that may be necessary to support your first-aid efforts – such as scissors, a magnifying glass, tweezers for splinters, splints, headlamps, thermometers, and tourniquets.
 
Lastly, you should ensure that your bug out bag includes resources to allow you to communicate or at least receive information from the outside world during your transit to a safe location.

A solar-powered charger will help to ensure that you have the use of your cell phone for the duration of your transit. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that you will have cell phone service – even with a fully charged phone.

Therefore, an emergency hand crank radio may prove essential to receive information such as weather and news. If you really want to be prepared, consider including a HAM radio.

Whereas a typical radio only receives AM/FM frequencies, a HAM radio allows you to receive and transmit on virtually every frequency such as CB (Citizens’ Band) and VHF, which may prove useful in communicating with other individuals bugging out in the area.

This guidance is not all-inclusive. You must take into account your home’s location, which will determine the variables that are most likely to impact you in a forced emergency and determine what situations, climates, and terrain you should prepare for.

Although no one can prepare for every possible scenario, a properly prepared wilderness bug out bag can significantly increase your chances of survival should the worst-case scenario unexpectedly force you out of your home without the luxury of ample preparation time.


6 Steps for a Successful Product Launch

There are many men and women of all ages who choose to pursue the entrepreneurial lifestyle by starting an online business they can call their own. This is not an easy task, but it is very rewarding in terms of both personal satisfaction as well as the unlimited income you stand to bring in.

One of the various business models that you can implement is that of a digital info product creator. As a vendor who sells information, you have to take the necessary steps to not only ensure the quality of your product, but the integrity of your launch.

While it may seem daunting at first, the product launch process is actually very easy as long as you understand what steps need to be taken along the way. There are six primary areas that you will need to address from beginning to end.

Step 1: Be Smart with Your Product Creation Process

There are many people who will advise you to take as many shortcuts as possible so that you can have a product launch as quickly as you can. What you have to remember is that this is your one and only time to make a first impression as a quality vendor of digital information

Customers have seen and spent money with those who don’t take time and care in creating their products, and to be honest, they are sick of them. Unless you want to be labeled a scammer, and unable to earn a good living with your talent for teaching people solutions to their problems, you need to take your time and create a product that you will be proud of and that customers will enjoy.

Start by brainstorming something that isn’t already being done well in the marketplace. That doesn’t mean it hasn’t been done before, but that you bring something new to the table or different that your target audience will appreciate.

It may be a different media format, a different slant, or new and updated information. Check to see what is already being sold. If everyone has done eBooks, then you may try your hand at a video course.

For example, you may see lots of different eBooks that teach traffic generation. But you could come along and create a video course that shows them over the shoulder what to do in a step-by-step manner and have a hit on your hands.

You never want to concern yourself about the size of the product or necessarily what you will charge for it in the very beginning. During the planning stages, you want to think about how to thoroughly and precisely solve the problems that your target audience is experiencing so that they walk away feeling relief and satisfaction.

Once you come up with ideas, which you can base on forum chatter, blog post comments, social media engagement, keyword research, and more, you can outline your product so that you make sure nothing has been missed along the way.

You don’t want to have to go back later and fill in the gaps if you accidentally forget something. When you create your product, you want to deliver a high quality item to your audience.

That means that it is well written. It needs to be in English and written by someone who is fluent if you are outsourcing it to someone else. You want to take time to review the finished product and make sure that it is grammatically correct and that there are no spelling errors or typos.

You also want to make sure that the information itself is correct so that you don’t misguide anyone who buys from you. If you outsource a product about paid advertising on Facebook to a freelance service provider who knows nothing about it, they may put information in there that is not correct.

If you are creating a video product or some other media format, you want to take the same care as you would with text and go over the information, check for the quality of the visuals and sound and make sure that there are no glitches when the buyer downloads and engages in the product.

Step 2: Create Two Kinds of Copy

You can have the best product on the marketplace, but if your sales copy lacks the ability to convert visitors into buyers, or looks very amateurish in nature, you will fail to have the kind of successful launch you were hoping for.

You have to learn how to improve your copywriting skills over time. But in the meantime, if you are new to this aspect of online business operations, there are some things that can help you get by.

You will be creating two different kinds of copy. The first is your front end product copy. This is the most important one because it determines whether or not your visitor becomes a buyer or clicks out and leaves.

You want them to at least purchase the front end product so that you have the opportunity to present a one-time offer upgrade (or several). The first thing you may want to do is go to your fellow competitors and create a swipe file of the kinds of slants, tone and topics that are discussed by others.

You will never want to copy what they have done, but it’s important that you learn from other people’s success. Almost every good online entrepreneur has a swipe file of things like headlines, storylines, bullet points, etc.

You want to create a template of the layout you intend to use for your front end sales copy. For example, you might lead with one or two headlines and sub headlines followed by a video presentation if you want to create a hybrid media format sales letter.

After that, you will launch into your storyline, which can either be about your journey or that of your customers. Ideally, it will be both so that you can showcase your passion for the niche topic and expertise as well as show empathy for your visitor and what they’re going through.

You will need to have the details of the product spelled out for them so that they know exactly what they are buying and aren’t left in the dark about it. You can do this through the use of bulletpoints as well as storyline copy.

Another thing you want to have sprinkled on the sales page are testimonials from people that you have given a review copy to and who can vouch for the quality of the product.

It’s always best if you can include their picture, name, and brand or website so that everyone knows it’s legitimate. Towards the end of your sales copy template, you will need to have a strong call to action that tells the visitor exactly what they need to do next and why.

This will be followed by the buy button, which you get the code for from the platform that you are selling it through. After that, you will include your signature as well as your post scripts, which sum up the offer and the urgency they need to know about.

The second kind of copy, which will be for the one time offer upgrade(s), is positioned a bit differently because you are talking to someone who has already proven that they have a buyer’s mindset.

They will not be taken to this page unless they have already purchased the front end. Therefore, they are in a buying mood. You just have to convince them that the upgrade offer is both relevant and necessary to their original purchase.

You don’t want to make it sound as if the front end product will not work without them purchasing the upgrade, but you do want to highlight its many benefits and make it irresistible.

Make sure that you are using a professional page builder for your sales letters and that you have either created or outsourced the creation of professional graphics that will represent your digital info product.

If you are not good at this skill, give it to someone else who can do it for under $20, because many visitors will see an amateur digital graphic and relate it to the quality of your info product.

Step 3: Implement These Technical Launch Set Up Steps

When it comes to the technical aspect of creating your own product launch, there are a few simple tasks you need to complete. In addition to the sales pages that you will be creating to convert visitors into buyers, you will also need to create two additional pages.

The download page is where you will house the link to the product that the customer just purchased. You can use this space as a way to promote other products that you have for sale and as a promo spot for top affiliates that you wish to recruit, allowing them to have an image linked to one of their offers.

You can also remind people about the rest of the products that are in your funnel in case they declined to purchase them the first time around. Your JV (joint venture) page is the other page that you will need to have set up for your launch.

This is where your prospective affiliates will gather all of the information they need in order to promote your product. They will go here to find out where to grab their links, to see what all is in the funnel and how it is priced, any contest details, and of course the date and time that the launch takes place.

When you are ready with all of your pages, you will go to a site such as Warrior Plus and create a product listing for each of the items in your funnel. Next, you will create an offer that will connect each of those items in the funnel.

When your product is complete, you can upload the files to the site and connect it all to your email autoresponder list. You can also share the link to the JV page and recruit affiliates from the platform.

When everything is set up properly, you want to perform a test purchase to ensure that the customer will have a positive experience from the time they click the buy button to the moment when they download the product from you.

Step 4: Go to the Effort of Recruiting Affiliates

When your JV page is in place, and your product is complete, you will want to begin recruiting affiliates for your launch. This is an important step because affiliates have the power to provide more than half if not almost all of your revenue, depending on who you recruit and what your own list is in comparison.

You can’t just create a JV page and expect all applicable affiliates to show up & up to promote you. If you have a little money to spend, then you may want to hire an affiliate project manager to help you with this task.

But it’s also something that you can do on your own if you prefer to do that. First, you want to create a listing on MunchEye, which is where many marketers list their upcoming product launches for affiliates to consider.

In addition to other similar sites, forums that allow launch listings, and groups on social media that do the same, you will want to announce your upcoming launch to your affiliate list if you have one.

If not, begin contacting prospective affiliates directly. You can do this via private message on social media or in email. In addition to the link to your JV page, make sure you send them a review copy for consideration and mention any additional perks you’re willing to give them, such as a bump in commission.

Step 5: Use These Traffic Generation Ideas to Ramp Up Sales

When your launch goes live, you will want to give it every chance at success possible. Start by notifying your list of subscribers about the fact that the product has gone live. The sooner you can get an influx of traffic and sales, the higher the possibility that you will land on the overall bestseller list within the platform.

Not only do some consumers shop from this list, but it will bring your product to the attention of many top affiliates who see that your sales page is converting, and they will take a look at your listing for a possible promotion.

Another thing you want to do is announce your product launch on social media sites. Facebook is the most common for digital info products, but it’s not the only one. While you might make a text and image post for Facebook, you can also create a YouTube video and use strategic hashtags that help your video get found.

Many people want to know about organic traffic solutions for a launch, but there are also paid options. For example, you can purchase a solo ad that will be emailed out to a fellow marketers list with a promotion to your product launch inside.

Step 6: Make the Most of Your Launch Momentum

When your launch is nearing its end, you don’t want to lose the momentum you have built up. Now is the time to immediately let your current affiliates and customers know what you have planned in the near future.

If you have just sold them a course about generating traffic on social media sites, and your upcoming product is about building a list, make sure you have your JV page ready for that sale early so that you can immediately send it to affiliates and let them begin preparing their bonus or promo.

At this time, you can also promote something related to what you have just sold. Make sure that it is a product that complements your own and doesn’t compete with it, because that would confuse your audience.

As soon as you have new buyers on your list, begin the nurturing process so that they are shown immediate value for being a subscriber. Surprise them with unannounced freebies that they were not expecting.

Get More Done By Working in Time Blocks

If you’re like many people, you find that you have a lot on your to-do list and it often leads to a struggle to get everything done. There is one habit that you can develop that can help you achieve more in your day – learning how to work in time blocks.

This is a time management habit where you separate the projects and tasks that you have to work on into dedicated blocks of times so that you get it done. Instead of sitting there feeling overwhelmed with your time management, you’ll be zeroing in on a very specific strategy that helps you end your day with fewer items left on your list.

Why Time Blocks Are More Effective

Time blocks are effective because they cut out procrastination and other wastes of time. They’re more effective for you to use to be able to get work done. You won’t have to sit for prolonged periods of time wondering what you should work on next, or for how long.

For example, if you have to go to the dentist, you may have the habit of writing off the rest of the afternoon as being unusable. But if you’ve divided your afternoon into time blocks, you’ll be able to see the trip to the dentist only used two of those time blocks.

That might leave you three more time blocks you can utilize to build your business or get things done rather than just wasting them. Time blocks are also motivating. If you sit down and think you have to work for several hours, you can get overwhelmed because you start to think about all that you have to get done as a whole.

You end up just wanting to play a game online or do something else. But if you have a time block where you say “I’m only working on this for half an hour or fifteen minutes,” then suddenly it doesn’t feel so overwhelming and you’re more productive.

When you use time blocking as a strategy, it’s effective because you have to look at what you need to get done and choose what to prioritize over something that’s less important.

Time blocking can help you to concentrate on your work for a specific amount of time. Not only does this increase your focus, but it also cuts out distractions. Sometimes, it can be tempting to go over a project or task repeatedly before taking action on it.

Having a time block only gives you a limited amount of time, so you’re more likely to get it done rather than continually going over a step or the entire project. Setting up time blocks is effective because it gives you a map for what you should be doing.

This helps to end productivity lags due to not knowing what to work on or what steps need to be completed during your day. This enables you to reach more of the goals that you set – not only for your business life, but for your personal life as well.

Time blocks are set up so that you work on one thing at a time during your block. This can prevent you from trying to work on several things at once, which splits your concentration and can limit your ability to get stuff done.

It’s a common thing for people who are busy to say that they don’t have enough time. However, once you set up your day by dividing it into time blocks, you’ll realize just how much time you truly do have to get things done and how much time you may have been wasting.

What Type of Time Blocks Do You Need?

Before you can set up your time blocks, you’ll need to know what type works best for you. To figure that out, you need to know how much time it takes for you to be productive.

It won’t be the same for everyone. Some people find that they’re most productive if they set up their time blocks so that they work for 25 minutes but then break for 5. If that’s the same for you, then an ideal time block would have to be a total of 30 minutes.

But if you’re someone who has difficulty concentrating, then a 15 time block might be what works the best for you. Some people need to sit down and really immerse themselves in the work in order to be productive.

For people like that, having an hour time block that lets them work longer would probably be the best. Keep in mind that your time blocking management system can change over time.

For example, maybe initially, you needed the block where you got to work for an hour at a time. But something is going on in your personal life that you can’t change right now.

So you can shorten that hour block into two half hour ones or four fifteen minute ones.

The key is to make the time blocking work for you – but it’s not something that has to be set in stone. You may find that there’s some trial and error when you first get started.

Set it up how you prefer it in the beginning but later, you’ll be able to look back at your schedule to see where your time went.

This might show you that you only needed half an hour for a task you routinely do that you always thought took you forty-five minutes. You can then adjust your schedule going forward to reflect the time difference.

Or, if you’re someone who likes to have some built in time to go back over your work just to double check it, then you can leave the extra minutes in that block. When you set up your time blocks, it’s helpful if you color code them.

You can choose whatever colors that you like but you want to have two different colors so that your home or personal time blocks are different from the ones dedicated to your work.

So for example, you could use green for anything associated with work and you can use various shades of green. You can have different colors for things like grocery shopping, bill paying, doctor or dental visits, running errands and more.

There are easy to use online apps that will allow you to easily add, take away or modify your time blocks. One of the great things about time blocking is that at the end of the day or week when you look back, you’ll be able to see how much you actually got done.

You’ll also be able to tell at a glance if you have time to do something that crops up – or not – like if someone asks you to go out for lunch or do them a favor and run an errand for them.

How to Use Your Time Blocks

The thing about time is that you either use it or it slips away from you. By setting up time blocks, you’re making the most out of all your days. Start by setting up your evergreen or automated time blocks.

These are the things that usually won’t change. For example, you might have things like: take a shower, brush your teeth, eat breakfast, take your kid to school in your first of the morning time blocks because these are things that you’re going to have to do.

So you could start your daily time block with whatever it takes you to get ready for your day. Next, you’ll want to know what your work is that you need to get done that day and you’ll block that time off.

If you run your own business, or you get to work from home, you can usually decide what your hours are going to be. You’ll want to choose the time of day where you’re the most productive and it can be helpful to know that this is one of your strengths.

For example, you might do really good at graphic design in the morning, so you know to save morning time blocks for tasks involving that. But if you’re dragging in the afternoons, it might be harder to work on graphic design – so you might want to consider saving that for checking email, participating on social media, and other things instead.

It’s okay to block off similar tasks into back to back or even in one time block. For example, you might have three or four meetings that you have to attend either in person or virtually.

It’s okay to schedule those around each other. So you could schedule a meeting at one. If you know it should only take about fifteen minutes, you’ll still want to build a time buffer.

So you would block out from 1 to 1:30 for that meeting and then from 1:30 to 2:00 for the next one and so on. Even if you know a meeting or task should only take a specific amount of time and you’re good at controlling meetings or tasks to stay on point, you can’t control interruptions.

So you do need to have a plan that takes that into consideration. It can be helpful to check your schedule at the start of each week to see how many time blocks you have for work and then subtract time blocks for things not associated with work.

What’s left over will show you how much time you truly have to accomplish your work or build your business. A great thing about time blocking is that this habit can also show you at a glance when your life is out of balance.

If you check your schedule and you see a ton of blocks that are dedicated to work and only a few for relaxation or family time, you can see that there’s a problem. Seeing this can help you to prioritize what’s important to you.

What If You Don’t Have Enough Time Blocks?

The question that always comes up when dealing with time management is what to do when you don’t have enough time to create the number of time blocks you need in order to get everything done.

You might feel that you work so much and that you’re so busy in your personal as well as your professional life that you don’t have enough time to even do what must be done – let alone what you want to do.

If you feel that you don’t have enough time blocks, the problem isn’t really a lack of time. It’s that you’re not managing it well. There are always signs that this could be an issue.

If you don’t get out of bed when the alarm goes off or you don’t even bother to set one, that can steal time.

You might stay up too late so you sleep in and end up missing the most productive part of your day. Or, you don’t get enough sleep and you’re too tired to really be effective, so it takes you twice as long to get your tasks done.

You might think that the problem is that you don’t have enough time blocks because you’re so busy multitasking. But research has shown that multitasking actually slows you down.

It causes a lack of focus as well as a loss of quality work. Not having enough time could mean that you’re just not accurately dividing your time in a way that’s productive. You might be someone who flies by the seat of your pants, so your time blocks aren’t tight enough.

If you’re giving yourself too much time to goof off or procrastinate, then you have to really push it to get stuff done. It’s not that you don’t have enough time, it’s that you wasted time.

Sometimes people don’t feel they have enough time blocks because they lack organization. Their personal or professional life is a mess. If they needed a folder on their computer, it could turn into an hour long search because they have too much junk on their computer and nothing is saved or labeled correctly.

Chaos is always a stealer of time. A lack of prioritizing is also a reason why some people feel they don’t have enough time. It’s not that you don’t – it’s that you may be giving time to things that are simply not that important.

For example, it might be important that you spend time exercising, but it’s not important that you spend forty-five minutes gabbing with the neighbor. To spend time wisely, you have to first understand what it’s worth and what it truly costs you when you waste it.

Not feeling that you have enough time blocks could also be a problem if you’re someone who’s easily distracted. You might be working hard on whatever you’ve scheduled during a time block, but then you notice a new game online.

Or a new email pops up. Or a social media notification appears and the next thing you know, you’ve wasted nearly an hour chasing something other than the task you’d set out to do.

Time Blocking Mistakes to Watch Out For

Time blocking is a system that can improve your life and help you to be less stressed while being more productive. However, you do want to be careful that you avoid some of the most common mistakes that people make when using this type of system.

It’s a mistake to not know the amount of time you have to give to your scheduled tasks. You might think that you can accomplish 15 things during your day when you can actually only get 10 done.

So right off the bat, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Then once you fail, you’ll start to feel like you have too much to do and that leads to overwhelm. Most people commonly write a longer to-do list than they can realistically follow.

It’s a mistake to be too rigid. There will be things outside of your control that will disrupt your time. Some of these things you can quickly deal with and get back on track – like your kid interrupting you.

But others will claim the entire time block. What you need to make sure you do is not to have a now or never mindset. Just adjust and get back on track. It’s okay to go back to your time blocks and create a slot to make up for the time you lost.

It’s a mistake not to write out what you have to do and give that task a number based on its level of importance. For example, it’s important to do the things that bring peace to your home life or keep your home running.

It may not be as important to get that room painted right now. It’s a mistake not to align your time blocks with your goals. If one of your goals is to lose weight, then your time blocks should reflect that you’re scheduled to go to the gym or to get in a workout.

It’s a mistake to let distractions frustrate you to the point that you give up. If you’ve had a problem in the past with stuff getting to you, then block out time for that. You could give yourself ten or fifteen minutes a day and just label it as “blow off steam” and go do whatever gives you some time to chill out.

It’s a mistake to let procrastination continue. Everyone has something they procrastinate at. But if a task is put off continually, then it can become a big deal in whatever area of your life it’s in – whether it’s relationships, finances, health, home repair, etc.

By blocking in the stuff you normally procrastinate at, it will help you get it done. It’s a mistake to be too busy. You can’t always go full speed ahead without taking some time off.

Being too busy in life can take a toll on every part of your life – especially your health – so when you’re creating your time management system, make sure that you’re also a priority.

First, divide your blocks up into work and home time blocks. Then go through each area of that division and block off time for specific projects or tasks. For example, you might have time set aside for creating blog content, networking in your niche, conducting research, etc.

For your home life, you might have time set aside for forming bonds with your loved ones – both spouse and children. You may want to dedicated an hour a day to self-care, where you meditate or do some at-home spa tasks.

Stay organized and be flexible with your time blocks. If you set up a system and refuse to budge from it, you’ll become frustrated. Likewise, don’t allow yourself to constantly have too much leeway to the point where you’re not using the strategy properly.

Find that sweet spot that allows you to benefit from the use of time blocks, without making it end up a bigger burden than you felt before. Don’t try to copy someone else’s exact time blocking schedule.

You may have different priorities, skills, tools and talents that allow you to do something faster than another individual who is lacking those things. And if you’re single with no kids, you might have a different work-life balance than someone married with children, too.

17 Homestead Tips for Living Off the Grid

Living off the grid means you’re using your own resources to give you what you need such as food, water, shelter, warmth and electricity. You’re don’t rely on the local power company to keep the lights on.

This is important for a variety of SHTF situations, from mild and temporary weather grid closures to major catastrophes we all hope to avoid. Once you’re ready to make the move to so that you can live off the grid, then it’s time to put that daily life into practice on a homestead that can be self-sufficient.
 

1. Pick the Right Location for Off-Grid Living


Where you plan to live off the grid matters a great deal. You need to have a place that can easily sustain your way of life. That means you’ll need enough land to support livestock if you’re going to raise animals such as chickens, cows, horses, etc.

You don’t have to have a lot of land but if you want to be completely self-sufficient, you might want to find plots that have at least 2-3 acres. You’ll ideally want one with its own water source as well as proper placement so you can use wind or solar energy options.

You also have to consider unexpected things when choosing a location. For example, if you have a family member in ill health, you’ll need faster access to medical care than someone who’s healthy would.

Once you have your location, you’ll need to build a shelter if there isn’t one already on the land. You can have a solar-optimized house built and one that has many green alternative customizations that assist you with off-grid living.

2. Take Waste Removal Into Consideration


When you’re living off the grid, you have to think about two types of waste – household garbage and personal needs. When you’re living on the grid, you can use the bathroom, flush and never think twice about the waste – unless of course there’s a problem with your toilet or sewer system.

But once you’re living off the grid, you have to plan for the waste removal yourself since you won’t be tied into any city services. There are various options you can choose.
One thing that’s popular when homesteading is to use a composting toilet.

You can also install your own septic system. For household garbage, you have to make sure that you don’t have a lot of it. That means recycling and not using plastic. Compost your kitchen food scraps.

This is great for adding rich nutrients to your garden, which will also come in handy in the event that the grid goes down and grocery stores have limited, if any, food sources for consumers.

3. Don’t Rely on One Power Source


If the power grid goes down, people who don’t live off the grid won’t be able to use any of their electrical appliances or gadgets. They’ve relied solely on one power source and when it’s gone, they’re at the mercy of the situation.

Don’t be like that. Some people decide to homestead and then choose a natural power source such as solar power. This is a great energy source, but it’s not infallible. There are factors that can impact the amount of solar power you have.

That’s why you need a backup plan in case that source of power isn’t working for you or you end up having a need for more power use. One of the backup sources that you can use is a wind power system.

This can be used to produce the electric needs for your homestead in addition to solar power. Living off the grid means that you rely on yourself when there’s an issue with power, so you want to make sure you have that covered.

Think about your heat source, too. Many people who live off the grid use a wood furnace to heat their homes. Take a look at your current power usage and figure out alternatives for each one.

It might be a solar cooker, a generator (solar or gas, although that might be limited at any given time), wind or natural irrigation for your garden, and more. It takes a bit of planning, but in the end, you won’t be reliant on an electric company for your survival.

4. Consider Your Communication Methods


When you’re considering communication methods that don’t rely on the grid, you’ll want to look at the cost, how durable the method is and how well it performs. You don’t want to have a situation where you need to communicate with someone on or off your land and not be able to.

Have a satellite phone if you’ve chosen not to use cell phones. You can use walkie-talkies for communicating with family members if you’re spread out across your land. You can also use a ham radio as a communication tool.

You can also use a CB radio for communication needs. If you just need to be able to listen to important survival news, you can use solar or hand crank radios that allow you to do that.

5. Have a Good Water Source


Many people are at the mercy of their electric company to receive water in their homes. But if you want to be independent of that, it might mean that you need to dig a well on your property.

Since pumps need electricity to work, you’ll need a source to power it if you have a pump – or you can use something like a sleeve bucket. You can also draw water from a source such as a stream – or, if you live on land that has mountainous areas with a small waterfall, you can use that.

You just have to make sure you decontaminate the water. Collecting rainwater is another tip you’ll want to stick with when living off the grid. You can collect rainwater in rain barrels or other containers.

This water can be used for watering livestock, watering a garden, bathing, washing clothes, and if decontaminated, it can be used for drinking and cooking. You can easily stockpile products to cleanse the water you need that won’t take up a lot of space.

6. Grow or Produce Your Own Fruits and Vegetable


Shopping at the grocery store is convenient, but it’s also expensive and the quality of the food items that you get are not always the best. Aside from those evergreen issues, if the grid goes down, you’re in very real danger of losing the convenience of grocery store food supplies anyway.

It’s better to make sure that you manage your food supply yourself. You can eat cheaper and healthier by living off the grid and growing or producing your own food. You won’t get all those unnatural ingredients or foods with GMO.

This allows you to be self-sufficient so that in the event the grocery stores can’t keep up with the demand for food, you don’t have to worry about feeding yourself or your family.
Grow things like beans and potatoes, corn, carrots, tomatoes, squash and fruits.

But you’ll also want to grow your herbs for flavoring and health – like parsley, basil, thyme, rosemary, oregano and more. If you don’t already know how to can food items or dry herbs so that they last longer, then you’ll want to learn how to do that so you can stock up your pantry.

7. Create a Plan for Winter Food Storage


Obviously, you won’t be able to grow certain foods in your garden during the winter months. But since you still want to make sure that you’re self-sufficient, you’ll need a way to supply food.

The best way to do that is to put aside the food that you’re going to need to eat when you’re unable to grow it. Create a plan for how much food it’s going to take to get through the winter.

You’ll need to count every member of your family and then add a little more in the event that you need something extra. With a grid-down event, you may want some meals that have self-heating elements, such as MREs (meals ready to eat).

Make sure you also have ample supplies to cook and warm up foods you’ve stockpiled – including wood, charcoal, and other cooking measures. Having warm meals will not only satisfy your hunger, but also provide comfort during a SHTF event.

8. Have the Correct Resources for Food Prep


One thing that many people who live off the grid do is they become minimalists. While that’s a good thing not to be weighed down by having so many things, there are some resources you do need to make sure you have.

You can’t prepare or put away the food supply you’re going to need if you don’t have the proper means to do so. You’ll need things to use during the fermentation process. You’ll need to have larger pots than you would use during your normal everyday cooking – preferably cast iron so that you can cook over an open flame.

You need to have a way to freeze dry or can the food items. If you want to make dried food items, then you’ll need a way to dehydrate the foods naturally without an electronic gadget.  

It’s not enough to prepare early on before you go off the grid. These are things you have to learn how to do for years to come with an off-grid homestead. You want to be able to prepare food for long-term storage safely and that includes the utensils and cooking elements as well as the packaging to keep it safe from rodents or bacteria.

9. Discover Natural Plant Life


When you’re living off the grid, you need to be able to identify the plants around your homestead. There are many plants growing wild that can be used for food or as herbal remedies for health ailments.

You don’t just want to wing it, though – since many plants have nasty side effects when ingested or can even be deadly. Before you use anything, learn what it is and how it can be used.

There are books, and classes offered that can teach you what you need to know. You can even hire a guide in the area where your homestead will be located and have them teach you what’s edible or what can be used for health purposes.

You can even grow these items on your property under the guise of a survival garden that is camouflaged from prying eyes. To them, it will simply appear to be wild plant life – but you and your family will know it’s a rich source of nutrition and health.

10. Raise Livestock


When you have a garden, you can grow plenty of fruits and vegetables. You can grow some that give you protein, but when it comes to your meat supply, you’re going to want to either hunt meat or raise livestock.

Hunting can be a hit or miss situation. Sometimes, you might be able to bring in the meat – but if you don’t, then you do without if you don’t already have a supply. That’s why it’s a good thing to raise the meat yourself.

You can raise pigs for meat, and you can also raise cows. From cows, you can also get your fresh milk supply. Chickens can be used for their eggs as well as for the meat. If you raise goats, you can get meat or milk.

Turkeys can be raised and used for meat throughout the year and not just on Thanksgiving or Christmas. Some people who live off the grid also raise ducks and sheep or rabbits for meat.

Make sure when raising animals that you educate yourself about how to properly take care of them. They need plenty of room and fresh supplies, and you want to be able to ensure they are healthy.

11. Go Natural with Your Cleaning Supplies


When you’re going off the grid, you want to switch the items that you use every day for more natural items. That means that you shouldn’t buy detergent, dishwashing liquid, and cleaning supplies like you did before you decided to live off the grid.

You want to be self-sustaining, which means you need to be able to produce your own cleaning resources. There are a lot of things that are natural and can be used to clean just as well as the options you can buy at the grocery store.

For example, you can grow and use lemons to clean many different things. This fruit can be used to clean soap scum out of a bathtub. But it can also be used to clean mirrors.

You can clean your entire bathroom with lemon – even your toilet. Lemon juice has antibacterial properties that effectively kill certain germs and inhibit bacterial growth. If you use lemons to clean your kitchen countertops, it can whiten stains.

Baking soda can be used to clean, freshen and whiten clothes. It can also be used to clean the shower, and even your outdoor grill. Plus, baking soda can also be used to brush your teeth.

Many people also employ the use of vinegar for cleaning agents. When living off the grid, you can learn how to use lye to make your own soaps and even scent them with naturally grown plants like lavender.

12. Put Money Aside in Savings


This might sound like a strange tip when it comes to homesteading, but it’s a mistake not to save money when you’re living off the grid. Before you started homesteading, you had expenses for your lifestyle.

Once you move off grid, those expenses can be higher than you think if you have to repair something. For example, repairing a septic system can be very costly. The amount of firewood you may need to use if you rely on a woodstove or wood furnace can be more costly than you realize.

If you’re raising livestock, there will be the cost of veterinarian care – and when it comes time to use the livestock for meat, there will be the cost of the butcher if you don’t do it yourself.

It can cost a few hundred dollars to have a cow prepped for your meat supply. If you’re using equipment such as a tractor and it breaks down, it can be expensive to repair or replace.

So the money you’re saving paying for your electric, water and sewer can go toward saving for these issues instead. Make sure you have multiple reliable contacts for these problems, too so that you’re not stuck during an emergency.

13. Get and Stay Physically Fit


Life off the grid is more physical than life on the grid. You won’t have the same conveniences that you have now. Plus, you’ll have to do chores you’re not used to.
For example, you may be hauling wood in and out of the cabin.

You might be wringing out laundry and hanging it on a line. You might be milking a cow, gathering eggs and tending to pigs. If you’re not physically fit, you run the risk of developing an injury – not to mention being exhausted in the beginning.

For example, people who aren’t physically fit tend to struggle with arm and back strength, both of which are needed for life off the grid. You may want to begin strength training and embracing a lifestyle of regular cardio before you make the final move to an off-grid homestead.

14. Learn Before You Leap


If you don’t know how to do something, learn about it first so that you avoid common mistakes that can be expensive. For example, some people build a chicken coop without knowing how large it should be.

They don’t know how to build it to protect the chickens from predators and end up losing some of their flock. If you’re going to do any project on your homestead, make sure you know what’s involved before you jump into it.

It’s better to spend some time up front learning than trying to fix mistakes afterward. Instead of focusing only on saving money or buying materials quick, make sure you take durability into consideration first and foremost because these items should be lasting you a long time.

15. Knowing First Aid Is Imperative


Living off the grid may put you too far away from medical care. You need to know the basics of first aid training. This means that you should know how to splint a broken bone, how to treat someone for minor injuries as well as injuries.

In the event that there’s a big emergency, you need to know how to handle lifesaving measures such as CPR. You’ll want to be well-stocked with supplies for everything from a minor cut to a major surgical situation.

Spend time learning these procedures for survival situations and invest in books you can learn from and have on hand in case the gird goes down and hospitals and doctors’ offices are unable to see patients.

Make sure your entire family learns these first aid measures for off-grid living. It may be you who is suffering and in need of someone to help, and if you’re out in the field tending to a fence or cow, your teenaged child might be the only one who can help you.

16. Keep the Right Tools on Hand


You’ll want to keep commonly used tools on hand around your homestead. This includes items such as an axe for cutting down small trees or cutting up firewood. You’ll also want to make sure you have shovels, hammers, pliers, a handsaw or two, hoes, a wheelbarrow, a post hole digger, screw drivers, wrenches, a multipurpose knife, and supplies for repairing fencing.

You’ll want to replace any of your electric tools, such as drills – with those that have to be done by hand. Learn how to safely use them, too. Don’t forget things that will help sustain the life of the tools, such as sharpeners or oils to keep them in good shape.

17. Join a Local Homestead Support Group


Having people that you can turn to for answers to questions can an invaluable resource. You might want to know how to get started with a beekeeping project on your homestead and be able to connect with someone who knows exactly how to set it up.

But having a homestead support group can also be a great way to swap – not just ideas and information – but supplies as well. For example, you might not need all the eggs that your hens lay and can trade them for something you need from another homesteader.

Many homesteaders form communities and buy property next door to one another so that there is safety in numbers and resources to rely on. You can also trade knowledge with one another.

How to Raise a Family of Survival Preppers

If you are practicing the strategy of survival prepping, it’s important that you understand this is not a one person tactic. If you have a spouse and children, this is something you need the entire family in on.

Not only does it help you achieve your goals of prepping faster when everyone is on board, but it also delivers peace of mind and greater effectiveness when your children are raised to understand how survival works.

Nothing is more jarring than having a major survival event occur and being the only one in the room who knows what to do, or how. By raising your family to be involved in your survival prepper plans, you will be arming them with the knowledge they need to whether any terrible situation in a worst case scenario.

There are 10 things you can do to cultivate a survival mindset among your entire family. These are done without using fear. Instead, you will be teaching your loved ones these lessons by using an empowering tone and action plan.

Begin Teaching Your Kids Survival Fundamentals


One of the most basic things you will need to do in order to prepare your family for survival situations is begin teaching the most fundamental skills they will need to survive.

You never know if you will be there to help them, so it’s imperative that you help them learn how to do this on their own. Because it is the most important resource, you will want to start by teaching your children and spouse how to find or create clean water from and unclean source.

For example, you will want to teach them the difference between a running water source and a stagnant one, and explain to them the dangers that they cannot see. Show them how to use water purifying products and also how to boil water to disinfect it.

You will also want to teach your family how to find food if they are without the proper resources that you have been storing over time. There may be an instance where they have to bug out of the area and our unable to take their bug out bag with them.

They need to know how to forage off of the land as well as how to trap small animals or gather other food to keep them alive. If there is a possibility that they will not be in your local area, then you want to teach them how to source plants, and that’s that are edible in whatever location they may be in.

After you teach them about food and water, you will want to go over the basics of setting up a shelter using both the products that you have purchased, such as a tent, and also creating one from what is found in nature.

Buy Survival Products That Are Right for Their Age and Size


If you are getting your family involved in the survival process, it’s important that you shop smart when you are stocking up on supplies and choose items that are a good fit for their age and size.

Younger children may not be able to carry the same kind of load than an older child or adult can. They may have less energy then you, and will be unable to carry as much weight.

When you are packing their bug out bag, make sure you are including age appropriate items that will help them with both their physical and mental needs. For example, if your child has a small stuffed animal that is extremely important to them, it may be something you can fit in the bag to offer support in a stressful situation.

You want to put items in their bug out bag that they will know how to use on their own. Again, there is always a possibility that you will not be with them at some point. They need the essentials as well as items that will make survival easy on them.

Create Plans and Practice Implementing Them


One thing you want to do with your family in order to give them peace of mind with all survival situations is to create plans for each possible event. You have to practice what to do, and not just talk about it.

Make sure that you have a plan for everyone to meet at a certain spot. Make a contingency plan in case the family is unable to meet at home. This is especially important if you have teenagers who are driving and may not be with the family when an event unfolds.

You want to teach your family how to analyze whether or not an area is safe to enter. Have several different backup plans and make sure everyone knows in which order they are to adhere to them.

Practicing these plans is something that should be done periodically, but not on a regular basis. For example, you don’t want to teach then what to do in the event of a wildfire every single weekend.

A better way to schedule the practice of your survival plans is to look for news that discusses the possibility of something happening, such as a hurricane forming off the coast.

Try to make the experience exciting and fun for your family, and don’t base it on fear or get angry and lecture them if they forget a step. They are more likely to remember it if it is an enjoyable situation, even if you are discussing something serious.

Get Them in Physical Shape for Survival


It’s important that you help your family get in physical shape for survival situations. This is not something where you need to harp on a young teenager to lose weight, and destroy their self-confidence.

Instead, make it about the physical tasks that they will be required to do in the event of an emergency, such as having to walk from one place to another if there is no possibility to fill the car with gas.

You can get your family on a regular walking schedule, which is even more effective if you do it outdoors in case of a bug out situation. You can also help them learn how to hike in other settings, such as the wilderness, and you can start them on a strength training regimen.

Prepare Their Mind for Survival


Besides helping your family prepare their body for survival, you also want to help them ready their mindset. The stress of a survival situation unfolding can be a heavy burden on all ages, but especially on children who feel very vulnerable.

It’s important that you talk to your kids and let them know that just because you are preparing for certain situations, doesn’t mean that they are inevitable. You want them to feel empowered and brave, rather than terrified and shy of confronting the situation.

Your children will likely pick up on your attitude about survival preparations. Make sure that you are not ranting about what’s in the news and instilling fear in their mind. You may be blowing off steam, but to your child, it will seem like the end of the world.

Teach Them How to Use First Aid Products and Strategies


Every survival prepper needs to know how to use a variety of first aid products. It may end up being you that is hurt, and you will need your family to help treat your medical issues.

Again, there also may be a situation where your loved ones are separated from you and they will need to know how to use the first aid kit that is in their bug out bag. Take time to go through it and teach them how to use each item in it.

They will need to know things like how to dress wounds so that they don’t get infected, how to deal with rashes or pain from the sting of an insect, and even more serious things such as how to perform CPR and save a life.

Take Them to Different Survival Settings


To prepare your family for survival, you have to understand that it won’t always take place within the four walls of your home. It may occur elsewhere, such as if your house is destroyed or the area is uninhabitable.

If you have to bug out to another location, you don’t want it to be an unfamiliar and stressful situation for your family. You need to get them familiar with how to live in nature, or at least survive in it temporarily.

This will include things like learning how to forage for food, teaching them about wild animals that they may encounter (as well as how to protect themselves from them), and how to safely start a fire for both warmth and cooking purposes.

You can go on simple camping trips to various locations so that they can begin to see what it would be like to sleep in a tent or under a tarp. They need to be familiar with what it sounds like to sleep under the stars, and how it feels when you do not have the convenience of a heater or air conditioner to regulate your body temperature.

Get Your Children Trained in Self Defense


In a survival situation, you will often encounter many unsavory characters. Whether they are trying to steal your supplies, or simply bringing chaos to the community, you want your children and spouse to know how to protect themselves.

There are many different forms of self-defense that you can teach children from a young age. There are also martial arts that are great self-defense classes for women. Make sure everyone is trained to the best of their ability, but also teach them what to do in the event of an attack.

It’s always best to evacuate a situation as opposed to standing your ground and fighting someone about something. But you also have some inevitable situations where fighting is your only option, so they need to know what to do if faced with that situation.

For example, if a dangerous situation occurs, you don’t want to have to tell your family what to do in front of the attacker. It should already be decided that the children stand back out of the way, but the entire family should gang up on the individual if necessary.

Let Kids Know How to Alleviate Stress in Survival Situations


Because of the stress of a survival situation, even if it’s simply the grid going down temporarily, you want to teach your kids how to combat stress on their own. There are many ways for children to learn how to self soothe that are healthy.

First, it helps for children to keep their mind occupied by doing tasks rather than sitting there fretting about an event. You can keep them involved in helping around the house or campsite so that they feel useful.

Another thing you can do to help teach your child how to alleviate stress is to make sure that you have some age appropriate books that they would enjoy. A book is a great way to become immersed in a different storyline than the one they are currently living.

If they are unable to read, then you can read to them. You can also become adept at having them learn how to make up stories of their own to keep themselves entertained and keep their mind on something else.

It’s important that you pack some sort of entertainment in the bug out bag for your children to keep stress at bay. The toys don’t have to be large or heavy, but they can go a long way in helping your child stay calm in the midst of chaos.

There are so many different games your family can play that do not require you carrying any type of supplies or toys. For example, you can tell your child a Riddle that they have to figure out, or play I Spy with them.

Have Your Kids Tested for Allergies in Case of a Bug Out Scenario


In the event of a survival situation, you may have to bug out in the outdoors, which can often cause certain family members to feel as if they are becoming sick. The reality is, they are allergic to some of the local plant life.

Because you will be consuming nuts, or possibly having to be around insects such as bees, you want to make sure that the allergy issue is not serious enough for you to have to carry an Epi pen for them.

If your child is found to have certain local allergies to plant life, it may be helpful for you to invest in a supply of local, pure honey. Have your child begin taking one tablespoon of this per day, and it should help their body acclimate to the local levels of pollen and other irritants.

Raising a family of preppers it can be both a fun and rewarding journey. When everyone is involved, you will see more getting done towards your goal of being fully prepared for any and all survival situations.

Get them involved in every decision, both small and large. If you’re shopping and want to pick up a couple of extra items for the food storage, have them help pick them out using you for extra guidance.

Even if you are shopping for a plot of land for a homestead, take them with you and let them voice their opinion about the land, even if you are the final decision maker. They need to feel empowered about this issue, and having a voice will do that.

Manifest What You Want in 2022

Manifest What You Want in 2022

How can you manifest what you want in 2022? Start with reading this post!

Manifest What You Want in 2022

Daydreaming is what people do when they let their mind wander about something they want. But this can’t make the things you want just appear in your life. You have to know how to manifest them, and you can do that by using the law of attraction.

Some people mistakenly believe that merely wishing or hoping for something to happen is all that is needed to make their dreams come true. The law of attraction does focus on putting your wishes out into universe, but it’s much more than that.

You do have to take action on bringing your vision to life. It’s important to know how to create and manage your vision for the life you want and not just daydream in broad, or vague terms.

Come Up with a Vision

In order to manifest what you want, you have to first come up with your vision. You have to see yourself as having already achieved that vision. One real life example is about a famous actor who manifested the lifestyle that he wanted to have.

When he was struggling as an actor, he wrote a $10 million dollar check addressed to himself. He didn’t have anywhere close to that amount of money, but he put it out there in the universe as something that he wanted and began living life as the kind of person who deserved to earn that kind of paycheck.

Later, one of the movie deals he landed would pay him $10 million. That’s a lot of money and you might think that something like that isn’t possible for you. But when you use the law of attraction, you can manifest what you want to happen in your life.

There are different things that you can do to help with the vision you want to manifest. What some people do is they create a vision board. A vision board is just a board that’s made up of your dreams and goals.

It’s what you want the universe to bring into your life. It doesn’t matter what it is – if you dream it, you can manifest it. To create a vision board, you would just look for photos or images or even positive sayings that are a visual of what you want.

By having these items on your vision board, it keeps your focus on what you want to manifest. For example, you might be someone who wants to travel all over the world taking photographs of different places and cultures.

Your vision board might have images of these places around the world along with the pictures or sayings that related to traveling. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that your vision board is somehow a magical way of bringing what you want into existence, because it’s not.

The way it works is by tapping into your subconscious mind. When you see what you want, your subconscious begins to picture what you have on your vision board as being not only what you want – but what can be.

The subconscious then begins to act as if it’s a given that it’ll happen for you, and this hones your focus for future action steps. When you see what you want on a daily basis, it causes you to start believing that your dreams have already come to pass.

You live in the belief that it’s a done deal and that’s the power of law of attraction, because seeing the vision board can form a connection between how you live now to how you’ll be living out in the future. You’ll begin to attract what you want.

Make Your Vision Clear

You want to have a specific vision. Just like the actor who wrote himself a $10 million dollar check, you need to know exactly what it is that you want. Because your vision board works based on the law of attraction, knowing what you truly want is part of the process so that you attract those specific things.

Some people think that they’re pretty clear about their vision, but deep down, they don’t really know what it is they want. They might feel one way, but actually want something different.

They may be afraid that it’s too big, too important and too unachievable to put it out there in the universe. The law of attraction won’t bring what you want if you don’t put it out there.

If you’re still trying to figure out what it is that you want, take a few minutes to think about your life. Think about what you would have or do if nothing was in the way to hold you back.

Then write down what that thing or those things are. These things relate to the life you want to have, so even if you think that it would take a lot of big changes and you don’t have the money, skills, or whatever, write it down anyway.

If there’s something that you truly want, you can manifest that. Your list doesn’t have to be perfect, and you can even change your mind later. Right now, all you’re doing is trying to get clear and specific on what it is that you do want.

Some people are afraid to say what it is they truly want because it seems impossible, or they’re embarrassed – but write it down anyway. Then take the list of things that you came up with for what you truly want in life and look it over.

You’ll find that some things that you wrote down jump out at you or pull at you stronger than the other things you listed. Your vision needs to be clear in whatever area of your life you want to manifest, but it’s okay to have several different parts of your life that you want to use law of attraction for.

For example, some people choose career and relationships. Others have money and weight loss. Some have all of the above. Once you’re clear on the vision you want for a specific part or several parts of your life, then you want to look at why these visions are important to you.

For example, you might have a vision for having more money – but if you look at why that’s important to you, you might realize that it’s because you want the money so that you can leave your job and move closer to your grandchildren.

When you know the reason behind what you want to manifest, it helps you to hone in on that and block out the things that you don’t want. After you’ve created your vision board, you want to make sure that you observe it often. This helps your subconscious mind to keep visualizing what you want.

Putting the Law of Attraction Into Practice

The law of attraction is energy that will work to bring what you really want, but that doesn’t mean that you can sit idly by and everything falls into your lap – because there are ways that you can sabotage the law of attraction.

You have to know how to make it work. What you believe can be an issue. When you believe something, the subconscious accepts this as your truth – whether it’s an actual fact or not.

These beliefs can limit the power of the law of attraction in your life. For example, you may have the belief, “Weight loss is too hard for me. I’ll never be able to lose weight.” With that belief, you’ve written out a “fact” that your subconscious mind picks up as the truth and then begins to live out.

You have to understand what it is you’re believing that prevents you from being able to accurately harness the power of law of attraction. These beliefs are self-sabotaging, so you need to get rid of them.

Understand that you are who you say you are. If you say to yourself that you’re lazy, then you’ll act that way. If you say to yourself that it’s no use trying to achieve something, then your behavior will live that out and your life trajectory won’t change.

You have to break up with the negative self-talk in order to bring about the positive changes of the law of attraction. If you don’t have faith in yourself, you’ll struggle to manifest whatever it is you want.

Too many people struggle to put the law of attraction into practice because they keep looking back. They turn their energy toward the hard things in life – toward the dreams that didn’t come true – toward the relationships that ended badly and toward all the ways they feel they fell short in living up to this point.

But you cannot keep your focus on the negative. You must focus on the positive and on what is yet to be. Turn your attention to what’s coming for you – toward what you want to achieve, what you want to come to pass.

Positive focus and energy attract positive things. Make your mental, social and work environment one where law of attraction can flourish. If you want to focus on what’s positive and achieve your vision, then there may be some things that you have to alter or get rid of.

If you want to be successful, you need to make sure that who you’re spending time with manifests success as well. Hanging out with those who focus on negativity or who accept and even wallow in failure creates a contagion effect.

You have to shake that off. Make sure the people you’re spending time with are focused on success. These should be people who help you want to strive for more. Cut out the negative things in your life.

Anything that makes you miserable or traps you in a cycle of negativity needs to go.
Bring positive people into your life who are also looking to use law of attraction to manifest their life goals. It’s easier to stay focused and positive when you’re around others who are the same.

Don’t Focus on Whatever Was Wrong

The law of attraction is something that can change your life. It has the power that can basically put things in motion for you. You want to surround yourself with positive life changing energy.

But sometimes, people expect the law of attraction to be as simple as speaking something and it comes to pass. It doesn’t happen that way, so then some people start to look at what went wrong, what they feel they did wrong and they start laying blame – which has a negative basis.

So if you’re focused on negative things and you’ve set yourself up with self-sabotaging behavior, then something could go wrong. When that happens, and many people start to blame themselves, this creates the wrong belief for the subconscious mind and that can easily turn into a “fact.”

They might begin with thinking thoughts like, “I’m such an idiot” and the problem with that is the blame has a negative energy that the mind picks up on and then the person’s actions follow suit.

You don’t want that. So instead of engaging in the negative blame game or putting attention on what went wrong, what you want to do is to accept that something went wrong, that there’s no blame to be had and begin again.

For example, you might be someone who spent several years stuck in a job that you hated. You didn’t earn nearly what your skills were worth. Your coworkers were lazy, and your boss was a jerk.

Yet you stayed and you might be beating yourself up and thinking that if you would have had more skills or education, you would have had a better job. But that’s a negative way of looking at it.

Maybe that awful job was one that paid the bills so you could help out your family. The key to law of attraction is not spending time dwelling on what went wrong in the past or what doesn’t go right at that moment.

You always want to redirect the focus to what’s positive and what you can manifest.
Change a negative to harness the positive energy by taking the lesson from that situation and leaving the bad behind.

For example, in that awful job, you probably learned perseverance. You learned patience and how to get along with unlikeable people. Think about how what you learned from your experience can help you in the future, not how it hurt you in the past or in the moment.

One thing you need to realize when something has been wrong or does go wrong is that in the moment that situation occurs, you don’t have the correct perspective. You only gain this type of perspective after a situation is over.

Your Manifestations Are Near

As the time for your manifestations to come to pass draws closer, you’re going to start to notice changes or events will take place that are a precursor to setting everything up.
If it suddenly seems like everything in your life has gotten worse all at once, that’s a sign from the universe that you’re in the preparation stage.

These seemingly tough situations could be occurring because the universe is getting you ready to handle the good that’s about to happen. You may notice that you’re having daydreams about the life you want to manifest.

These daydreams can feel so real as if you’re in the middle of the life. This happens when the universe is lining up what you feel with what’s about to come to pass. It means the manifestation is on the brink.

Some people start to develop the sense of surrealness. They feel that the success is already part of their lives and they’re about to hit the goal. You might find yourself feeling extremely happy.

You have no reasonable explanation for the high spirits that you’re in. You can’t put your finger on anything that’s happened that makes you feel this way. That’s because your subconscious knows everything is about to break wide open for you and the dreams you want are just about to manifest.

The happiness that’s waiting for you is starting to trickle out as the universe prepares to release it. You can start to feel these things because the subconscious mind knows it long before the conscious mind does.

You might notice that things in your life are running smoothly. Every day is filled with positive things and only good things are happening to you. It’s like everything you’ve worked for is suddenly lining up.

Other people may even begin to make comments about how “lucky” you are. When that happens, just know that the law of attraction is coming to fulfillment in your life. At the same time that all these good things are happening, you may notice that other areas of your life are going through changes that you didn’t see coming.

You might find that a relationship you treasured has splintered apart but you discover that you don’t feel bad about it. You don’t feel sad or grieve the loss of that relationship. The reason is the law of attraction works to bring in what’s good and positive while at the same time, the energy from it releases what’s bad and negative.

You may discover as you’re manifesting the life you want that your vision goes through changes. You no longer want something or you want something so different that you never even saw that coming.

That’s okay. You can manifest something new or more of something once you let go of what you thought you wanted and give it over to the universe. Be open to flexibility and change because your standards and desires will grow or morph over time.

With the law of attraction, it’s important that you do several things consistently. First, understand that negative self-talk will prevent you from allowing good things into your life, so erase it from your vocabulary.

Second, Be clear with your goals and revisit them on a regular basis so that your focus remains intact and you don’t sweep the goals to the side and start living on autopilot again.

And last, you need to be living life as if what you want to have happen has already occurred. Be the person who can earn a six figure salary. Be the happy person in a fulfilling relationship. Be the person who eats healthy – don’t wait until the universe delivers it because it may be waiting to see if you really believe in yourself.

Starting a Low Carb Diet for 2022

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Looking for advice for Starting a Low Carb Diet in the New Year? This post might help.

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Starting a Low Carb Diet – Advice and Tips

Getting healthy can be a goal any time of the year, but many people make a commitment to get fit and lose weight as a New Year’s resolution. If you have plans to start a diet soon, then one of the best ones to start is a low carb plan.

This is a diet that lowers the amount of carbohydrates you consume in your meals and snacks. You’ll still be eating normal foods, but in a way that takes off the excess weight. You can still eat many of your favorite foods, including steak, chicken, guacamole, and more – but you’ll prepare your meals so that the carb count is lowered in a way that helps you shed pounds more easily.

How to Start a Low Carb Diet

Dieting always starts with knowledge, no matter which plan you intend to follow. If you don’t know what you’re doing when trying to lose weight, then you will make mistakes that keep the pounds on.

Having the knowledge that you need can mean the difference between success and failure with your weight loss goals. To begin, you need to choose the type of low carb diet that you want to follow.

There are several – and they’re all good as long as they focus on eating healthy foods and don’t require you to eat in a manner that would negatively impact your health. Some low carb diets focus on limiting the carbs, and boosting the amount of protein that’s eaten.

The focus of these diets is on eliminating the unhealthy foods, and when faced with a choice of food items, you would choose the one that had the most nutritional value, but the lowest number of carbs.

Other low carb diets emphasize limiting the carbs, but not the fat. You can eat foods that are high in fat as long as it’s the good kind of fat, such as an avocado or olive oil. Some of what these diets call for followers to consume are foods like meat, vegetables and even dairy.

Foods that aren’t in a natural state should be avoided. That means you avoid or strictly limit any foods that were processed and ideally try to choose fresh foods over those in a can, or quick foods like TV dinners that can be cooked in the microwave.

The number of carbs you should get on any of these diets can range in number. It depends on which one you’re following. On Keto, you’re looking at a total of 20 net carbs or less, while some low carb plans call for anything under 100 grams daily.

Many of the lower carb diets are already well known, such as the Mediterranean Diet or Keto Diet. One of the easier plans focuses on the way that people in the Mediterranean eat because the diet is known to be beneficial to the body. This diet is low in carbs but has an emphasis on fish.

It also focuses more on oils like olive oil – the extra virgin variety. With this type of olive oil, it means that it hasn’t undergone any heat treatment and it hasn’t been treated with chemicals, either.

On this diet, followers can eat fruits and vegetables, and of course, the fish or seafood that the diet focuses on. If it’s a refined food, then it shouldn’t be eaten on this low carb diet.

That means, you wouldn’t eat things like refined grains. No matter what the refined grain is in, you wouldn’t eat it. Some pastas contain refined grains, so you would have to study labels and ingredients to be able to avoid this.

You would also need to avoid processed foods, especially meats and any food where sugar was added to it. Your food choices would be more along the line of the ones that are found in nature, which don’t contain any additives.

Things You Need for a Low Carb Diet

You can start a low carb diet without buying anything other than the foods that you need to eat on the diet. However, there are certain steps you can take and things that you can buy that can make it more helpful to you.

These things can increase your chances of success on the diet. If you’re someone whose pantry is filled with processed foods and you have a store of sugary snacks, you really do need to clean out your pantry and your refrigerator.

If you eat sugar or salt, it can set off more cravings for those foods. After you’ve been eating healthy on a low carb diet for a bit of time, your cravings will subside. You’ll feel better and your cravings will start to be for those healthy foods once your body is used to eating sugar-free and low sodium.

Most people mess up when trying to eat low carb by forgetting that they may need a new way of cooking. Their meal plans may have consisted heavily of high carb comfort foods, like breaded and fried chicken.

Any food can be made low carb. But you’ll need to know how to do that. That’s why you should get cookbooks or invest in some meal planning software that can help you plan meals that are better for your body.

You need structure when dieting. That means you should have a plan. If you try to just wing it, you’ll more than likely fall right back into your old eating habits. Look around your kitchen and identify the gadgets that might sabotage your diet.

It might be an electric fryer that you put a lot of oil in to cook chicken nuggets or fries. Having it in your kitchen could tempt you. So either pack it away in your attic or get rid of it.

Invest in appliances that will help you eat low carb. You may want to buy an instant pot and a blender. These tools can prepare a meal or a vegetables and berries drink quickly.

Another item you may want to get should be a spiralizer. This gadget can be used to create low carb vegetable noodles, which you can use in your diet in the place of high carb pasta.

This way, you don’t have to give up eating pasta dishes. Finally, use a meal planner to plan out all your meals and your snacks. It can help you to not only know what you’re going to eat, but to create your shopping list and snack ideas in advance so you have something to grab to eat when you feel too hungry to wait for a meal.

Understanding the Number of Carbs You’re Consuming

When it comes to low carb dieting, you might have heard the term macros before. This comes from the word macronutrient. All it means is the types of nutrients you consume on a low carb diet.

Macros focuses on your carbs, proteins and the fats that you eat. Any low carb diet that says you need to be aware of the number of macros you’re getting just means you need to know how many grams you’re getting in each of those three main categories.

The number of macros involved in your carbs is going to depend on the number of carbs you’re aiming for in whatever low carb diet you’re following. Not all of the low carb diets are going to have the same number of carbs suggested.

There are some low carb diets that call for a higher amount of grams because they take into consideration external factors that may call for more grams. For example, if you’re involved in a heavy exercise routine, you may need to have a higher carb count than someone who’s only exercising moderately or not at all.

So, it would still be considered low carb even though you were eating more. You might be someone who doesn’t like the idea of taking the weight off quickly, which is what can happen with a low carb diet.

So you might aim to have 100 grams a day. This would lead to weight loss from healthy eating and can also be coupled with heavy exercise. If you want to choose to follow a low carb diet that only calls for 50 grams, then you can still lose weight in a steady manner.

However, many people want to take the weight off faster than that. They lower their carbs to where it’s around or under the 20-50 gram mark. You can do that and still eat healthy.

Your focus would be more on meat, along with berry fruits and vegetables as well as healthy fats. You can still have high fat dairy on a 50 gram low carb diet. Just keep in mind that if you are more physically active, the lower amount of grams may not be suitable for you.

You’ll have to pay attention to how your body reacts. Anyone who’s eating low carb should study the glycemic index. This index can quickly show you how many carbs are in the foods that you plan to eat.

Paying attention to this is an easy way to be able to track your grams to keep you from going over or under. In addition to that, knowing the glycemic index of a food can determine how that food will impact your glucose level.

You’ll want to know this if you have a medical condition such as diabetes, but you’ll also want to know it because it can help you determine if you need to watch for a crash after exercising if you plan your meals around your physical activity.

Some low carb diets consist of eating less than 50 grams consistently for the purpose of entering ketosis. There are test strips you may want to purchase to determine whether or not your body has entered ketosis.

Following the Ketogenic Low Carb Diet

The main gist of eating the keto way is to get your body to the point that it enters ketosis. When you go into ketosis, it means that your glucose levels are lowered. But it also means that your body stops using carbs for the fuel that it needs.

Instead, it’s using ketones to be able to function. Ketones occur in reaction to the fatty acids your body gives in response to the lowered number of carbs you take in. One of the reasons that many people choose to follow the keto diet is because it’s a quick way to shed pounds.

But it also helps the body drop fat. People who are on the diet see a lot of health benefits associated with the weight loss. These are things like lowered blood pressure, lowered cholesterol levels and lower glucose levels.

Normally, your meals will consist of a lot of protein and a lot of healthy fat. You can have fish and other seafood, too. You can also have dairy products like cheese. You can have vegetables and certain fruits that are low in carbs (mainly from the berry family).

You have to watch this, because some vegetables and fruits are higher in carbs. For example, sweet potatoes and corn are both higher than other vegetables in carbs. So are some fruits, such as bananas.

You’ll want to pay close attention because the number of carbs that you would want to take in should be as little as 20 or under for each day. There are some well know eating plans, like the Atkins 20, that you can follow to guide you so that you stick to that amount.

The keto low carb diet does focus on healthy eating by avoiding foods that are unhealthy and lead to weight gain. Remember that not all keto diets are the same. Some keto diets don’t focus on total carbs, but are instead based on net carbs.

This means it’s the carb tally of whatever you’re eating, but you subtract however many grams of fiber and sugar alcohol that is in the food. The reason for this is because fiber doesn’t cause your body to react with the same food response that a true carb does, since you don’t digest it.

Because you’re eating such a low amount of carbs, you will lose weight following the keto under 20 plan, even if you’re not taking part in any type of exercise. Because of the lowered amount of carbs, what many dieters do to maintain success is they break their eating up so that every couple of hours, they’re eating something.

If the thought of tracking your carbs, net carbs and macros seems like a lot of work, there are numerous fitness apps you can download that can help you easily keep up with everything.

Dealing with Sugar Cravings

Everyone has or will deal with a sugar craving. When you start following a diet, those cravings can sometimes seem to intensify. There’s a good reason why that happens.

When you consume sugar, the body releases some feel good hormones.

They make you happy and calm and this endorphin rush can be addicting. It’s no wonder why people struggle to break the sugar habit. But that doesn’t mean that there’s no hope for dealing with sugar cravings.

You can successfully overcome them so that they don’t make you miserable or wreck your diet goals. A sugar craving can hit when you’re bored, but you may not necessarily have a true hunger for it.

You just want that taste because your body has been conditioned to have it. So what you can do instead is when the craving hits, chew a piece of sugar free gum. You’ll still get that sweet taste even though there’s no actual sugar in the ingredients.

This will fool your body and satisfy the craving. Sometimes, though, not even chewing a piece of gum can quiet the craving. That’s when you need to give in. But that doesn’t mean you necessarily give your body the kind of sugar that not only fuels the craving but can lead to weight gain as well.

Instead, you give it something natural. Have some fruit instead. The natural sugar that’s found in low carb fruits like berries can help end the sugar craving and break a sugar habit as well.

Plus, you’ll get more nutritional value and health benefits from eating the fruit. Not all the fruit that you eat has to be fresh either. Having some fresh fruit might be more difficult if you’re on the go.

If that’s the case, you can have something like a low carb Greek yogurt drink that you make at home. You’ll get the sweet taste without the high carb content and it’ll be enough to end the sugar craving.

It might surprise you, but on a low carb diet, even one like keto, you can have dark chocolate. If the chocolate is 90% cocoa, it’s usually lower in carbs than chocolate such as milk chocolate.

You can find many dark chocolate bars that have just a few net carbs. You can also eat a snack bar. There are several varieties of snack bars that are low carb, low sugar and keto friendly that can help deal with any sugar cravings.

Sometimes having a sugar free mint can help to end any cravings that you might have.

There are times, though when no matter what you do, that sugar craving may feel like it’s relentless.

If that’s the case, then what you need to do is get busy doing something else. When you engage your mind or body in an activity, this helps you to stop focusing on the craving. You can do something like take your dog out for a walk, go to the gym or work on a project that makes you use both hands.

There are also many wonderful keto fat bombs you can make to satisfy your cravings. Some of them resemble delicious chocolate mousse or peanut butter cups, and you can’t tell much of a difference when it’s made from sugar substitutes.

Getting on a low carb diet may make you feel a bit lethargic in the very beginning. But a few days later, the energy returns and you feel better than ever and capable of committing to this way of life for the long haul.

You’ll be pleased knowing you can eat most of your favorite foods, and continue dropping pounds quickly and easily. You can adjust your carb count whenever you see the scale stall to help you shake off a plateau.

A Newbie’s Guide to SEO in 2022

Mapping out the newest methods for SEO (search engine optimization) will be one of the best ways to create exposure for your brand with increased organic traffic and build a list of loyal subscribers to help your revenue soar.

But understanding SEO and how it works is a challenge for many online entrepreneurs. With so many people creating their own businesses and competing to rank their content, it’s more difficult than in the early days of the Internet if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Because so many savvy marketers learn how to game the system and trick search engines into ranking their content when it isn’t the best choice, the companies who provide these results frequently change the algorithm so that no one has an unfair advantage.

What Is SEO and How Does It Impact Your Success?

SEO is the practice of gaining as much organic traffic with as much quality content and site strategy as possible, allowing you to beat out competitors and gain in the rankings of the results pages whenever someone conducts a search.

Becoming successful with SEO requires knowing your audience and the type of content they search for as well as knowing the needs of the search engines themselves. Creating content that is angled towards the interests of your audience will bring organic (results you don’t pay for) search engine traffic.

Organic search results cover the largest portion of search results on any search engine. Even when you pay for ads to get exposure, those ads won’t be able to cover the same amount of space that organic results can.

Along with this, most people who search the Internet will not trust a sponsored post or ad that pops up at the top of search results. When they know it isn’t an ad, it’s seen as a more credible link to click.

Paying for advertisements will also become a constant cost, while equipping your site with SEO tactics will be free. Utilizing SEO strategies will mean you’re creating a direct path of information for search engines to follow, so that your content ends up in the correct search results, and your brand can gain as much exposure as possible.

Since there are brands and other businesses to compete with when it comes to the Internet, mastering SEO for your site is essential to standing out on the search engine result pages (SERPs).

Why SEO Changes Rapidly

Mastering SEO can be challenging because of the way different useful tactics and methods can change into useless ones in a split second. There are many different reasons why SEO changes rapidly.

Keywords can play a role. Some trending keywords will fade over time due to topics of interest changing over time. And when one certain topic is trending and a surplus of people are making content about it, the keywords become so inflated with content that the competition makes it challenging to stand out with a certain keyword phrase.

Outdated tactics are another reason. When people try to game the system and find new ways to force their content to the top of the search results, such as keyword stuffing, it usually doesn’t last long before those tactics get red-flagged, and won’t be effective anymore.

Spamming plays a big role. With the ability to use technology to generate content, many online entrepreneurs try to cheat the system by spamming keywords and other content that thrives with SEO using spin software and other tools.

With this technique, these creators end up falling drastically in rank, and struggle to make their content show up anywhere. Some algorithm updates will completely tank websites due to the tactics they use that are shallow and superficial.

Understanding Google’s Algorithm

Google’s latest algorithm is known as Multitask Unified Model (MUM), which is supposed to be one thousand times more powerful than its predecessor. Google will track a page experience in three different ways.

First, they look at the engagement and interactivity of the site. Google will measure how interactive your website is, and how responsive users are with those options (buttons, links, etc.).

The higher that ratio is, the better your site will perform in search engine results pages. Google wants users to interact and become engaged with the content that they take in, not just land and bounce after consuming a brief piece of content.

Site loading times get tracked. If a site’s loading times are high for a large number of users, that site is less likely to do well with Google’s algorithm. This is a key factor that they are constantly checking when the algorithm determines what order the results should appear in for specific queries.

Visuals play a role. This part detects any bugs or instabilities in the functions of your website. Google wants to present valid and credible sites to users that are not likely to be unsafe or crash.

Apart from those things being tracked constantly, there are other factors the Google’s algorithm MUM will be looking for, like gaps in research. Google is looking for new ideas and information to fill in the gaps.

With MUM, the goal is to make the search experience more of a conversation with an expert, rather than sites being made available to you. Content that presents answers to people’s queries will be essential to bring more traffic to your page.

Access on all devices is paramount. As more and more people do their research on mobile phones, accessibility across all devices is necessary. Your website should look flattering and organized on any device used to view it.

The goal is to optimize your content for mobile viewing, since that is the growing trend, and it’s predicted that people will only use their phones for research more over time. So make sure any themes or design you use is mobile-friendly and that it also works on all browsers.

Quality content is important. Although this may seem self-explanatory, it is extremely important. Your website should have all of your updated information for your business – including hours, contact information, frequently asked questions, and locations.

Your videos and photos should be as high quality as possible, and your written content should be grammatically flawless and easy to understand. It can be conversational in nature, but shouldn’t be filled with glaring typos and spelling errors.

Content Is Key for SEO Success

Having a variety of content on your site will bring in more traffic when you’re using SEO to do the job. Some people learn information better with visuals, while some prefer informative text.

There are different types of content that help with SEO. Text is one. With your writing, make sure to include keywords that will help search engines properly place your content in the correct categories.

Don’t overdo it, but have a variety of the same types of phrases. Your written content should be interesting and informative, and not bloated with filler words and phrases. Some people will find another site if they feel like they can’t find the answers to their questions easily on your site.

Make sure your text content isn’t too scholarly as well, unless that’s your target audience. People want to understand your content, and it won’t be helpful if they can’t enjoy your blog posts because of the level of reading difficulty.

Video can be optimized, too. Including videos is always helpful when it comes to giving viewers a visual of different techniques or processes. If you’re selling products, videos are a great way to showcase the product’s appeal and usefulness.

Since YouTube is such a large social media platform, video content can boost your brand’s exposure. Videos should be filmed with good lighting. Sound quality is just as important as the visuals, so make sure you have the proper equipment in order to make your videos as appealing as possible.

Make sure you title your video so that it can come up in search results, and put some keyword-relevant text in the description, too. Video transcripts will help it get indexed appropriately.

Images need to be optimized, too. Images are great for showing the appeal of your products, or laying out a step-by-step process. Images should be clear and taken in good lighting.

If you work from home and your products are located there, it’s important that everything looks as clean as possible. Check for any hairs or dust when taking photos of your products or other visuals.

The most presentable photos are the ones that show up in search results. Optimize it for search engines by naming it appropriately with a keyword and use captions and titles for your image, too.

Google Isn’t the Only Search Engine to Cater To

Google may be the largest search engine in the world, but there are many other search engines that you will want to cater to, in order to make the most of your organic traffic efforts.

Gaining as much exposure as you can means that you have to optimize your site for current SEO practices with every search engine that has a place on the Internet. Start with YouTube.

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. With over 2 billion monthly logged-in users, YouTube attracts a large audience with a wide variety of interests. Since the focus is video content, it’s a great opportunity for content creators to thrive and promote their interests, and their brand.

YouTube looks for many things you can easily deliver on, such as keywords in the video title. Clickbait is not as useful as it used to be. People want to know that they aren’t wasting their time on a video, and want the title to tell them exactly what they will be watching.

Having a clear title that includes an important keyword will do well in YouTube’s algorithm. Create an informative description. Putting as much information as you can in your description will be incredibly beneficial towards the amount of traffic your video receives.

Use the description as a small blog post, and use it to include as many helpful keywords as you can, as long as they directly relate to your content and it isn’t an obvious attempt at keyword stuffing.

Customize your thumbnails. With so many videos to choose from, the main image for a video has to be good enough to draw viewers in. YouTube wants every user’s homepage to be full of colorful and creative customized thumbnails that showcase each video.

In order to thrive in YouTube’s search results, a customized and unique thumbnail is necessary. There are also some things to avoid, like choosing the wrong category for your video.

Every time you post a video on YouTube, you have the option to choose what category it belongs to. This is something you have to be careful with, especially if your content doesn’t always fit the same category.

If a user only watches beauty videos, they will never have a video attached to the “Gaming” category pop up on their home feed. Even if you have the right keywords, a misleading category will heavily impact the amount of traffic you receive.

Creating a wide variety of content is an issue sometimes. Unlike many other social media platforms or search engines, YouTube channels are most successful when they choose a specific niche to produce content for.

It will draw in a larger following, and the subscribers will be loyal and passionate about the topic you choose to focus on. For example, a channel is much more likely to thrive if they turn it into a gaming YouTube channel, rather than a gaming, beauty, and music channel.

Some creators will create separate channels for each interest that they want to focus on, so subscribers will return to familiar content each time. Engagement can cause problems.

With every search engine, engagement means everything. If people enjoy your content and engage with it, your content will find its way to a high ranking on any search engine. In order to boost your engagement on YouTube, encourage your viewers to like, comment, and subscribe.

Don’t stoop down to unethical levels where you’re bribing people. If you can create a community and make people feel involved, their desire to be loyal and support you will help you greatly.

Bing is another search engine to cater to. Although Google holds a majority of the search engine market share, Bing still takes up 2.88% of the world’s search engine market.

What they are looking for includes clear titles. Whether you have blog posts or other informative posts on your site, they have to be clear and relevant to the topic you are discussing.

If things look misleading or confusing, the other SEO tactics will not be successful. Alt descriptions are useful. Using alt titles and descriptions for the photos and videos that you upload to your site will help Bing’s search engine when it comes to sorting your content and sending it to the right place when it comes to search results.

They also want you to avoid some things, like an over-abundance of keywords. Making sure your content is full of useful keywords that bring the focus of your content to search engines is essential, but you have to avoid going overboard with the amount of keywords you include.

If your keywords are found in every other sentence and fill up a large portion of the content on a page of your site, Bing is less likely to put your content at the top of any search results.

A lack of a variety in content is a problem. Duplicate pages or posts, even if they are spread throughout your site, will be a red flag for Bing’s search engine. It makes your site less appealing, and less original.

Having unique content, and a solid amount of it, will be beneficial for bringing in traffic and keeping them there. DuckDuckGo is another search engine to be mindful of. DuckDuckGo boasts the fact that their search engine doesn’t track user behavior, making their engine seemingly more private and less invasive.

In 2021, their search engine hit a major milestone of over 100 million searches per day. One thing they’re looking for is quality links. Providing quality links in your content will make you more credible and trusted with any audience.

This method should be utilized for every search engine, as they all look for quality links that provide factual and helpful information. An updated Apple Maps location is good, too.

If your brand or business has a physical location, make sure it’s updated and fully accurate. DuckDuckGo uses Apple Maps for any location query for their search engine. Make sure your business has every possible way to contact you, any store hours, and your website connected.

Treating DuckDuckGo like any other search engine is an issue that won’t bode well for you. Because of their privacy policies, users may search differently. For example, if a user is traveling in an unknown city and wants to find local restaurants, they will have to add in what city they are searching for.

This means that you may want to add more keywords that focus on location, so that your brand will appear without other search engines’ location tracing techniques. They want content on current trends.

There’s a push for presenting content that is trending and relatable to current events and topics. If you write about popular topics and focus on trends and information about them, your content will rank higher on most search engines.

Provide unique opinions. If you are writing about trends or current events, having a unique opinion or “hot take” will enable your content to be pushed further to the top of search results.

With many search engines, they put a heavy emphasis on sites creating conversation and highlighting interesting standpoints on today’s trends and events. When you’re working on SEO, don’t go changing your domain name.

There’s a focus on how long a domain name has been in existence and what engagement it’s received. Changing your domain name turns your site into a new site to most search engines.

You will lose the history of engagement and the ranking you have built up. Before registering for a domain, take time to make sure that’s the exact name you want to build a business and brand under.

Each search engine is worth taking the time to fine tune your content so that it can thrive everywhere possible. With some effort and tweaks to how you present your brand and content, you will be able to elevate your rank in each of these search engines.

The rules are frequently changing, though. One thing you may want to do is stay abreast of Google algorithm changes. You can set up a Google alert to notify you whenever this is being discussed, or simply keep tabs on it yourself.

You don’t want to wake up one day and your first page ranking has suddenly plummeted to page 20 because you didn’t stay informed about SEO practices while the competition did.

365 Days of Blog and Social Media Ideas

Need ideas for your blog or for social media? This year I’m sharing 365 Days of Blog and Social Media Ideas. Come back often for new ideas!

Blog and Social Media Ideas for Everyday of the Year

One of the most frequent complaints I hear from my ghostwriting clients is that they have no idea what to write about on social media and/or their blogs. In an effort to help inspire others to come up with blogging ideas, I plan to spend this entire year sharing the national holidays, and how you can blog or post about them on social media to get more visitors to your social media pages and websites.⁣

The goal is to be authentic while also being on trend. I challenge you to visit the National Today website and look at the holidays coming up and see if there’s any way you can authentically relate them to your business. Once you start thinking outside of the box, it might surprise you what you come up with.⁣

I’m excited to start sharing my ideas with you throughout the year. Hopefully, as I share, it will inspire you to come up with new and innovative ideas for your own social media channels and blogs.⁣

Look ahead throughout the year and see which upcoming calendar days fit best with your business. Travel agents and event planners might have an easier time than other businesses, but the possibilities are endless once you open your mind and get creative. This should be fun!⁣

Note: If you’re reading this while it’s still in progress, I’ll be updating it daily with new ideas. I started January 1, 2022, and plan to write and update the post through December 31, 2022. If you have ideas to contribute, tweet me at @AshleyisFamous and I’d be happy to consider them for the post and link back to your website or social media profiles.

Day 1 – January 1

You can find out about the “national” holidays for January 1 on the National Today website.⁣

⁣Today, is:

  • New Year’s Day
  • Public Domain Day
  • Polar Plunge Day
  • Rose Bowl Game Day
  • Apple Gifting Day
  • National Bloody Mary Day
  • Commitment Day
  • Ellis Island Day
  • Copyright Law Day (Check out my post on How to Protect Intellectual Property Online)
  • National Hangover Day

So – how can you use these in your business for social media and blog content? Here are just a few ideas that came to mind:

New Year’s Day

Any business can share their new year’s resolutions or just a New Year’s Day post wishing everyone a Happy New Year. If you have any special new year’s sales, now would be a good time to mention them.

Public Domain Day

Share a list of your favorite books that are in the public domain. Why do you love them?

Polar Plunge Day

If you live in a cold climate, and you or any of your team members participate, snap a picture doing this! And, if you have been doing it for years, write a post about why. What’s the story behind why you do it? Is it inspirational? Perhaps it’s tradition. People love to get to know the folks behind the businesses.

Rose Bowl Game Day

Do you have a game day recipe? Share it!

Perhaps you just love attending or watching each year. Share your love of the game, and what it means to you.

Apple Gifting Day

This is a great one for restaurants, bakeries, food bloggers, etc… Share your favorite apple recipes.

Crafters – share your favorite apple crafts!

National Bloody Mary Day

Calling all bar and restaurant owners – share your best Bloody Mary recipe. What makes yours unique?

Food bloggers – share recipes that feature Bloody Mary’s. I’ve seen some interesting ones over the years including a Bloody Mary cupake and Bloody Mary soup.

Commitment Day

Are you committing to better customer service in the new year? Share about it!

Jewelry shop owners – share posts about recent engagements you’ve sold rings for

Wedding vendors – pimp your services

Ellis Island Day

So many families have great Ellis Island stories in their family histories. Share yours.

Copyright Law Day

Lawyers! This is a great time to talk about the importance of trademarking and copyright!

National Hangover Day

Spas, doctors, nutritionists, pretty much anyone in the health and wellness industry – share tips for beating a hangover

Food bloggers – are there recipes you use for when you have a hangover? I did a story years ago for the news that featured 10 of the best hangover meals. It was a hit!

Day 2 – January 2

Today, is #nationalbuffetday. It’s also #nationalsciencefictionday, #worldintrovertday, #happymewyear for cats, and #nationalpersonatrainerawarenessday. You can find out about the “national” holidays every day of the year on the @natltoday website.⁣

So – how can you use these in your business for social media and blog content? Maybe spotlight your favorite all you can eat restaurant or share favorites from your team members and use the National Buffet Day hashtag. You could also share your favorite science fiction books and TV shows. A spa could share self care tips and stay at home spa recipes for World Introvert Day. Personal trainers could share tips for choosing a trainer.⁣




Creating and Committing to Your New Year’s Resolutions

Millions of people will create a New Year’s resolution to pursue at the end of this year, or the beginning of the next. They’ll set goals and be excited at the thought of a fresh start.

But then comes crunch time when a commitment is needed to put those resolutions into play and this is where most people fail. A commitment is simply honoring the promises you make to yourself.

It’s easier to achieve your resolutions when you break your goals down by category and then implement a strategy for each one, rather than just throw some wishful thinking out into the universe and hoping it comes true.

If you’re serious about changing your life and achieving certain goals, then you’ll want to learn how to make strategic resolutions that help ensure your success. Then have a plan that helps you commit to making it work.

Set a Goal for Success and Commit to Your Resolution

This is one of the number one areas that people create resolutions for. Everyone wants to be a success and there’s something about the coming of a new year that can heighten the determination to make that happen.

Along with determination, you have to know how to make that success a reality. Many people equate success with a dollar figure or a certain lifestyle. If that’s how you think of it, then the first step is to get real and stop sugar coating what your life is really like at the moment.

For example, if being successful is your goal, one of your resolutions might be to make more money. However, if you have trouble holding down a job or making money or following through on any of your plans, then you’re not facing the truth.

What you need to do to commit to a success resolution is to scale your goal down to a specific target. It’s a lot harder to stick to a “be a success” resolution than it is to “make an extra $20,000 this year” one.

That’s because the first resolution is too vague while the second one is specific. To break the specific goal down to something you can easily commit to, you would then detail what steps or mini goals you’ll take to bring in that additional income.

Write down why you want that success and put that reason up somewhere so you’ll see it every day. When you know the reason why you want something such as success, it’s easier to follow through.

Look at the potential problems that could get in the way of your success. For example, if you want to level up in your career but you’ve always been passed over for promotions because you lack a certain skill or education level, create a plan to obtain the skill or gain the education.

Doing this makes it easier to commit to your resolution because, before the obstacle occurs, you already know how you’re going to deal with it. Get support for your success resolution to make staying committed easier.

When you make a plan, it can be difficult to go it alone. You might have a few or many days when you feel like giving up. If you’re doing it alone, it’s easier to just quit – but when you have others, especially if they’re aiming for the same success goals – then it reinforces your determination.

At the end of every month, you’ll want to check in with yourself to see if you stuck with your resolutions. If you got off track, look for anything that contributed to that. It might have been a habit or something unexpected.

Write down what you did to overcome any obstacles that cropped up. Doing this will help you going forward the next month. Keep in mind that your success goals will evolve over time as you level up, and that’s as it should be.

Create a Target Weight Goal and Resolve to Achieve It

Like success, weight loss is one of those New Year’s resolutions that a lot of people create, but struggle to commit to. That’s because deciding to set a weight loss goal as a resolution is often founded in unrealistic plans.

Many people fail to create a realistic weight loss schedule, so they end up getting disappointed pretty early on and quit. Weight loss resolutions are often created with a mindset that it’s all or nothing.

People who do this, clean out the pantry and refrigerator of all their favorite junk food treats. They change the way they eat overnight. Giving up everything they enjoy, they find they stick with the resolution for a few weeks (if that), then it’s back to their old way of eating and their former habits.

In order to commit to your resolution to lose weight, you need to be sure that your reason stems from within you. If you want to lose weight because someone else said you should, then you’re more likely to not follow through.

Weight loss should be something that you alone desire to do. You should want to change your life or get healthy and have weight loss tie into that rather than from the expectations of other people.

An important part of sticking with a resolution means making the best possible choices. You can commit to your weight loss resolution by foregoing any fad diets or changes that are known to fail.

This might be something like only eating one or two types of food groups or having to eat strange foods or follow dangerous dieting “rules.” Your weight loss goals should be within your ability to reach them.

Too many people end up letting go of their goal of trying to lose weight because they set goals that are much too difficult to reach. For example, someone who creates a weight loss resolution to lose 50 pounds in a month is setting an unrealistic goal to achieve using healthy methods.

It’s more realistic to set a goal of losing 10 pounds. Studies have shown that a steady weight loss is more likely to last than sudden, quick fixes where the weight drops off.

Don’t have vague commits when you’re creating a New Year’s resolution.

A vague weight loss commitment would be to “start going to the gym and working out.” A better commitment is, “I’ll go to the gym on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at six P.M.”

Resolutions that help you know where you should be when you should be can make losing weight more obtainable. Be sure to track your progress so you’ll be able to tell what’s working for you.

Be flexible and if something’s not working for you – like a diet or workout schedule – don’t give up. Instead, switch to something that does work for you. The last thing you want to do is continually give up and yo-yo back and forth with your weight.

Make a Resolution to Find a Healthy Relationship in the Coming Year

When you get busy or tired or have what feels like a hundred things to do, one of the first areas of your life that gets pushed aside is your relationships. But these are exactly what you need for support and for comfort.

Relationships help people to feel connected, to feel loved and to relieve stress. You can create a plan that helps you commit to your New Year’s resolution of improving and helping all your relationships.

Time is the most important thing to spend on the people you love. When you spend time with people and engage with them, it strengthens the bond between you. It’s especially important if you’re in a romantic relationship or if you’re married that you commit to spending time with the other person.

You have to make this a priority and not let the busy nature of life push it aside. Relationships grow when they’re nurtured and wither when they’re not. Besides spending time on your relationships, you also need practice thoughtfulness.

This can be something as simple as a phone call to someone you care about to say that you’re thinking of them or listening to how their day is going. Give little gifts for no reason at all.

These don’t have to be expensive items, but they’ll still mean a lot to the other person simply because you thought of them. Talk openly to the ones you care about. Don’t confuse silence with love.

When there’s an issue in any of your relationships, part of your New Year’s resolution should be to speak the truth. Problems that get swept under the rug don’t remain stagnant.

They grow and impact future moments. That’s why, when people argue, problems from months or years ago get brought up. Those problems weren’t dealt with honestly so they’re still hanging around to cause further damage in the relationship.

Let part of your relationship commitment be to find fun things to do together. In any relationship, laughter is a bonding experience. Make part of your resolution that you won’t tear down anyone who’s in a relationship with you – whether it’s family, friends or a romantic partner.

Be committed to speaking positively to and about the other person. That doesn’t mean that you have to pretend or lie about real issues. It means don’t waste any of your time complaining when you can direct that same energy toward making good changes between you and the other person.

Resolve to Engage in Self-Care That Supports You

Self-care has become a much talked about topic lately. But despite all the information and advice making the rounds, it’s something that not a lot of people practice. That’s because most people have a tendency to put themselves last.

They’re so busy working and caring for other people or other things that they give themselves the least amount of time – the least amount of concern. If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to commit to better self-care, there are numerous ways that you can achieve that goal.

Since it’s so easy to overlook your own needs, take your calendar for the New Year and block off time at least every week that you can spend on yourself. Get some exercise during these appointments with yourself or do anything that you want to do.

Take a dance class. Go to the movies. Splurge on a nice dinner out. Get out in nature and go for a walk. Ride a bike. Spend the money to get a manicure or a massage. Read a book. Check out of social media and spend that time relaxing.

Make part of your self-care resolution to understand where your stress comes from. Create a plan on how to either eliminate it or learn the best ways to deal with that stress.

When you don’t feel well, don’t push yourself. Some people try to keep on pushing themselves even when they’re sick. If you get under the weather, commit to doing whatever you need to pamper yourself until you’re well again.

Self-care means that you make it a priority to protect your wellbeing. That could be physical, mental or emotional. You might have issues in certain areas of your life that are causing problems and instead of practicing self-care and doing what’s best for you, maybe you’ve tried to tiptoe around it so you don’t rock the boat.

Anything that negatively impacts your body, mind or spirit should go. If it’s a toxic job, relationship or habit, you need to plan to get to the root of it and get rid of it. Take care of your health needs.

Get your physical. Make an appointment with a therapist if you need to. Don’t skimp on sleep. Sleep is a great form of self-care. Your body gets replenished while you sleep and if you’re not getting enough of it, it’ll hurt your health.

It doesn’t matter what needs to get done or who is clamoring for your time. Prioritize sleep as part of your self-care routine. Make it a resolution to let go of things that don’t matter in order to live happily.

Seek your dreams as part of your self-care. Don’t do something just because it’s “always” done a certain way. Stop beating yourself up if you practice negative self-talk. Accept yourself for who you are, flaws and all.

Get Your Finances on the Right Path with a Money-Savvy New Year’s Resolution

Many New Year’s resolutions are made in the area of finances. As one year starts to end and another begins, it causes people to look back at how they wished their finances had ended up.

If you’re like most people, you wish that you’d made better financial choices. Or you wish you had a way to grow your income. Create a resolution specifically for your finances.

There are many ways that you can commit to such a resolution. One thing you should know about your money is that if you don’t have a plan for it, it’ll get spent on things and in ways that won’t always be beneficial for you or any of your financial dreams.

If you don’t already have a budget, you need one. Too many people see a budget as a way of restricting their fun. But a budget is necessary for you to be able to spend your money so that you can have fun without regrets or having to let things go unpaid or goals go unmet.

You can use budget software, write one down in a notebook or whatever else you prefer. It’s only important that you have one that works for you. Before you do anything, you need to create a savings.

Otherwise, when emergencies crop up, you’re forced to either borrow money or skip paying a bill to handle the emergency. In addition to having a budget, let part of your resolution be to learn how to handle debt if you have some.

Debt can be a stressor. It’s so easy to get into, but can be a struggle to get out of. But you should make it a priority to grow your wealth, not your debt. Committing to paying off any debt not only frees your money up, but it also frees you from the stress of worrying if you can pay that bill.

If you have high interest rates, it might be a good idea for you to refinance some obligations. Plug financial leaks. A financial leak trickles your money away little by little and seems insignificant, but not when figured over the course of a year.

This might be from something like eating out too often or spending too much money on a habit. Most people aren’t aware of how to spot a financial leak. One example can be if you have to throw out food.

If you’ve had to throw out food in a can, box or even fresh like bread or bananas because it went bad, that’s a sign that money is leaking right out of your pocket through your meal planning or eating habits.

Another financial leak can be in the area of insurance. You may be paying too much for your car or homeowner’s insurance. Many people are over insured and don’t realize it.

Let your financial resolution right now be to creating a savings account, stopping waste, getting out of debt, and being accountable for what you do spend.

But you also need to make a plan to invest and do other financial moves that will protect you in the future. Making and adhering to your New Year’s resolutions should be more than something done on a whim. It should be a serious change you’re committing to for life.