Psychology of Survival

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Ask yourself what it is that you love about your life. Family, Friends, Children? What are you willing to do, what are you willing to endure to make sure that you can continue to enjoy all of these things.

In a natural disaster or period of civil strife, self sufficiency and a high level of independence will be key to you and your family’s survival.

There are several tools you will need. Some are basic for short term survival and comfort, others are more complex to help you survive during a longer scenario. But most importantly the psychology of a survivor is needed.

There are many historically documented episodes where people give up. They enter a state of cognitive dissonance; they stop eating, stop drinking and wander around in a daze, seemingly oblivious to danger. They’d rather just get it over with and die.

 

Don’t be one of those people! With the right training, knowledge and preparation, an emergency situation or a period of civil unrest could be a walk in the park, (relatively speaking) Do not panic! Prepare!

You need food, water, shelter, protection, the four basics.

Everything you should have in your bug out bag for 72 hours. What will make bugging in tolerable for a few days to a week and then much longer extended periods of staying put or attempting to go on the move.

All the tools and strategies are useless if you don’t channel your drive to not only live but thrive. Some people with starve to death in the first week, not you. Fear is a choice, danger is real but fear is a choice. Choose to survive.

My Road Trip

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I recently drove from my apartment in Denver Colorado to my parents home in West Palm Beach Florida. I drove with my girlfriend. First we drove 30 hours straight from Denver to Tallahassee Florida, spent the night and continued on to West Palm Beach the next day. Another 6 hours.

Only because my girlfriend is amazing to converse with, we hardly listened to music, we actually spoke almost continually for the entire drive. Several people said, “wow, you must have really gotten to know each other”. I found that statement interesting since we’ve been dating for a year, and have been living together for 4 months. She works at home and I’m a student, I prefer to study at home so we spend all of our waking hours together. I think we know each other pretty well, and we didn’t get to know each other any better on this drive, it really was just another couple of days for us.

It made me wonder what everyone else is up to. Are most people in relationships with strangers? Do people really take road trips together and listen to music or talk shows the entire time? Do you talk on the phone the whole time to other people?

Anyway that isn’t the point, the point is that our country is beautiful. We drove through Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. When we moved out there we drove through Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and into Colorado. It’s a very long drive but it’s absolutely beautiful. You should definitely try it some day. If that’s impossible for you, just take a drive around your city, go up and down all sorts of road, just drive around see new things. The more experiences you have, all of them, seeing things, doing things, hearing things, feeling things, the better you might feel. Broaden your horizons. Get off the couch, turn off the tv or the computer and go for a walk. Walk around your neighborhood, buy a bike and channel your inner child, live a little.

In the last four months I’ve seen a huge part of the country, I love it, I’m driving back to Colorado shortly and I’m actually looking forward to it. Getting out on the road is a great experience, living in new cities is an even better one. Go explore a new park, go to a new beach, take a day trip to some place you’ve never been. I promise you’ll enjoy it. Let me know what you did.

 

 

 

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The way successful people think

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The more people I meet, the more people I talk to, the more I realize that self doubt and fear is very common. We all need to believe in ourselves. We need to believe in our ability to succeed. If you claim you want to be a millionaire but you don’t believe making $1,000 a day is possible. You need to work on your math skills and think about it a little more.

The first step is to think about what you value, what your purpose is, what you’re passionate about. Think about where you see yourself in one year, five years, ten years. Set goals. Then make plans on how to achieve those goals. Make a promise to yourself that you’ll make daily progress. Slow progress is progress and you need to tell yourself it’s ok as long as you’re moving forward. Research something, watch a video on something you didn’t know before, set up a blog or a youtube account, buy a domain, work on a business plan, learn how to write one. But do something.

Self-limiting beliefs are crippling, successful people don’t doubt their abilities, they don’t think about if they can do something, they think about when they’re going to get it done. Don’t stand in your own way of living the life you want, take action, make it happen.

Lastly, surround yourself with people that encourage you, people that actively help you. Unfortunately, some of the people you’re closest to, family, friends will discourage and dissuade you more than anyone else. The internet is a great place to find like minded people. Find a mentor, ask questions, and follow through with your plans that lead towards achieving your goals.

Hope all that helps, unfortunately I keep encountering people that seem lost and confused, unsure of their desires, unclear on their direction. Honestly, just write it down, revise it, but work towards your own happiness, you deserve it.

Colorblindness

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My girlfriend was looking around online yesterday and found a website that celebrates interracial couples. I thought it was cool, but she read some text from their site to me and it actually offended me.

I’ve heard the term colorblindness before and it bothers me. It implies ignoring some aspect of a person. Ignoring race or culture doesn’t make sense to me.

In law school, I took a class called alternative dispute resolution. Where we learned the art of negotiation, arbitration and mediation. On the first day of class my professor asked the class to describe him. He is a tall, thin, 72 year old black man from Jacksonville Florida with a slight southern accent. Everyone in the class said he was tall, or smart, or athletic, or slim, or had white hair, or brown eyes. He allowed the class to keep going until everyone was done. At the end he asked why nobody said he was a black man. The class didn’t have a response.

He said you may think it’s offensive, you may think it’s rude, you may not want to say something race related to a professor, but why not? I am a black man, my blackness has shaped a large part of my life. I didn’t experience life as a tall man with white hair, I experienced life as a black man, Not to acknowledge my blackness is not to acknowledge a huge part of who I am.

 The idea of “I love you despite your race”, “I love you despite our culture differences”, I love you because you don’t fit into the stereotypes I grew up hearing about. I don’t think that’s the best way to think about this.

 It should be I love you because you are black, or Hispanic, or Native American. I love you because you are who you are. Attempting to focus solely on being human, or entirely on personality and not culture or race, seems like you’re discounting a huge part of who the person is. To some people their race or culture is a very important part of their identity and to discount it is simply offensive.

You shouldn’t hang out with people despite anything, you shouldn’t be ignoring stereotypes because you’re so “open minded”. You should be actively learning about other cultures and races, trying to understand them. You shouldn’t be sweeping differences aside, you should be embracing and celebrating them. I love seeing bi-racial couples and multi-racial families. I always wonder what they love about each other and if it does have something to do with race. Are they ignoring it or celebrating it?

The goals of the colorblindness movement are positive but the articulation of them are simply offensive, we’re not all the same, don’t ignore the differences, celebrate them. You’ll end up in the same place but I think how you got there is healthier.

Be a positive Polly

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I’ve noticed a lot of my friends, both real and facebook, unfortunately there is sometimes a difference, are constantly complaining about just about everything.

I’ve always thought that having an indifferent attitude or carefree approach to almost everything makes life easier and more pleasant. Please let me know what you think.

Instead of complaining, change whatever it is that you’re complaining about. If you can’t change it, just be happy that you have something to complain about.

Co-workers/Job/Bosses- I get that sometimes coworkers and bosses suck, but unless you’re going to quit stop complaining. It’s much better for your own mental health to just be happy you have a job and get paid sometimes. Enjoy the trip to and from work as much as possible. Take a different route, listen to different music, take the opportunity to call an old friend during your drive. Try this, figure out how much money you make per minute while you’re at work, might be depressing, might be motivational. If that doesn’t help, start your own at home business, no boss, no-coworkers.

Dating- caring a lot less about the outcome of the date or the relationship is a much better approach. People that spend the whole time worrying about “what if” aren’t living in the moment. Life is about moments, in the present, not necessarily results. Dating is about getting to know people, not looking for the perfect spouse. Relax, enjoy the conversation with a new person, enjoy the atmosphere, the environment, the ambiance. Enjoy living. Stop worrying about weather you’re wasting time or money. Have fun, even a little, and no time was wasted. 

Conclusion, stop caring so much about everything. Be happy to be alive, be happy you have some food and some money. Don’t think about whether the glass is half empty or half full, just be happy you have a glass.

What’s your plan?

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Hello,

This is my very first blog so I decided to get started here the way that I always have at parties and various social gatherings. My favorite conversation starter is to ask a very simple question, that usually has a very difficult answer. When I meet someone new, I don’t usually ask them where they are from, or what they do. I ask them “What’s your plan?”

Generally, I have to step in right away and qualify that question. I’m not asking what your job is, or what your career pan is. I’m asking what your life plan is. I’m asking what you’re going to do that will contribute to the good in this world.

I’ll answer my own question a little further down, but first I’ll give you the typical conversational background information you may be wondering about. My name is Bryan Belenson, I’m 25, I was born in Mariano Roque Alonso, Paraguay. I was adopted when I was 6 months old and was raised in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Boynton Beach, Florida.

I’ve always loved learning about history, philosophy, economics, politics, finance and religion and I’ll likely end up discussing a little of each on here. I went to the University of Florida, majored in History, I went to Florida International University for my law degree and I’m about to move to Denver Colorado to get an LLM in Tax law (Masters).

So now that you have my stats, you can actually get to know me. Let’s go back to that original question. You can make some stereotypical assumptions based on the answers to the more common background questions, including the background info I just gave you about me, but the trick to getting to know a stranger and yourself  is to ask the question “what’s  your plan?” and really really listen to their answer. This simple question is one of the best ways to make a solid bond with someone you just met. And trust me, they’ll remember you for having this conversation with them.

My plan has always been to live simply, consuming little and helping as many people as I can. Through social media I’d like to reassess values, question goals and reconsider what our ultimate purpose is. I’ve always wanted to share everything I’ve ever had with as many people as I possible could. I’ve made a blog so I can share my thoughts and Ideas and I encourage everyone who reads this to answer the question themselves. Do me a favor though, ask that question the next time you meet somebody new. Let me know how it goes, tell me what the person you asked said to you. If you don’t get around to it, tell me how you would answer that question. I’m new on WordPress but I’m excited to start some great conversations with new friends.

“You don’t know what you don’t know” Thanks for reading.