Instinct, Wit and Experience: The Rest of the Survival Mindset – by EJ Snyder

In my previous article, ‘Tua Sponte Superstes! Do You Have a Survivalist Mindset?’ I talked about ‘The Will’. I consider this to be the most important part of the Survivalist Mindset.

Now let’s talk about the rest of the equation. These are no less important in my book as they add up to create the model of a successful survivalist. In order, the other constituent parts of the equation are:

• Instinct
• Wit
• Experience
• Physical
• Preparedness

All five of these, along with Will, help to make up the survivalist mindset. When all are in sync and fine-tuned, we get a person who is truly equipped to handle the direst of situations. However, I still believe that Will, as proven through history, makes up the foundation of which the rest are built upon.

Instinct

This is the part where you trust your gut! When the hair stands up on the back of your neck and tells you something isn’t right or that you’re in grave danger! I don’t care what you call it as it has many different names. These include ‘sixth sense’, spidey senses’, ‘woman’s intuition’ or the Jedi term, and one of my favourites, ‘The Force’! In any case, it is something that cannot be denied and can and will save your life.

It is very important when in the wild to attune yourself to your surroundings. In the military we called it SILS. When you first entered the battlefield, you would stop before travelling any further to attune yourself to your surroundings. All the sounds, sights, and smells around you. It is no different in a survival situation. You must get yourself fully integrated to your environment and to where you are. This is especially so if it’s a location that you have never been before.

“To survive the Wild, you must become Wild”

You will find that Instinct will serve you well, as long as you trust in it. You can sense when things are wrong or getting ready to go awry. When bad weather is coming in, when you think you are being stalked, or when to get off the trail because trouble is coming. It may keep you from being bitten by a snake or let you know when to strike at prey when hunting! Trust in your Instinct, as it should be as natural to the survivalist as breathing!

Wit

Next you must live by your wits! Your Wit is made up of several things. First it is your training, which can be Survival, First Aid, Wilderness Activities, Military or other specialised training or a helpful combo of many. Formal training is great but is a perishable skill that must be maintained, practiced and remembered. The question is…..will it be there when you need it most? Will you be ready when you are tired, stressed, hungry, dehydrated or suffering from environmental or weather conditions? This is when the true survivalist shows up, when the chips are down or stacked up against them, they don’t let the situation control them. They control the situation and take action when it matters most.

Wit is being able to improvise, adapt, and overcome the situation. You need to become like “MacGyver”. You must continually think outside the box and look at useful items for uses outside or their norm to help better your situation. Wit is asking yourself the question, “How can I make it better?” in terms of your situation, your survival life, or a survival strategy or technique you are using. Yes, that good old book is great and many of the Laws of Survival and techniques taught in them are great, but always remember that the wild has a vote.

Breaking the ‘Laws of Survival’

Mother Nature never lets you beat her easily. That’s where you have to be smart enough and observant to what is happening around you. The rules and ‘Laws of Survival’ sometimes have to be broken in order to make it out alive. Survival techniques and strategies have been created through trial and error. Someone first put their Wit to good use with each and every survival technique and strategy you can find today. That’s a good thing, because it means that you may very well figure something out that will also become one of these and save someone’s life someday. Iron sharpens iron and this is how we all make each other better.

When I was in the Amazon, the survival situation called for us to have little natural to no coverings. We had no modern day gear like tents, insect netting or insect repellent. We were totally living as the indigenous Amazonian did for tens of thousands of years.

Coping with mosquitoes

We were surrounded nightly by probably 10,000 mosquitoes. Everything I knew, had learned and practiced before about combatting mosquitoes, simply did not work.

We tried it all. From a good hot fire, smoky fires, covering up with mud or clay, smoldering termite mounds, crushing termites all over our bodies, or even natural insect repelling plants. None of these worked at all. The Amazon was telling us to adapt to the situation and try to ease our misery. We learned that the fire attracted them five times as fast and with each passing night, their numbers tripled.

Consequently we abandoned fires unless we needed them for cooking, hardening weapons or, in emergency, for hypothermia. They were always placed far away from camp. We also figured out that the mosquitoes would come out every evening just after six and for a set time. This was from anywhere from one hour to four hours based on the moon cycle. So we would always sit away from our camp and just weather the mosquito storm till the cycle ended. There was a lot of swatting and walking around the immediate area. The mosquitoes would infest your shelter if you stayed near it.

We also figured out that we needed to move camp after 3 or 4 days to be able to bear it and we could come back to a previous camp as the mosquitoes would abandon camp if we weren’t there anymore. Wit played a huge part for us to survive the Amazon.

Experience

Now this last survival scenario leads us into the next part, Experience. Experience is huge because when you’ve gone through something really, really hard, that’s very trying, and you’ve been fully tested. You become hardened by the whole experience which is priceless. Once you make it out of it, you come out with some great knowledge, lessons learned and confidence. There is always something you can look back on and draw from for the next situation you find yourself in. When you are wisened, you are also proven and you can’t gain this by sitting in a classroom, or in front of the TV, or by reading books.

Experience is earned through trials, being tested, and surviving tough situations time and time again. Experience is getting out there in the wild and seeing what you’ve got, seeing where you need to improve, and building your confidence up. When you need it in a real life survival situation, it’s there for you.

Physical

Physical is the one thing outside of formal survival or skills training that you can control before you find yourself in a survival or emergency situation. The first part of Physical is your inner health. You want to make sure that you are eating a well-balanced diet and are getting all the vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that your body needs to run, stay healthy, and fight off illness.

The importance of fitness

The next part is your fitness level, because being in good shape is very important when you find yourself in a survival or emergency situation. Physically fit survivalists have a much easier go of it because of the physical demands that are placed on one’s self in these situation. It makes dealing with stress much easier. You will be able to go further and last longer when the going gets really tough. This can be easily started today and continue a good physical fitness regimen every day. Waiting to get in shape once the situation occurs is not the time.

Know your limits

Lastly, you need to fully know your body. How does it react to the environmental conditions these situations will put it through? Can you push those limits and how far? Whether its dehydration, onset of hypothermia, starvation, whatever it is that is going to physically stress you body’s system. You need to know what your body is built of in terms of your constitution to fight off viruses or handle bad water. What types of foods irritate your system? Are you aware of any allergies you may have? You need to know your physical endurance, strengths, cardio, and limits on repetition tasks. It is alleged that survival is 90% mental and 10% physical. I believe this is true. However, you better make sure that that your physical 10% is in 100% full working order because you will need it!

Preparedness

People who are total package survivalists are usually also very prepared. Preparedness is the last part of the survivalist mindset. The Boy Scouts practise and live by this and their motto is simple, “Be Prepared!” You do this by keeping your mind sharp with survival knowledge and training, keeping yourself physically fit through and through, and give yourself an “Edge”.

What is “Edge?” you ask. Edge is part experience but more so, having a ready to go survival kit that you can easily take with you anywhere you go. Kits vary in cost, size, and content, but you want to cover the basics first and have a very good and sharp blade with you. The basics are of course Fire, Water, Food, Shelter and Medicinal. Anything that will aid in this works and I always like to have this covered in twos, with a primary source and back up. (Survival Kits and Bug Out Bags are an entire subject in themselves, so I won’t get into it here).

What you have is better than a pipe dream

Folks always ask me what’s the best survival knife or blade to have for a survival situation. I always reply, though a one blade fits all survival tasks edge would be a nice pipe dream to have, it is really the one you have at the time the survival or emergency situation occurs. So you need to have a good basic knowledge on all types of blades, how they work, and uses of them for just the type scenario.

Remember, you never know when a survival or an emergency situation will occur or who you will be with. So you need to be up on all your survival training and knowledge, especially primitive survival skills in case you don’t have your kit or a blade with you. The one part of your survival kit that you have no control over, but will be very important, is your survival partner(s) if you are lucky to have one.

The importance of honesty

When it comes to partners, first you must be honest with yourself about your own capabilities. What do you really bring to the table, your strengths and your weaknesses. Then your partner(s) need to do the same with themselves, and lastly, everyone needs to be honest with each other about these things. Now is not the time for egos, when you lay out your survival resumes and life experiences. There may just be someone a bit more qualified then you to lead the situation.

The Super Bowl is a team event but someone has to be the Quarterback if you want to win. A survival situation is no different, you may be better at plant identification and primitive fire than the leader, so that’s where you can lead and you’ll be doing your part. Natural leaders are rare, but they do exist.

Great leaders have formal training and experiences. They are good in organisation and dealing with many different types of people. Really good leaders were first good followers before they started leading. So check the ego at the camp fire. See where you can best help the team and get out of the situation alive with everyone healthy.

Tua Sponte Superstes

The Survival Mindset is a combination of six things: Will, Instinct, Wit, Experience, Physical, and Preparedness. In my opinion, as I stated in a previous stand-alone article, ‘Tua Sponte Superstes! Do You Have a Survivalist Mindset?’, Will is the most important and critical of the Survival Mindset. When you have Will and Will alone, I truly believe that anyone can find themselves in a very tough and life threatening situation and, as history has shown, make it out alive. They may be a bit battered and in bad shape but they can come through it! I am very proud of my IRON WILL as it has saved my keister more than once in my life! Thus my survival motto, “Tua Sponte Superstes!” which means in Latin, simply, “Survive by your own WILL!”

Will is the foundation for the other five. The others in total are all equally important and need to be as sharp as your WILL. However, when all are acting in perfect harmony, the survival mindset is so much stronger. The survivalist is ready for the difficulties they will face in any survival or emergency situation. A readied survivalist with the right Survival Mindset will have the best chance of making it out alive and probably help and save many others as well! So I ask YOU…..where is your Survivalist Mindset at?

About the Author:

EJ “Skullcrusher” Snyder is an Extreme Survivalist, Adventure, and Retired Army Sergeant Major and Two War Combat Veteran. He has a proven record of surviving tough Survival Situations as seen on the Hit TV Series “Naked and Afraid”. EJ instructs Survival lessons at his own company Skullcrusher LLC and posts videos at his You Tube Channel on Survival and other things. He is free-lance writer for several periodicals, blogs, and prints on Survival and Gear Reviews and is in the process of penning several books and field manuals. EJ volunteers for multiple organizations helping Veterans and Soldiers such as the USO, Wounded Warrior Project, and Warrior Pointe. He is also a Champion for many causes and charities such as Anti-Bullying, Cancer, & Terminally Ill Kids. On top of this, EJ is a Motivational Speaker and does many appearances at a variety of venues.

You can find EJ at his web site: www.ejsnyder.com or follow him on: Instagram or Twitter

Facebook Fan Public Figure Page: https://www.facebook.com/EJSkullcrusherSnyder?ref=hl

You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/erroljames07

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