Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Slow and Steady Wins the Race, but you need to start the race first.

 

When you start to look a everything suggested for living a provident life (food storage, financial health, physical health etc.) it can be very easy to become overwhelmed and have no idea where to start.

Moving towards a more sustainable life is not an overnight thing.  There are many aspects we may implement.  Because these things are typically long term processes/goals it is easy to become overwhelmed and loose momentum.  We have to find ways to accomplish our long term goals along the way. 

By taking your goals and tasks and make them smaller, you will have easy tasks that can be completed in a day or over a week.  The smaller tasks need to be easy to accomplished and also help you progress towards your longer term goals.  

Below is an excerpt from an article from the March 2009 Ensign:

 "Sister Jeffries notes that “the beauty of this system is its appropriateness for families just starting their storage programs, as well as for those living in small homes and apartments, where space is at a premium. President Hinckley clearly recognized that change and adaptation are needed so that all of us might benefit from the Lord’s inspired program.”

A New Approach

In the spirit of President Hinckley’s remarks, Church leaders decided to closely reexamine their approach to self-reliance, looking for ways to reinforce the concepts of home storage and financial preparedness. As a result, the Church published the pamphlet All Is Safely Gathered In: Family Home Storage, outlining new guidelines for home preparedness that give Church members a simplified, four-step approach to building their home storage.

They are as follows:

1. Gradually build a small supply of food that is part of your normal, daily diet until it is sufficient for three months.
   
2. Store drinking water.
   
3. Establish a financial reserve by setting aside a little money each week, and gradually increase it to a reasonable amount.
   
4. Once families have achieved the first three objectives, they are counseled to expand their efforts, as circumstances allow, into a supply of long-term basic foods such as grains, legumes, and other staples.
   

Of the new guidelines, Presiding Bishop H. David Burton says, “Our objective was to establish a simple, inexpensive, and achievable program that would help people become self-reliant. We are confident that by introducing these few, simple steps we can, over time, have more success.”

By doing these things we prepare our families for future uncertainty.  Our families may experience disasters in one form or another, from job loss to natural disaster or anything in between. Following this council will make our families more secure and provided for no mater what comes upon us, and makes our life more rich and healthful along the way.  

“Many more people could ride out the storm-tossed waves in their economic lives if they had their … supply of food … and were debt-free. Today we find that many have followed this counsel in reverse: they have at least a year’s supply of debt and are food-free.”

President Thomas S. Monson, “That Noble Gift—Love at Home,” Church News, May 12, 2001, 7.