There is a survival kit available for nearly every possible contingency, but most kits on the known market are tailored to meet specific threats. By contrast, the magic bullet survival kit not only meets a broader spectrum of threats than the norm but is available anywhere for under twenty dollars out of pocket. Furthermore, every survivor who escapes a threatening situation through solo effort is known to already keep one of these kits on hand at all times. What is it?

The answer to the riddle: The survival kit that does it all is called T.E.A.R., an acronym for the mentality common to survivors everywhere.

T : A habit of regular threat assessment. The likelihood of being surprised and taken off guard is reduced to near zero, reducing if not eliminating the possibility of becoming suddenly (and dangerously) frozen in startled panic.

E. Evaluation of options. Knowing ahead of time what can be done in a worst case scenario allows for swift and decisive action should the horrible happen.

A. An attitude of success. The heart of this tool in your survival kit is the sure knowledge that whatever needs to be done, you will do.

R. Repeated mental rehearsal of the action(s) you intend to take, thinking through the options you've already evaluated and vividly imagining yourself performing them for real.

Sure, you may still want to keep a few physical things where you can reach them, such as a pocket knife (useful in 1,001 situations), a pen, a bit of paper, perhaps a note card, and possibly a Bic lighter.

For T.E.A.R. to prove itself capable of helping a user to survive virtually any circumstances and conditions, illustrations need to be drawn from various types of threatening scenarios. No problem there; the "threat pool" is both wide and deep. Let's take a look at four of those threat types.

1. The threat of losing one's life while a prisoner of war. Studies have been done which attempted to identify any traits possessed in common among those who had survived the most extreme dangers to life and limb. Individuals were included who had been lost in the Arctic, severely mauled by wild animals in remote terrain with no medical help nearby, or captured and gruesomely tortured by human enemies. The scientists found four traits that every survivor did in fact possess.

The people who lived through rigors that killed others had known the worst was a realistic possibilty (T)...figured out their possible courses of action should the worst happen (E)...assumed that even such horror would/could NOT kill them (A)...and mentally practiced their responses in advance (R).

2. The threat of economic disaster. Pam and I have been solid examples of this one time and again. Most recently, we were living in Colorado where I was driving water tankers in the gasfield drilling boom...when the economic downturn slammed our employer to the mat along with every other trucking company in the area but one. I did not get laid off but did lose twelve hours per week of $34.50 per hour overtime. Because we used the T.E.A.R. survival kit effectively, the magic bullet shot down a number of obstacles, enabling us to escape the state while we still could. Had we frozen in fear, we'd have seen our financial reserves slowly dwindle until we were stuck in place with no options.

Instead, we used what we had, spending every dime over the following couple of months but to good effect. As a result, we're living in our best of all possible worlds, enjoying the southeastern Arizona desert in all its privacy and all its glory while I get to write online for a living instead of continuing to schlep heavy, muddy tire chains around while dodging other idiots on those steep, twisty, Rocky Mountain back roads.

3. The threat of direct physical attack in the civilian world. Neither Pam nor I ever assume this to be an impossibility in this all too violent world. Wherever we are, our "threat radar" (T) is always turned on. If anyone on the street presents any sort of physical threat at all, we can and do accurately evaluate the level of that threat within milliseconds as well as our options (E). We're not foolishly overconfident, but our attitude of determination to be the "last man standing" (so to speak) communicates itself to the would-be attacker(s) (A). Finally, we're both trained martial artists who have practiced/rehearsed our combat moves thousands upon thousands of times (R). Result: In the thirteen years Pam and I've been together, out of probably two dozen incidents, all but two potential aggressors decided that actually taking a swing was not a good idea.

In one of the two remaining cases, a six foot male attempted to put hardcore moves on my five foot wife...who promptly slammed him against the far wall with a powerful palm strike to the solar plexus. That was sufficient; he rediscovered his lost sense of courtesy far more quickly than Bo Peep recovered her lost sheep.

In the other case, a self appointed "Bully of the Mountain" did get in the first few punches, accepting my offer to start the assault if he really felt it necessary. I acquired a glorious shiner in the process...but also persuaded Bully Boy to reconsider when he found himself (a) unable to get in another shot no matter how he tried, and (b) nervous about his crotch, which had been not so politely introduced to the toe of my cowboy boot. We became good neighbors after that.

4. Surviving a wildfire when all avenues of escape have already been cut off. One such happening is documented in my Hub titled Fire On The Mountain. We knew the fire danger was high (T), knew what could and could not be done if the long valley grass did flare up as it did (E), refused for one second to even consider losing our home, let alone our lives or the lives of our pets (A), and went to work fighting the fire with our lone shovel and a lot of determination as I had fought a number of other fires over the years (R).

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Not clear enough? Magic bullet, schmagic bullet, you don't get it? Well, if you don't, it's not your fault as a reader; it's my fault as a writer. So before wrapping this up, let's imagine the following:

Two men are lost in the highest, most remote mountains of Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. It's not their fault; they were captured by a group of mad scientists who want to run an experiment. Although the men are not together, being separated by several miles of the most rugged terrain in the lower forty-eight states, the two are facing virtually identical obstacles. These mountains are chock full of bears and cougars and bobcats and such. The temperature is exactly thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit. The time is midnight, and while there's a moon, it cannot be seen for the heavy cloud cover.

Both men are in good health, although one will soon not be. One has a large elk hunter's backpack provisioned with a heavy winter coat, a flashlight, spare batteries, emergency food bars, snow boots, two cigarette lighters, a cell phone equipped with GPS function, gloves, a loaded .375 Magnum revolver, and a hat with earflaps.

The other has nothing but the clothes on his back and tennis shoes on his feet.

One will die in the mountains; the other will walk out on his own. Which is which?

If I'm the guy in the tennies, I'm walking out in good shape. If the fellow with all the nice clothing and equipment discovers his cell phone doesn't have any service in among those fierce peaks (and it won't)...if he runs all his batteries dead in the Dead Zone because he's afraid of the monsters in the dark...if he starts wandering in panicked circles as people who are truly lost often do...then he's the dead man.

Summary: Your magic bullet survival kit is not the stuff in your backpack or your car trunk. It's the stuff between your ears.

Thanks for reading,

Ghost32