Tactical preparedness is an essential skill. It can get you through high-risk situations and extreme scenarios. But if you’re wondering whether it could be a useful skill outside of such incidents⁠—well, yes it absolutely can be!

A common tactical preparedness misconception is that it’s all about surviving disaster scenarios or practicing self-defense to preserve your life and property. But guess what? All the training to prepare for life-threatening events can actually prove useful in non-threatening life situations, too!

The 14er tactical mindset encompasses such traits as planning, efficiency, readiness, resourcefulness and leadership. These are valuable skills for everyday life. Any activity that calls for quick thinking and precise action will benefit from tactical preparedness.

Hunting is a good example of such an activity. Another one is walking through a dangerous neighborhood. Or any time you need to get someplace in a hurry⁠—finding the most expedient pathway to get from point A to point B is a tactical skill. Life is full of these everyday threats and challenges. 

What Are the Everyday Threats and Challenges?

Once you’ve learned the 14er tactical mindset, you can quickly recognize everyday threats and challenges in your life. These can be anything from a slippery wet spot to avoid, a puddle or pothole along your path, or adverse environmental conditions to watch out for. To give an example: if there’s a thunderstorm brewing in the area, it pays to steer clear of points where lightning might strike. 

Tactical preparedness also means stocking up on supplies and gear that will help you deal with emergencies and unexpected problems. Not long ago, wildfires caused air quality in New York City to reach hazardous levels. That was an extreme situation, which fortunately could be easily remedied by employing an N95 mask. But even in everyday life, one can encounter hazardous air conditions due to smoke, pollution, particulate air matter and so on. The same tactical approach used to deal with an extreme situation works just as well in facing more common occurrences. 

What Are the Essential Tactical Preparedness Skills for Everyday Life?

Many of the skills one develops with tactical preparedness can be very beneficial in regular life situations. Let’s go over some examples:

• Leadership. While you can navigate risky situations on your own, you’re most likely to be dealing with them alongside other people. Leadership skills will come in handy for that. You need to be able to project authority, boost morale and motivation, achieve clear communications and lead by example. These are awesome skills to employ at the office, at home, in sports, in your local community⁠—basically, every corner of life.
• Conflict management. Extreme situations trigger stressful reactions in many people. With the 14er tactical mindset, you can maintain your poise in the heat of a conflict. This skill involves the capacity to de-escalate tense situations and get people to cooperate for each other’s good. As life is full of conflicts, big and small, this skill will come in handy a lot of the time!
• Resource planning. This involves collecting all the resources you will need for upcoming activities as well as unplanned emergencies. You’ll want to stock up on supplies, equipment, arms and ammo, and tactical gear. Start by creating a family preparedness plan, then gather the items you’ll need to execute your plan if necessary. Also, create plans for expected experiences, such as going on an outdoor adventure (here’s how to pack for a hike).
• Organizational skills. These go hand in hand with resource planning. With organizational expertise, you can ensure that you can deploy resources very quickly, as soon as they are required. What this requires from you is an understanding of smart prioritization, resource placement and proper labeling. This is a big reason for you to get 14er tactical gear, as it is designed to expedite organization and deployment. When equipped with a 14er Tactical Backpack, for example, you can rapidly deploy a self-defense tool or a first aid kit.
• First aid training. Getting into a risky situation can mean getting hurt. Without knowledge of first aid, you’re gonna have a bad time. You’re not Superman. You’ve got to get some first aid training and put together a medical emergency kit you can use to treat yourself. This would be an Individual First Aid Kit, or IFAK. Be organized, be ready: place your kit in an IFAK pouch attached to your 14er Tactical Backpack, from which you can deploy it quickly.

How to Build a Tactical Mindset for Your Everyday Preparedness?

We’ve briefly mentioned the tactical preparedness misconception, which states that it only applies when extreme circumstances come into play. The truth is that tactical preparedness is universally useful. You’ll benefit greatly by training yourself to live a tactical lifestyle.

How do you get started on that? First, you need to make a personal assessment of your strengths, weaknesses, skills, risk factors, resources and limitations. This will give you a clear picture telling you what areas you will need to work on. For example, if your assessment shows that you’re not physically fit enough, you can work on that area by developing and executing a fitness plan.

The next step is to build a strategy to keep yourself motivated to do everything you need to do. We recommend setting clear goals for yourself, and then breaking them down into smaller steps to accomplish. Keep a running tally of your progress. Simply seeing how much you’ve achieved can be a powerful motivating force. Celebrate your achievements, even if they’re not that huge, and reward yourself for what you’ve done. Positive reinforcement is the best way to encourage high performance.

You also need to do risk assessments for your living area⁠—including your entire town. Based on what you find out, develop a preparedness plan for responding to emergencies that can strike that area. If there is a wildfire risk, for example, you’ll need to plan for firefighting and evacuation, and prepare a secondary shelter someplace else. You’ll also need to stock up on food, water, medicine and other emergency supplies, like a good tactical prepper.

What Do You Need In Terms of Tactical Gear?

We hope that by reading this article, you have been disabused of the tactical preparedness misconception. Now, let us extend that same thinking to tactical gear! Some people will tell you that tactical gear is only meant for dangerous scenarios where you have to rise in self-defense.

That’s not the case at all. The tactical lifestyle is becoming widely accepted, and with it, so is the popularity of tactical gear. And people are finding that the functionality and durability of tactical gear is beneficial to them in regular life! 

14er Tactical gear is designed to suit everyday use as well as adventuring and emergency response. The products look great and won’t be out of place in the office or the streets of town. 14er Tactical gear includes everything you need to get started on living a tactical lifestyle: a range bag, an IFAK pouch and the ever-dependable 14er Tactical Backpack.