Limits

Know your limits. Test your limits.

You go through life doing the normal things you do. You probably know how high of an item you can reach out of the cabinet, how many stairs you can go up without getting winded, there are probably lots of things you do where you've developed a sense of what your limits are. It's good to know what you can/can't do, and those results should be baked into how you set your life up with preparedness. 

The flip side to the limits conversation is testing your limits, and doing it in areas you wouldn't normally test. Sometimes you'd be amazed with what you can do. I have 100 year old shotgun I acquired in the last couple of years. I was at a range shooting for fun and thought I'd see if I could hit a target at like 20 yards with a slug. I did. I was amazed. This 100 year old shotgun could do that. So I moved up to 100. Wow. I had to aim a little high, but I put it on the paper in a fairly consistant group. If you would have told me I could do this I would have never thought it was true. This will be usefull for me to know if I ever need or want to take down a deer for food. I now know I could probably fairly accurately shoot something out to about that far with my old shotgun. Not that this is a perfect example for everything, but it's an example of where testing your limits may provide you with some useful knowledge about yourself in what you can/cant do.

I suppose testing your limits is step 2. The next step is probably then taking whatever that limit is, and deciding if you wan't to further it...? I can run a mile, I know that, can I run two? Maybe I should endeavour to hit that. Do I know how to sew? Maybe I could make it a goal and learn how to sew enough to repair clothing?

Can you:

Change a tire on a vehicle?

Sew a patch on some jeans?

Change oil on a vehicle?

Seal up doors and windows from drafts coming in?

Freeze dry food? Can Food? Smoke/dry food?

Pic a couple areas of your life you'd like to know about, test yourself, decide if you want to further your ability or knowledge in that area, and make it happen!