Having the ability to be self-reliant is very important. This does not mean you have to do and make everything yourself. But being overly reliant on anything other then God can be a real disadvantage. While self-reliance can be a big advantage.
My Story
Trying to remember back I think I started moving to this way of thinking in 2014. It did not happen over night. But I remember around that time I started getting annoyed with big tech. Then I started to build up my own infrastructure to get away from big tech.
Digital Self-Reliance
This lead me down a long road. I got my own domains, self-hosted my own servers, and even programmed some of my own apps to replace things that big tech used to do for me. You could even say this site is a direct result of those decisions all the way back to 2014.
But up until 2019 when I got land I did not have many options to become self-reliant outside the digital world.
Self-Reliance In the Real World
Now that I had a little land I started trying to learn how to garden, can and preserve food, build, and fix things around the property. I have to admit I feel like I’m way behind in these skills but I have some good friends and family that have been teaching me a lot.
Then in 2020 COVID hit and I realized I was not as self-reliant as I wanted to be. So that made me want to be even more independent.
I hope one day that I will be able to provide most of my own food and repair a lot of my own things. Not only would that allow me to save a lot of money but I would have something to fall back on if something bad happens.
4 Tips For Self-Reliance
I’m not an expert but I have learned a few things that can help you get started.
Get out of debt
This is a big one. If your paying back debt every month then your not using that money to improve other parts of your life. It also limits your job options. Maybe you want to go part time or be self-employed? It’s a lot harder to walk away from a job to take a risk like that if you need to have a lot of money just to pay bills off.
A book that helped me in this area is The Total Money Makeover.
Learn To Grow Your Own Food
This was basically a standard skill throughout all of human history until 100 years ago. Now I would be willing to bet most people don’t know much or anything about it.
I’m not saying you have to go start a giant garden. But start something small and learn the skills. That way you have the knowledge if you need it.
Ask for Help
I think some people get the idea that they have to do everything on there own to be self-reliant. I was kind of like that at first and it slowed down my progress. Now I think it’s counter productive.
Sure the goal is to not be over reliant on anyone or anything but there is nothing wrong with asking for help and learning from others.
For example I can tear down and rebuild computers easy but I don’t have a lot of experience with engines. So I ask around for tips and help and I hope one day to be able to repair engines myself. In return I have helped others with their computer needs.
I think as long as we respect each other this is fine. What I would not advise is working with people who don’t wish the best for you.
Never stop learning
I don’t think its possible to know how to do everything. But that’s no reason not to try. Be it setting up a server or repairing a chain saw. Knowledge is power. The more you know the more options you will have in the future. I’m not only talking about self study. Talk to people you run into. You never know what you might learn.
