Self-Sufficiency: A Six Principles Anthology Book

Self-Sufficiency: A Six Principles Anthology Book by Charlie Botting is one of the books in our Six Principle Anthology series which share blog stories written by Trails to Empowerment community members, guests, volunteers and students. Focusing on one of the Six Principles, Self-Sufficiency, this book shares stories about the skills and mindsets that help us become more self-sufficient and independent.

All of our Six Principles are a holistic concept as each principle is essential for every other principle. With Self-Sufficiency, we feel empowered as we learn skills to be more independent. Being self-sufficient is a huge personal development opportunity that allows us to become more conscious and aware of the world around us and how we can interact with it. When we are self-sufficient, we have the skills and confidence to spend time in the backcountry where we can connect to nature and contribute to conservation.

Some of the ways we are self-sufficient include growing some of our own food, harvesting from nature, maintaining our own water system, heating our house with firewood we fell and split, fixing trucks and machinery and shoeing horses. It is equally about developing the mindset to take responsibility, improvise with limited resources and see challenges as opportunities rather than reasons to quit.

When we arrive at the ranch, we learn how all the amenities that we took for granted in an urban environment, such as running water, heat and food, are something that we have to take responsibility for. We learn how to maintain our gravity-fed system, get in and split firewood and grow or harvest our own food such as wild berries or eggs from our chickens. We live a physical lifestyle, the daily ranch chores such as feeding the animals, carpentry, mechanics or splitting firewood, which means there’s no need to go to the gym and creates “exercise with purpose”. We develop a self-sufficient mindset that means we take initiative, have commitment and are flexible and adaptable when challenges come up.

Other opportunities include learning how to bake our own bread and run the chainsaw. With a graduated learning program, we learn theory, then gradually increase our skill level until we can cut large firewood logs and cut trail with the chainsaw or make a large number of loaves of bread at one time.

All of our wilderness training programs include self-sufficiency skills, but our log cabin building course might be the best example as we learn the skills to build our own cabin. Other examples of carpentry skills include fixing up our old barn roof or building a new shop. We turn the impossible into possible every day. Our self-sufficiency or bushcraft training is another way to learn lots of important wilderness and lifestyle self-sufficiency skills. Here, we learn skills like how to start a fire in the rain, collect water from the creek, harvest and cook a variety of wild edibles over the campfire, fish, or spend time alone in the wilderness.

While we often face challenges such as the fear of being cold or fear of bears or not being able to get a fire going, throughout our training program and our wider self-sufficient lifestyle, all of this is overcome. We develop competence and confidence as we become more independent and self-sufficient.

Being a mentor is also a key part of self-sufficiency as we share with others what we have learned and in this way empower everyone to become more self-sufficient. This means that everyone can teach everyone something, and everyone can learn from someone else. This creates a community of self-sufficient, empowered, capable individuals.

Self-Sufficiency: A Six Principles Anthology Book is available in paperback and ebook on our partner, Fortress Books and Web’s website here.

Want to learn more about Self-Sufficiency with an online course? Our Self-Sufficiency online course from our partner, the Institute for Human Potential, will introduce you to self-sufficiency and how to apply it in your life. Sign up here.

Want to experience some of these wilderness opportunities for yourself? Our partner, Wilderness Trails’ Wilderness Lifestyle Experience allows you to experience all of this and more – you’re only limited by your imagination. Find out more about the Wilderness Lifestyle Experience here.

Find more recommended books from the Trails to Empowerment community here.