I am no doomsday prepper. I don’t have an underground bunker in my backyard… yet. But I would be lying if I said that 2020 did not put some new fear in my mind and that I did not act on that fear.

A global pandemic hit us hard (in case you haven’t heard). Suddenly we saw grocery store shelves empty—canned goods, water and toilet paper were gone. Riots broke out in downtowns across America. Here in Charleston, our beloved King Street was nearly destroyed. I spent hours one Sunday boarding up stores in downtown Summerville. I was verbally accosted at a political rally and I truly thought it was going to become violent. I saw things I thought would not and could not happen in America. So I acted.

I started adding more strength training to my daily routine so that I can get both faster and stronger.

I started taking Krav Maga classes to learn hand-to-hand combat.

I stocked up on ammunition and got back to the range every other week.

I recommitted to daily meditation and next week I even start a transcendental meditation course.

I read 90 books in 2020.

And much more.

Since I’ve led you down this path, let me state clearly that Aubrey Marcus did not write a crisis preparation book. He wrote an amazing book to help you live a more fulfilled life. I’ve read countless self improvement books and I believe Marcus does a really nice job of summarizing many of them in one place. He has such a great outlook on life, and here, he explains how to improve both your body and your mind in order to live each day to the fullest.

With that said, I know that the best way to make it through a crisis is to have your mind and body already in tip top shape. In business and politics, you have to be able to think clearly. That’s the very foundation of crisis communication. If caught in a riot, you have to be able to think and respond quickly. This book can help you get there.

I especially love the sections on the importance of getting comfortable with the uncomfortable. It’s something that prepares both our minds and bodies at the same time. It’s why I’ve recommitted to something I absolutely hate—the Wim Hoff Method and daily cold showers.

Marcus writes, “Most of us have shied away from the accrue stress of difficult conditions. We chose cozy over cold, automatic over intentional. And with nothing to harden us, we get soft.”

He continues, “Think about it. Our cars have climate control. We have jackets and scarfs and fans and air conditioning. We can spend the whole day in our offices, lunch delivered, without ever going out in the blistering Texas heat or the biting Chicago wind. If we are lucky our homes have heated floors so that when we get up in the night our little feetsies. Our entire culture is built on the pursuit of the comfortable and the elimination of the difficult.”

He’s right. We are building a culture of soft humans and soft humans rarely make it through crisis easily. We need to harden ourselves in preparation for what is definitely coming, either in our professional or personal lives.

There are many of these type books out there but I found this one to be one of the best. I definitely recommend.