Fear the Walking Dead, Survival Rule Of The Week: It’s not all on you

Keeping your group alive in a zombie apocalypse is a heavy load, and, though it may seem like it, as we learn in Fear the Walking Dead it’s NOT all on you.

Sometimes, it feels like the weight of the world is on your shoulders. You have all these responsibilities to your family, your friends, your job, and yourself, and, it feels like you have to do all of them at once; Even when you know that’s impossible, sometimes, you feel like a failure for not doing the impossible. Well, it can get like that in a zombie apocalypse, too.

And, why wouldn’t it? Lives are on the line! One bad mistake could spell doom for your entire group!

Well, I’m here to remind you that, no, the survival of your group is not all on you. It does not have to fall entirely on your shoulders, and you do not have to carry the burden alone.

You see, if you’re part of a group — Ideally, at the very least — everyone carries the load. That’s why you came together as a group, isn’t it? To look out for one another? That means it isn’t just one person who has to take on all the responsibilities, everyone does.

If your group is somehow unable (Or unwilling) to help you shoulder the responsibilities…something’s gone terribly wrong. A group is supposed to be a cohesive unit, a team all working towards the same goal, and, in order for it to work, everyone needs to contribute to it, or else it will fail, and likely take down a few members in the process.

Conversely, a group that shares the responsibilities of surviving in the apocalypse is one that is much more likely to succeed in surviving because they are committed to ensuring that survival. You’re not going to put work into making sure your group is safe and then just bail on it! You’re going to stick around and do everything you can to make sure it survives.

Of course, there’s another good reason you shouldn’t make yourself carry all the burden, and it’s quite simple: Putting that kind of pressure on yourself can mess you up.

If you’re one of those people who puts it all on themselves right now, then, I’m sure you can imagine just how much worse this sort of behavior would affect you in a zombie apocalypse — literally feeling like one mistake could get your whole group killed.

As you might imagine, doing that long enough can wear on you. How long do you think you could do that before it got to be too much? And, if it did…what do you think you’d do? Whatever it might be, I don’t think it would be good for your well-being, or your group’s well-being, for that matter.

This is why it’s important for everyone in your group to share the load, because, then, the pressure isn’t sitting on just one person, accelerating some kind of breakdown that could only do harm to everybody. When everyone pitches in, the burden becomes lighter. There’s strength in numbers.

Now, all of this said, in the case of one thing, it IS, entirely, on you: Your own survival.

Now, you might think this contradictory to everything I’ve been saying, but, no, it isn’t. While, yes, ideally, you will have a group who will watch your back as you watch theirs, as I said last week, there is always the possibility that the group you may have…may not be around forever.

To put it bluntly: Sh*t happens. Your group could get overrun by zombies, scattered by disasters, or murdered by hostiles. If you’ve been relying on everyone else to guarantee your survival up to this point, you’re probably screwed.

Every person in the zombie apocalypse must be responsible for their own survival. You must know how to be able to find and prepare your own food and water, you must know how to protect yourself from the elements, you must know how to spot danger, and YOU must be ready, willing, and able to defend yourself against everything out to kill you in the apocalypse.

If everyone in your group has the ability and the willingness to be responsible for their survival, it will make sharing the responsibility of ensuring your collective survival that much easier, because you will all be able to contribute to that shared cause.

This is why you follow…The Rules.

And that’s our Survival Rule Of The Week! Hopefully, you’ve gained a little insight into all the various things you’ll need to look out for and do. If you like this and want to find out more rules to survive the zombie apocalypse, why not pick up a copy of my book, The Rules: A Guide To Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse! You can also get it at Amazon here, on iTunes here!