When it truly comes right down to survival, you could make the case that the only real tool that you need is going to be your brain.

This is because 99% of survival is likely going to be mental.

You will need to be able to know that you can survive in a bad situation, that you won't panic when things go wrong, and that you can use your brains, skills, talents, and abilities that you have trained to facilitate all the other things that you need.

If you suddenly found yourself out on the street, right now, this moment, then you would begin to think of options that you could take to be safe, find a place to stay, and hopefully eat.

The point is that it is Panic that hurts your chances of survival the most during the initial stages of any extremely stressful situation.

When it comes down to it, the Boy Scouts Motto says it best: "Be Prepared".

Often when asked, "be prepared for what?", the response is best said as, "For anything."

This is because a hundred years ago, or even after the events that led to multiple World Wars, those who grew up after these times of crisis understood that:

"Sometimes, some serious shit happens, that we just can't control".

There have been countless depressions, stock market crashes, bombings, terror attacks, natural disasters, civil unrest, crime waves, human trafficking, and a host of other terrible things that could potentially put a person into a "survival situation".

A person who escapes being kidnapped is in "survival mode".

A homeless person living on the street is also in "survival mode".

If your house burns down during a forest fire, you will be in "survival mode".

The real problem becomes is when you "don't have a survival mode" to fall back on.

The needed skills, such as staying warm, keeping fed, and staying alive, are often trained during military service, but not everyone joins the military these days.

One aspect of military training is it is designed to break you down, and then build you up again.

This training, often very physically, mentally, and even emotionally demanding has been tested for generations to build strong character, a willingness to push yourself, your father, then your previous limits, and the ability to perform even the most difficult tasks under extreme stress.

These are in many cases the difference between success and failure when it comes to survival.

When faced with those life and death situations, you have to have the mental fortitude to push through, and make extremely tough, maybe not popular decisions.

Modern society has lulled many people to sleep in a state of complacency.

No longer is the average family gardening, raising their food animals, making their tools, and being self-reliant.