With everything we could want at our fingertips, why would we want to be less dependent on the global supply chain? Why would you bother when you have companies selling cheap goods that can be at your home in a matter of a few days, if not hours?

The world is moving at a crazy pace, affecting our lives. More and more people are trying to figure out how to slow it down. One way to slow down the world and your life is to be more intentional about what you do, how you spend your hard-earned dollars, and how you spend your time. In doing so, you can become more self-reliant.

Working towards being more self-reliant is not hard. Your goal is to reduce dependence on the global economy and supply chain. How do you do that? By examining your daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly decisions and figuring out how to do that on your own, the best way you can.

Being completely self-reliant is a goal that is not attainable for most people. It requires a level of work that many people do not have the time to do what needs to be done. Most of us still need our full-time jobs to pay the bills. However, you can attain a degree of independence by doing what you can to eliminate your dependence on the supply chain.

A small caveat: I am not completely self-reliant either. However, I make decisions every day on how to be more independent. If I can’t do it independently, I ask myself if I can source the products locally or if I can live without them. I’m not trying to tell you how to be self-reliant. I already have an article about that. I want you to consider ways to increase your self-reliance.

1. Grow something. Grow your own vegetables, berries, fruit, and herbs. You don’t have to do all of them, just pick what you would eat and enjoy. You can preserve them however you wish. You can make your herb blends for cooking and making tea. The possibilities are endless!
   
   
2. Take a walk and look around. Look for signs of nature. Look for foods to forage. Become aware of your surroundings and how they can benefit you. The bonus is that you are working towards becoming healthier by walking. Walking daily can help increase your endurance and stamina, allowing you to do more demanding things.
   
   
3. Spend time at home. You can not be more self-reliant if you are not at home learning and doing all the things. Even with a full-time job, you can spend time at night and on the weekends working towards a more intentional life.
   
   
4. Learn to cook, bake, and preserve. Eating out is devastating to your budget. Eating fast food more than once a month can be detrimental to your health. Those dollars you spend eating out can be used to grow food, raise small livestock, or invest in local producers. People can complain about the price of food, but they are probably wasting money by eating away from home. Learning to prepare your own food and preserve your harvest will give you the skills to make almost everything you buy at the store.
   
   
5. Read. Almost all of us have a mobile computer, which can be very beneficial for getting information right now. However, reading and learning from books is an intentional act. You are absorbing more information when you read. You have the books at your disposal for looking up information that you find beneficial. I think the internet can be a very confusing place with conflicting information. Books are a more solid form of information.
   
   
6. Eating locally and seasonally. Do you want to change your grocery bill quickly? Stop buying fruits and vegetables that are not in season and cannot be produced locally. You should not be able to get raspberries in Iowa in February. They are not ready to be picked until June with a possible second harvest in September. Those raspberries might have come from the southern states, but it is more likely they came from Mexico or South America. There are not many things available in Iowa in February. That is why you grow and preserve your own produce in the summer to enjoy in some form during the winter.
   
   
7. Grow your community. Having like-minded people who share similar interests and goals is important. More than that, you have a wealth of resources at your disposal. You can learn new skills from people in your community. You can share tools and time with these people. You can drop off your garden’s overabundance at their doors. With community, you have the support and encouragement needed to become less dependent on the system.
   
   
8. Spend time learning. Although it may seem simplistic, we are being trained to let our phones do the work for us. We are glued to them and everything has an app that thinks for us. Learning something away from our phones and working to perfect a skill are intentional acts of becoming independent thinkers. When you start thinking independently, you begin to live freely.
   
   
9. Work on one thing at a time and know when it is time to stop. This is the hardest thing to do. When you are a newish homesteader or new to the self-reliant lifestyle, you want to do everything. Gardening? Check! Chickens? Check! Goats? Check! Sourdough? Check! Starting a blog and YouTube channel? Check!
   
   The problem is that you will quickly burn yourself out or cause significant stress in your family. Sticking to introducing one thing at a time and getting comfortable with that one thing will set you further on the path to success than jumping in with both feet. I have done many things, but now I stick to gardening, growing herbs, raising chickens, and cooking from scratch (when possible). Will I want to do other things? You bet and I will when I feel comfortable taking on additional responsibility.
   
   
10. Do not beat yourself up for the things that go wrong. Many things will go wrong when learning new things and developing new skills. Don’t let it discourage you and turn you away from your goals. Failures are opportunities to understand what works and what doesn’t.
    
    I have failed spectacularly with my gardens in the past. Container gardening was not my friend. I finally figured out that they needed to be watered every day if it didn’t rain, they required watering from the bottom up, and they needed fertilizer before I planted anything in the containers. Seems simple, but I learn the hard way more often than not. I lost many plants before I got my brain in gear and asked others how they were successful at it.
    

What are you willing to do to become less dependent on the system?

Thanks for reading,
Erica

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