Go with what you've got.

If you are dumped into a survival situation, you have to survive with what you have right now. If you aren't in shape, you figure out how to survive without lots of strength or cardio or whatever. The knife you've got is the knife you'll have, not the knife you are saving up for. If you don't have a gun, you survive without a gun. If you don't have a water filter, you improvise or do without.

If you are fortunate, someday you will grow old. You won't be nearly as strong or agile or have the endurance you did as a 20 or 30 something. Or even a 40 something. Many people will never be athletic due to various genetic and/or environmental factors. A small woman will never have the strength of a large man.

Many people need glasses. Some need really thick ones. Others have regular medication needs or physical defects that require passive correction. That affects plans.

There may be scenarios where it doesn't look like you'll make it. Don't worry about those. Worry about the dangers you can do something about. prepping for little things still puts you way ahead of the rest of the population should the big things happen. Be mentally agile. A 10% chance of survival pursued with vigor is better than a 50% chance you can't figure out how to take advantage of.

What I am saying here is to plan for what you have right now. If you have arthritis of the hands, don't pretend you'll have the grip strength or the manual dexterity you used to. If you are out of shape, don't make your plans for some future when you are fast and strong. A 5'2" woman simply can't do the things a 6'2" man in equally good shape can. Someone who is 70 is a fool if they think they'll be able to pull off a plan that requires the capacity of someone fresh from basic training.

What about significant others? You may be in good shape, a crack shot, and in perfect health. How about your wife? Are you really going to abandon her because she can't keep up or do you slow to her pace? How about your children? Your brother with a gimp leg?

If you are young, what about your parents, sisters, brothers, gf/bf, close friends? Aw heck, toss 'em to the wolves. Their fault for not being "survivalists". If you are the kind of person who would do such a thing I don't want you around me. I see no point in a survival plan that kills you by throwing away everything that makes you human.

Don't put an AK-47 into your plans if you don't have one. Don't count on being effective with it if you haven't trained. Don't count on a backyard fallout shelter if it hasn't been dug. Don't count on growing lots of food if you have never farmed or gardened. Don't count on backpacking if you've never backpacked.

Make your plans for what you are right now, what you have right now and who matters to you right now. If your reality is living in the basement of your mother's house sitting in your underwear and reading survival blogs, then that is where your plan starts. Yes, you and your mother who thinks all this survival stuff is crazy. Plan to use whatever you have to its best utility.

Plan for the obvious stuff, storms and quakes and winter blackouts and floods and such. If the best you can do is to bug in for a couple weeks, then that is what you plan for. Things may get better. As you get into shape you can modify plans to take advantage of it. When you earn more money and can buy that AR-15 and a few hundred rounds of ammo, then you adapt your plans to the new reality. Maybe you are able to convince your parents that prepping for some kind of disaster is a good idea. Adjust the plan for it.

And things may go south. You lose that job and have to sell that gun to pay the rent. You break your leg. You discover you are no longer 25 but rather 65 and your knees will not take a 20K forced march with a full ruck. Maybe the day's AM ritual begins with a handful of assorted medications. Or arthritis becomes so painful you can't easily button your shirt or tie your laces. Or you discover the wonderful world of heart disease or diabetes. Once again we adjust our plan to meet the reality of our lives and not what we wish it were.

A survivor does what he/she can with what they have got. Period. Nothing here precludes working for a better tomorrow. Just don't count your chicks before they are hatched and don't assume you will always have chickens to lay those eggs. Time and tide and SHTF wait for no one.

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Go with what you've got.