Everyone thinks of preparedness when staring emergency in the face but just neglects it otherwise. Whether natural disaster or self preservation, or whatever the emergency is strikes I like to remember to "ACT". ACT being to ACCESS, CONTROL, and TERMINATE.
Let's say in the case of personal protection. Assess means to take an accurate and honest account of the situation. Control means for example to control the threat by seeking shelter, or to control an attacker with a counter attack, and terminate means a successful conclusion to the encounter such as escaping to safety, disabling the attacker and so forth.
There are limitless ways to apply this simple formula of ACT-ing within our lives. Give it some thought and see what aspects of life you can apply this to.