The first thing you should do if you're stranded shouldn't be finding food or water according to survival expert Ed Stafford

Business Insider spoke with the first man to walk the length of the Amazon river and Discovery channel host, Ed Stafford, about what to do if you find yourself stranded in the middle of nowhere.

Full transcript below:

Ed Stafford: If you were to find yourself completely stranded in the middle of nowhere the most important thing is to take your pack off, put it on the floor and sit on it and literally do nothing for about two minutes.

The risk is that you’ll panic and you’ll decide you need to run off in that direction because you think that’s where you’re going to find help or run off in that direction because you might want to get firewood and actually the most important thing is to stop.

In the military they used to have an acronym which was Stop, Think, Organise, Plan, which spells STOP.

“Stop” was exactly that, sit on your rucksack.

“Think” was think “Okay, what information have I got that will be able to help me in this situation. When did I last see the group, what time of day is it?”

“Organise” is literally organising everything you’ve got. Have I got a compass? Have I got a cooking pot? Have I got a lighter?

And then with all of that information, making a plan, based on the amount of hours of the day left, based on the likelihood of you being able to get out or if you do think you’ve got to spend the night, am I going to build a shelter?

I think it is being a little bit structured rather than just going straight into building a pig trap to spear a pig which is obviously ridiculous.

It’s having a bit of structure, calming your mind down, getting yourself in a position where you’re actually taking control and that’s really important.

Produced by Jasper Pickering

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