Most advice on how to prepare for a disaster is just plain wrong. Surviving and thriving after a disaster has much more to do with who you are than what you do. It’s not about being rich or poor, black or white, male or female. It’s about whether you have the attributes of a survivor.

I ran the numbers. In a disaster, the person most likely to come through would be a high school educated, married, churchgoing yoga instructor with a gun.

Several years ago, a publisher asked me to write an e-book, which is now out of print. (Don’t ask me how that is possible.) The topic: How to survive the truly worst-case scenarios—things like nuclear wars. And pandemics.

I started by reviewing all the official literature, which focuses on stockpiling “things,” like water and duct tape. Most of that advice is impractical. Most of us won’t stockpile stuff, and we don’t live our lives waiting around for the end times or preparing for disasters such as earthquakes or the Black Death.

There are some preppers, of course, but lying in cases of freeze-dried chicken chop suey can buy only so much time. What will they do when the food runs out and the generator grinds to a halt? Be the last caveman standing?

So instead of looking at what people do to survive disasters, I started looking at what kinds of people do better than others in any kind of disaster. What makes some more resilient in the modern world, where few will trap and kill their dinners or grow vegetables amid the rubble of their condos?

Here’s what I found.

Get healthy. If you are healthy, don’t have a compromised immune system, and make a habit of eating right and exercising to start with a real advantage. Whether you are running away from an active shooter or fighting off the flu, your odds are better if you aren’t overweight and out of shape.

Stay married. Social science literature validates that the families that stay together reap all kinds of long-term societal benefits including higher incomes and higher education. Family members care about and support one another. They care about their communities. This makes them better prepared for success in normal times as well as in disaster.

Get educated. Educated people make better risk-informed decisions about what behaviors and strategies to adopt to thrive and survive. They don’t, for example, try to self-medicate with fish cleaner. Of course, you don’t need to get a degree to be educated any more than getting a degree means you are educated (just look at the yahoos who went on spring break in the middle of a pandemic). No, all you need is a solid understanding of the fundamentals, like why washing your hands helps prevent the spread of disease.

Have faith. Research shows that people of faith can achieve better outcomes in dire situations. They can deal better with stress. This alone provides physical benefits, like boosting your immune system. Moreover, religious people often belong to groups and communities that help support and take care of one another and their neighbors.

Get a gun. Good disaster preparedness ought to include some measure of safeguarding your family. Owning a gun, and educating yourself about gun safety, is a practical, responsible way to do that. Moreover, people are less stressed when they are confident they can do something to ensure the safety of themselves and their families.

Taken together, these recommendations outline pretty much all it takes to weather a disaster in a modern society, to stick it out until help arrives.

The best part? Taking this approach to disaster preparedness can make disaster-free days even better. These measures help us be happier, more productive, more capable and inclined to strengthen our communities—and better prepared to rebuild after a tornado has passed or a lockdown has been lifted.