Here are the steps that are required on an individual level -

Simply your life and survive. This is the only logical and responsible course of action that can now be taken. Choose now your "prior response" rather then later. Adjustments made now will be far easier then adjustments made later on because you have freedom of choice, time and options still available to you.

Examine all of your obligations and entanglements and cut the umbilical cords that are draining your time, money and energy. Liquidate these assets, if any and convert to the hard goods you will need.

But not just "any" hard goods. Don’t go out and buy a new truck. Start figuring out how you’re going to survive without a truck, without oil, diesel or gasoline. Break your own oil-dependency. Walk. Ride a bike. For now, car share, do something to cut down your own consumption.

Clear all of your debts by any means you can find. Do not incur any more. Cut all of your expenses of frivolous activities and expenditures. Pack your own lunch, stop buying coffee, booze, soda pop, junk food and expensive foods. Preserve as much cash as possible for stockpiling your supplies. Dump, no kill your television, cancel your video memberships and stay home each night. Start doing instead of just talking about what needs to be done.

Build a greenhouse, garden, woodshed or firewood supply. Put that body to use doing what it was already designed to do. Living self-sufficiently requires a fair bit of hard work, but the best time to do it is now.

Other hard goods needed - store some food. This is so you can buy yourself some time to learn how to grow your own food. Buy the necessary hand tools, seeds and supplies you will need. Put these to work now, learning and gaining from the experience how to do this. You will also need to learn how to preserve the food you grow.

Store essentials, stuff you actually need to live: food, medicine, water, clothing, tools, water filters and supplies. These will be the things you need when the supermarkets stop filling up with crappy food. Put all those books you bought on self-sufficiency to use and start living the life everyday.

Don’t forget the toiletries, guns, ammo, tools and essential replacement parts. Buy a mountain bike of decent quality and stockpile the parts and tools needed to keep it in good repair.

Stockpile goods for barter - food, guns, ammo, coffee, sugar, fuel, kerosene, propane, the kinds of goods that will become scarcer and scarcer. Medicine would be very good barter item too, especially the type requiring prescriptions, but not everybody can do this.

Relocate to a safer area. If you live in the city, move to a rural area with arable land, water and room. Water is about to become priceless unless you live in England. Population density will be a serious problem when the food runs out. Concerns about jobs, retirement and lifestyle became rather meaningless when compared to forfeiting your life so that you can have them a few more years.

City dwellers live complex lives due to the dependency upon complex systems to continuously function to keep them alive. This complexity is a liability and will result in the areas with the most die-off.