"You just look at the facts. You see things as they are, not as you want them to be. Then, you make a plan. So, I made my plan to survive."

Said Jonathan Ceplecha, quoted in "A 59-year-old Army veteran was pinned under a tree for four days -- and survived/Jonathan Ceplecha drew on his military training to formulate a plan for survival" (Kare 11). 
He knew that it was only Thursday, and that he might need to wait until the end of the weekend for his children, ex-wife or other family members to realize they had not heard from him, since classes at his school in Marshall would not begin until Monday.... Rainfall on Thursday evening provided Ceplecha about a cup and a half of drinking water.... 
“Breaking stuff down into time periods. That began to occur on Saturday, when things were… difficult. And I would say to myself, ‘well, you think you can survive another half-hour? Yeah, I can do that.’ So I would survive another half-hour.... Think you can make it another five minutes? I would do that periodically.... The nights, if you can imagine it, were more difficult than the days.... 
On the Monday afternoon of Aug. 31, the Redwood County Sheriff’s Office received a request for a welfare check on Jonathan Ceplecha, who apparently had not shown up to work at his school in Marshall...

Maybe don't go cutting trees on your own without telling someone first, but if you do get pinned under a tree, "You have to understand that you are stronger than you think you are. People love you, no matter what. And if you use that as a motivator, you can make it through anything."