Oooft. To say that farmers are feeling it hard at the moment would be an understatement of the century!
Promising summer rains have ended in desperation for a lot of producers across South Australia, and an over abundance of rain in the east of the country after debilitating drought have put a dampener on things.
Crazy international politics are also not helping the situation, with continuing speculation about repairing the China-Australia relationship, amongst the war in Ukraine.
And let’s avoid discussing input prices and inflation, shall we?
I was chatting to my husband this morning about how hard it is to remain motivated when it seems that everything is stacked against you. We spoke about how things were coming good after the drought, but it just feels like you can’t get ahead because the next curve ball is waiting around the corner.
In all of my wisdom, I got up and walked over to my whiteboard and I drew this:
The circle of influence* (also known as the circle of control) is well known in agriculture, because so much of our fate is beyond our control. We use the circle of influence to help us visualise and identify the things that we can control/influence, and those that are of concern but we can do little about.
For example, we have no control over commodity and input prices, nor do we have control over international politics (though I am not sure we want that!). Even as hard as we dance, we cannot control the rain or weather. That is why these things sit in the outer circle of ‘concern’.
It does not matter how much wish these things were cheaper/easier/different, we simply do not have the power to change them. Focusing too much energy on the things in the circle of concern can be soul destroying.
I am not saying that we should shove our heads in the sand and ignore these things – what would we have to whinge about at the pub!? But it is not healthy to study every dollar increase or decrease, or how many mm rain more the neighbour got.
However, we can control what happens in our little patch. We decide what to sow or when to sow it. We decide when to mate our livestock, shear our sheep, sell our weaners.
We also have control over we mentally respond to the variability. It is all about mindset.
Believing that farming is a challenge, not a burden. Remembering that no one day or season is the same, and that is why we all love it so much. Realising that the change keeps us on our toes and eager to learn more on how to adjust to the motions of farming. Focusing on the things we can control can help us keep our head out of the weeds of things we cannot control.
We can also grow our circle of control. In his book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, Stephen R. Covey talks about how highly effective people have larger circles of control because they focus their time and energy on this area. They focus on the things they can control, and put the rest out of their mind.
In the case of agriculture, highly effective farmers are so focused on their own patch, they are making proactive decisions rather than reactive ones. They know what information to let in and when, and manage to block it out when it is not useful. Farmers should focus on the here and now, not what is happening on the other side of the world.
So my advice? Stick to what is happening in your patch and focus on what you can control. When you feel overwhelmed by the news or the weather or cost of inputs, try to remind yourself that these things you cannot change and bring your focus back on what you can control. Avoid the mindless scrolling on social media and getting caught up in the doom and gloom of the news – be aware of it but not consumed by it. Focusing on what you can control will mitigate the effects of things outside of your control, and helps to make you and your business more resilient in the tides of change.
*I feel like I have talked about the circle of influence before, but it is such a strong and timeless tool that I am going to use it again!
Elllimatta Consulting 