Three Things You Must Do Immediately to Get Your Life Back

Have you ever asked yourself what you want to get out of farming? Why do you work so much of your time on the farm? These are questions I often ask when I speak to a group of farmers.

The answers can be slightly different from one farmer to another. However, I have always noticed some generalisations. Isn’t it more than a coincidence that the answers also represent what we want from life? I like to summarise this into 4 main areas.

What Do You Want From Farming?

The first answer I usually get when I ask what you want to get out of farming is “I want to make money.” As farmers, we want our farming enterprise to provide an income sufficient for basic needs such as food, clothing, and a place to live where we feel safe in our home. We also want some level of security that comes with being reasonably confident we will continue to have an income from farming into the future.

When I delve a little further, people tell me they want to feel a sense of belonging—the feeling that they fit in. This might seem obvious if you have an off-farm job. But it also applies to a farming situation. We want to network with people, so we still feel we fit in with others. For example, how many times have you gone somewhere like the livestock mart, the local co-op store, or a farmers meeting, when deep down the main reason you were going there was to actually meet and chat with people who share your same interests?

Another area important to farmers is their self-esteem. We want to get a feeling of self-worth, and we want to feel appreciated. We want to feel we are doing something of value. Lots of people desire a good income, so they can enjoy a high standard of living. Others desire the feeling of importance; maybe they want to be seen as the “best farmer” in the locality. They may want to be leaders in their enterprise.

While there are many ways to satisfy our desires in the areas described above, it is of little use if it does not fit in with our values—including areas like honesty, integrity, and desire to help others. Many want to ensure we have a good life / work balance, allowing us time to spend with our loved ones. We would like to have some time for our hobbies. You should ask yourself what values are important to you and if your farming allows you to honour those values.

Problems and Challenges

Farming has gone through vast changes in the past. It will continue to change for the future. While many of these changes offer great opportunities, they also pose huge challenges and worries for those of us engaged in farming.

With some enterprises, particularly cattle and sheep, profitability is very low, leaving it difficult to earn an adequate income to provide for basic needs. While new opportunities have enabled some farmers to expand and grow their income, this has frequently come at the cost of extra borrowings for investment.

In the past, farmers often worked together to get work done. However, due to advances with mechanisation and technology, today farmers must spend much more time working on their own. Today, there is much less freedom to roam around at livestock marts and meet up with other farmers. Due to understandable regulations and laws concerning drinking and driving, meeting in a local pub or bar is much less an option. These are just some of the factors that leave many farmers feeling lonelier and much more isolated than in the past.

When farmers go to sell their produce, they are very much price takers. When prices appear to be well below what farmers feel they should be getting, it is not surprising they feel their work is being undervalued. This has a serious knock-on effect to their self-esteem. When this occurs on an ongoing basis, it is not surprising that farmers start to lose interest in what they are doing.

Some farmers took opportunities to expand. Others felt they had little choice but to take off-farm work while continuing to farm on a part-time basis. In both of these situations, farmers find themselves working much longer hours, often at unsociable times. This totally undermines our life/work balance. We have less time to spend with our loved ones and less time for our hobbies. The knock-on effect is that the quality of life is constantly undermined.

Scheduling Solutions

With all of these issues at play, it is not surprising that farmers can feel very much overwhelmed and stressed today. So, what is the solution? While it will take a constant effort over a prolonged period to solve every challenge, I believe there are things you can do and start immediately to help put you in a much better place. It has been often said that “a farmer’s work is never finished.” There will almost always be work to be done on the farm. Therefore, other areas of our lives will suffer, unless we take specific action to prevent this from happening. My suggestions are based on work by Dr. Rangan Chatterjee, GP and author of numerous books.

I believe you must schedule time each day to:

Do something you love doing—something you feel you would not normally find time for. This could be a hobby of your choice.
Spend more time with some person or people you enjoy. This could be as simple as going for lunch with your spouse, partner, or friend.
Do the three most important tasks you want to get done for the day. This will give you a sense of achievement. It allows you to have the time to do 1 & 2 above, and any other work accomplished will be a bonus.

Simple Needs, Simple Conclusions

We all have some simple requirements from our farming lives and our lives in general. The ever-changing landscape of farming is constantly challenging how we run our lives. This can leave us feeling anxious and stressed. However, help is available to get you through these challenges. A great place to start is by following the three simple steps described above.
As part of this scheduling, why not schedule time now for the Free Masterclass on the 27^th of October, 2021, starting at 7.30 p.m., Irish time. If you schedule it, you can ensure you get to join in.