Tools For the Top Paddock by Kane Brisco

Author:Kane Brisco
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-06-16T00:00:00+00:00

TOP PADDOCK TOOL

The Three A’s: Awareness, Acceptance and Action

Good information leads to good decisions. Good decisions are usually followed by good actions. But none of that can happen without having a good awareness of yourself and your situation.

During the darkest period of life on the farm, I found myself blaming other people for my predicament. I opened up to Nicole about it, and said something about how unfair everything was, and how it was other people’s fault, and how sick I was of farming. And she said to me: ‘Well, you chose this.’

That really hurt at the time. It felt like a big ‘f**k you’. But, as I marinated on it over the next week, I came to realise that she was right. I had chosen this. I hadn’t chosen the weather, or the declining payout, but I had chosen this life, this job, this situation.

When I thought about it, I realised I was no longer enjoying the challenges farming presented to me. What had first got me so motivated about farming was that I loved challenges, and my attitude had always been to say: ‘Bring it on!’ I saw challenges as an opportunity to win, to learn, and to grow. But I’d reached a point where I began to see challenges as a pain in the arse; a stress that I didn’t need. That was the first step in realising that I was in a negative place, and my mental fitness was way down the scale.

Accepting the unvarnished truth from Nicole was a huge turning point. Realising that nobody had dragged me along to the bank to ask for the loan, forced me to sign the contract, or made me buy the cows made me accept that I had put myself in this situation. So what was I going to do to get myself out of it?

It gave me a sense of responsibility, and made my actions more important.

Acceptance is a huge part of moving on with life after setbacks, and it can be one of the hardest processes to go through. I see it all the time in people who are unhappy with their situation, but blame others, and are unable to accept they are – usually – exactly where they put themselves.

Yes, some of us have fewer choices because of our circumstances, but I think once you’re an adult and out in the real world, you generally have a choice about what to do next. We all have different opportunities – which is a very different thing – but we do have choice.

You married that person – if you’re unhappy, you’ve got a responsibility to do something about it. You took the job – if you don’t like it, how can you fix it?

And once you accept that, you accept you have another choice: how to respond to your situation in life. In my case, it was a choice to stop moaning and blaming others, and take positive steps for myself.

Farmers are very good at working out

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