Have you ever found that the times of greatest challenge in your life – both personally and professionally – also tend to be the times of the greatest and most obvious growth as well?

Thinking about this from a “growth mindset” perspective, when we are challenged by something in our life or in our farm business, we tend to rise up to meet that challenge. We learn more. We get stronger. We become more capable. And the growth we experience then serves us well when the next challenge comes along. We have additional skills to call on.

Challenge can come from outside our operations – think challenges having to do with volatile markets, weather, the global economic picture, inflation, rising costs – you name it. Or on the flip side, it can come from inside our operation – trouble finding employees, management issues, communication troubles, generational transfer issues – again, you name it.

Use the challenge

Whether the challenge arises from outside of or inside of our operation, as farm leaders we have the opportunity to view it with a growth mindset. That mindset is what will allow us to learn something – to use the challenge itself as a learning opportunity and a chance to take our skills to the next level.

For example, some farm leaders may look at the current volatility in the markets and be overwhelmed with worry or anxiety about missing out on opportunity. That might lead them to “freeze” and do nothing – or simply do whatever they’ve always done in the past.

Others may look at the current market situation as the right time to learn new marketing tools and strategies to help them navigate the volatility and reduce their anxiety. Approaching this roller coaster market as the right time to build additional marketing skills and learn about new tools is a “growth mindset” view of the marketing challenges farmers are facing today.

Smooth sailing?

The times in our life and business when everything is “smooth sailing” simply tend not to be times of intensive growth. We can become comfortable with how things are going. We don’t feel a challenge coming from the outside, so we tend to not challenge ourselves, either.

We may not be able to see or feel the level of growth we experience in terms of skills and understanding until we arrive on the other side of dealing with the challenge. But we can take some time to consider what we learned – and allow ourselves to recognize the personal and professional growth and progress that has occurred.

Grain marketing goals

Many farmers say that grain marketing isn’t their favorite thing to spend time on. Yet grain marketing is one of the top business drivers impacting the level of success that the farm operation can experience.

Choosing to learn more about the markets – from different marketing tools that are available to learning more about your own individual marketing personality – can be a game-changer for leaders and their operation.

Farmers have also found that working with our market advisors has helped ease their minds. The advisors help farmer clients with planning and execution around marketing decisions and help keep them up to speed on the current rapidly-changing grain market situation – and how it impacts their operation.

Get a free week-long trial of our marketing information service (MarketView Basic). Your free trial includes regular audio and video updates, technical analysis, recommendations and more. Learn more about our market advisor programs and offerings at www.waterstreetconsulting.com.