Romanticize Your Life

Hustle Hustle

There was a time in my life when I only wanted to be a hustler. 
Something tells me, you know what that feels like. 
Maybe you are there now. Maybe you want out. Maybe you are happy hustling right now.

There is nothing inherently wrong with that. But I came to realize hustling had to be a season. While I am a real go getter— I love to be busy, I love a new challenge— I cannot constantly be in HUSTLE mode. Especially as a mom. Working. Trying to be a wife, sister, friend…. And get a couple hours of sleep at night. It just was not feasible.

For a bit I thought not being in a hustle season meant that I just needed to sit back and relax. I didn’t understand this concept of not having a huge goal to chase. It felt lazy and unfulfilling. It did not feel natural. And I quickly became antsy. 

Divine Intervention

Thank goodness for divine intervention. 

I listened to a podcast that talked about how as a generation, we are focused on BIG goals. 
We want big results: the highest yields, average daily gains, biggest paycheck.
We want the largest numbers of followers, acres, and number of cows in our herds.
We want the competition. We want to win— not just first but GRAND CHAMPION— or it isn’t enough.
We want to be the best. The most fashionable. The quickest on the trends. The one everybody else looks up to.
Even generations before the Millennial; (sorry Baby Boomers and Gen X, you’re just as guilty, so keep on reading) they want to be the highest paid, the most successful, acquire the most rewards and be the most productive.
As a result, we train our happiness to only come from BIG events.

And quickly, our brain forgets that it can be happy and find joy in little events too. Although they may not be as grand, those little moments are actually the events that make up our life. The moments that happen every day and can easily feel mundane, boring, and tedious, even though at one point in our life we may have dreamed for that exact thing….

Preaching to the Choir

So many of us are out here preaching to ‘enjoy the simple things’ or ‘live a life you truly enjoy’ but what the heck does that actually mean if we have trained our brain to only get joy and happiness from BIG things? Either we are faking it, or we expect ourselves to constantly be chasing BIG things.

Then it is no wonder when we get depressed, disappointed and anxious when we fail. How can happiness come if we failed at reaching the BIG event? If happiness ONLY comes after huge successes?

We can’t.
We’ve set ourselves up for utter disaster. A miserable life. Or a fake one. Which is the same thing in my opinion. 

Retrain/ Rewire/ Redo

So what if we retrained our brains to find the joy in the little things?
What if we didn’t live our lives waiting for the BIG event? Sure we can have goals and work our ways towards them. But what if those weren’t always the point?

What if we actually enjoyed those little moments?

Like reading… not just reading to sleep better or take in personal development or learn about the next coolest tricks and tools, but we actually let ourselves fall in love with the characters in a story that has no meaning other than r e l a x i n g .

Like making sourdough… not just saving money because we didn’t buy it at the store or gaining instagram followers because we are on the latest #homesteading trend, but we actually let ourselves enjoy the process of learning how to make it, baking it, and spreading butter on a fresh-still-warm piece to enjoy.

Like taking a walk in a park… not just because walking is cheap exercise and the cool, trendy thing to do, but we slowed down and talked to a friend, waved high to a stranger, or really looked at the thousands of different species we live on this plant with. 

Can you imagine a life that you get to wake up and do things you truly love and find joy in every single day? That sounds like a life worth living, worth slowing down for, even if I haven’t quite reached that BIG event or goal yet. 

Let’s Wrap This Up

I think we as farmers often look at a message like this and think... ‘Yeah I do that kind of stuff every single day. I enjoy helping animals be born, I like milking my cows, I like chopping corn, working the ground, planting the wheat, weeding the garden… ‘ whatever your occupation entails.
But here’s the thing: I know you like it. Why else would you work 16 hour days and sell your products at a stupid low price to consumers who don’t always get it and get attacked by many. But yet every day you wake up and do it all over again.

The issue is not whether you enjoy those tasks. The problem is we let the struggles of the occupation take over our joy of the job. It’s easy to do. Bills need paid. Mouths need fed. There’s lives depending on YOU.

Its easy to get lost. To not keep your head present in the moment.
But those moments— the mundane, check it off the list moments— are the ones that have the potential to remind us why we do it. Those moments are the reason we started. The ones that bring us and fill us with joy.

It’s feeding show heifers, watching them eat hay. Picking the pack. Rinsing them down. Scratches and rubs.
It’s watching a new calf be born. New life. Fresh starts.
It’s a final check before leaving for the night when everything is done (enough) for the day. It’s peaceful. The dust has settled. You’re dirty and dusty and sore and tired. But also accomplished and fulfilled and proud of the honest work you put in today.
It’s teaching your kids where their food comes from.
It’s wedding pictures in boots or with your cows.
It’s the blue ribbon with your favorite heifer and your family cheering for you with poop pails, tail brushes, and show sheen in hand.
It’s a whiskey on the back porch with your spouse after a normal day.
It’s saving a calf that struggled for days.
It’s conversations in the grocery store, advocating for the industry you love and showing one person that their food was made by a real human just like them.

We live in a world where we chase the BIG things and hustle past the small things that we used to love, things that have the potential to bring us so much joy. Instead, I challenge you to pick out a couple simple things that you already do, or could easily add in, to really be present for… really let yourself feel the joy, feel the happy, feel the pride of accomplishing that task. 

Cutting the flowers.
Feeding the show heifers.
Collecting the eggs.
Making the sourdough. 
Reading the book. 
Playing pretend with your kids.
Rinsing heifers.
Mowing the hay.
Watching a calf be born.
Talking to your spouse when you get home from work.

Whatever it is, forget the hustle for a minute. Forget the BIG events. Let yourself really be present. Fall in love with the mundane tasks that you once wished for. Romanticize your life. Not for anyone other than yourself. Remember that those BIG goals are awesome and admirable, but the BIG moments don’t make a life. The little ones do.