Are your cows worth more than you are?

In one way, you are like your cows, pigs, fields and tractors. You cannot produce at your maximum physical and psychological potential by mistreating yourself.

You prepare healthy, balanced, precise and adapted feed for your cows; you get recommendations from the technician, agronomist and veterinarian; you lay rubber mats on the barn floor for the comfort of their legs; you play soft music to relax them. For your fields, you conduct soil analyses, apply the right amount of fertilizer and get recommendations from experts to obtain the best yields. For your machinery, equipment and tractors, you ensure everything is in working order, keeping it all greased and clean, changing the oil and conducting complete and regular preventive maintenance to avoid breakdowns. Therefore, you prevent waste of time and money and ensure that you keep your machinery longer.

In general, as a good producer, you do, or try to do, all of this. You dedicate your time, energy, effort and money—why? Because you want your animals, fields and equipment to perform and produce well for as long and as inexpensively as possible. You also know that if you don’t take good care of everything, if you neglect it, if you don’t do preventive maintenance, there will be serious consequences, and these you want to avoid.

But what about the cornerstone of your business: yourself? What about your food, stress management, comfort and sleep? When was your last check-up, your last “tune-up”? What are you doing about the recommendations from human health specialists on better health, on living longer, being more energetic and preventing illness? What are you doing to prevent your own system from breaking down? What nutritional supplements are you using on yourself?

What producer, thinking about obtaining the best performance, would consider giving his best, newly-lactating cows hay that had been cut at the end of July and left lying in the rain for four days? What producer would never change his tractor’s oil or even use dirty oil? Who would expect an abundant harvest every year without adding any type of fertilizer?

However, some producers treat their bodies that way, fuelling themselves with pop, coffee, greasy poutine and diner hamburgers whenever they want. The recommendation is 5 to 10 portions of fruit and vegetables every day, not every week. These producers don’t get enough sleep (involvement on several committees). They are less and less in shape. They can’t waste time doing that kind of thing: “Staying in shape is only good for city life.” Finally, stress prevention is good for cows but not for them.

But they want to perform well and live, healthy, for as long as possible. Well, you know, producers, in one way, you are like your cows, pigs, fields and tractors. You cannot produce at your maximum physical and psychological potential by mistreating yourselves. It’s a law of nature.

Here are some questions for consideration:

1. What value do you give yourself as an individual, parent, spouse or business owner?

2. Do you value yourself more than your cows, tractors or fields?

3. What level of productivity, energy and physical and mental health do you want to attain?

4. Are the methods you are using now consistent with the intended result?

5. What investment in time, money and energy are you ready to make to increase your productivity, overall health, well-being and longevity?

6. Do you prefer prevention or recovery?

Remember that if you don’t take good care of your engine it will break down one fine morning, and the replacement part could be on back order, or the dealership could even be closed down.

by Pierrette Desrosiers, psychologist

Coach , professional speaker and author

pierrettedesrosierspsycoaching.com

pierrette@pierrettedesrosiers.com