Finding Focus
When life is happening and activity is constantly swirling around you it can be extremely difficult to maintain your focus. Constantly running from one task that has to be done immediately to another task that has to be done immediately to another task that should have been done immediately about a week ago. And on and on and on. Relentless noise. Deadlines. A stack of incomplete to do lists. Everyone wants a piece of you and frankly, there just isn’t enough of you to go around. So you just keep swimming. Put your head down and keep pushing through, hoping for an end to the madness that is only a mirage. And the cycle continues.
In the midst of the storm, you can totally lose yourself. What is the point to all of the activities that fill your day? Is there a point at all or are you caught in an infinite loop that replays itself over and over again? A glitch? A wormhole? Maybe something like Bill Murray’s movie “Groundhog Day” were the same events are played out over and over and over again. Do the things that you’re spending all of your time busting your ass to get done really matter? If so, who do they matter to? By the way, who am I? Why am I here? How did I get so tired? Will there ever be time to rest? What do I want out of life? Am I heading in the direction or am off on some wild, rocky side road headed straight to the middle of nowhere.
Farms and homesteads can also lose their identity. Especially at first and if you don’t have a clear vision of what you are trying to accomplish. Everything is so interesting that you want to try it all and all at once. Like Veruca Salt from Charlie in the Chocolate Factory, “I want it now!” Before you know it you have a hundred plus projects going, and none of them are getting completed. The messes and clutter begin to accumulate. What once had a legitimate purpose is now buried and unidentifiable. You start looking like a hoarder in dire need of an intervention. You keep working but never seem to finish anything. You’re just not productive in any tangible sense. It’s largely fruitless labor. Spinning your wheels. Treading water. Why are you doing this? What exactly are you hoping to accomplish? Is it worth it?
Over the years, we have dabbled with the full gambit of all things homesteading. It has been a blast, but it has been far from focused and fruitful. Sometimes more stressful than simple. Often significantly more expensive than just indulging in consumerism and buying what we need or want, at least at face value. Home-based living continues to be our happy place, despite the many opposing forces that keep us from fully settling into in up to this point.
Our approach, and I suspect the approach of many others, to homesteading has been the exact opposite of an effective business model. Instead of focusing on doing one thing or a very few things very well, and then diversifying once you’re successful, we try to diversify right out of the gates. I’m sure this is because most of us aren’t looking at homesteading as being a business as much as it is a hobby or a passion or a diversion or an escape. But, isn’t it really a business? Or at least couldn’t it be?
I know. I know. Too much yapping. Get to the point already. So, we’ve been reevaluating our homestead goals through the business lens and I’m excited to announce that while we will continue to carry on the tradition of our broad, spastic approach to homesteading to meet our personal needs and interests, we have identified a few farmstead focal points to make available to the public.
Check out the farm website for additional details and let me know what you think. All feedback is appreciated.
I’m not passing around the offering plate but any support that you can give us with spreading the word is much appreciated. It takes a community to build a successful business.
“I learned that focus is the key. Not just in running a company, but in your personal life as well”
