“What do you see?” is a question I am often asked at school. It is a question meant to test my understanding and perception of the concepts I am being trained to apply. Typically, I don’t immediately see anything other than a plant. Then my classmates and instructor will name off things they see, like yellowing or thrips, and I it will come into view for me as well.
It is disappointing to not be able to recognize these things on my own yet, but I also recognize that I am brand new to this. In three months of farming, I have learned a lot, but that has only opened the door to my greater understanding of what I don’t yet know. That is probably why the USDA classifies anyone with less than 10 years of experience as a new farmer.
But I’m not disillusioned by any of this. “Don’t rush the process [because] It takes 21 years to be 21 years old,” is a quote from Dr. Eric Thomas that I often use to remind myself that a journey to understanding, like the one I’m on, is something that can only be learned after years of experience and study. Those years of experience are only accomplished by hammering on the craft and putting in work. Learning and doing will eventually get me there, but it is not instantaneous.
This understanding hits me hard because there are many things I have done in my life where I spent a lot of time being a rookie. I have spent lots of my working life at the beginning of different jobs. Being new on the job and feeling like I don’t really know what I am doing is something I have endured more than most, and because of that inoculation to the feeling of rookie inadequacy, I notice that it has less of an effect on me now than it did in the past. I don’t ever feel frustrated or think “I’m never going to get this.” I simply recognize that I don’t know this role yet.
Yet, becomes the operative word. “Yet” represents an opportunity mindset. “I don’t know that; yet,” is a growth mindset because it points to the fact that I can not judge my capability to be successful in this moment alone. The potential is still there even if my skill falls short in this present moment. As long as there is still potential for success, then this is still worth doing.
There is also a pitfall to this thinking that I recognize in myself through my past experiences; there is the danger of having the perfection fallacy take hold like it has in the past. The perfection fallacy tells me that if something is no longer perfect then I should abandon it and start over with something new that still has the potential to be perfect.
Bringing all this back to farming, I understand there is a high level of fail that is inherent in new farming. Experienced farmers meet disastrous anomalies, like a late spring freezes, that cause major set backs and damage even when they really know what they are doing. I know that in the coming years there will be crop loss caused by my own ignorance because there will be times I don’t know what I’m doing.
In other words, my farming will not be perfect. However, the antidote to the perfection fallacy is the belief in the power of doing; just keep doing and it will work because persistence always leads to success. Every morning, I simply tell myself that I just need to do my best today and that will be good enough for today; and these days will eventually add up to something greater if I just keep going.
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