Things happen, but they are not who you are

One of my favorite bloggers and podcasters is a woman named Steph Schmidt. She is a farmer in Australia and she’s also a psychologist. She writes wonderful, thought-provoking pieces on farmer mental health, and speaks from the true experiences of her own life.

The other day I saw something she posted, and it stopped me in my tracks. It made me think about how much producers’ identities are tied to their farms–and honestly, for many of us, how much of our identities are tied to our work, whether it is farming or something else. But, perhaps more than any other profession, people don’t do farming, they are farmers.

When who we are and what we do is all tangled together, it becomes really hard when something bad happens. If something bad happens in our work, it makes us feel like we are bad. That is not true. You are not your work, you are more than your work, and you are valuable no matter what happens with your work.

So, for all the farmers who have had crops damaged by hurricanes, or structures knocked down by storm winds, or any other disaster to your farm…this is for you. Actually, this is for everyone who is struggling with what feels like a disaster in their work life. Things have happened to you, but they don’t define you. Things happen, but they are not who you are.