Remaining positive even in times of adversity is difficult, but it must remain a goal.
Fitness coaches work on ensuring that our muscles are fit and healthy to achieve high-level performance and the same applies to the most important muscle - the brain.
Brain fitness is something we rarely discuss and, in most cases, it is totally up to us as individuals to ensure that we are making the best decisions possible.
The link between physical fitness and mental fitness is well known. A good example of this is when sufferers of anxiety and depression engage in a fitness program and reap the mental rewards.
Farmers who experience droughts, fires and floods are to be admired for their resilience, but quite often emotion becomes a dominant factor in decision-making at the time.
Whether you realise it or not, your attitude is quite often mirrored back to you.
Emotion remains present in all decision-making, but you must ensure that the level of emotion experienced does not override the other factors that must be considered.
That is why when you know that you are under great stress, you should discuss the decisions you are making with a colleague or friend who has empathy and an understanding of your situation.
Men tend to do the opposite when times are tough - they become quiet and some would say they go into their cave.
I have long believed that it is the decisions you make in good times that get you through the bad. This being the case, it is important to gain some agreements in good times about how things will be done and how we will behave when adversity hits us.
One of the issues that needs to be agreed to is what needs to be done to remain as positive as possible. It starts with the people. Mix more with the positive and less with the negative.
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Whether you realise it or not, your attitude is quite often mirrored back to you. Positive thoughts attract more of the same and likewise for the negative ones. If you see yourself as a victim, most times you remain one.
When making decisions, you cannot sit on the fence. You remain part of the problem or you become a part of the solution.
To gain motivation for solving the problem, it can be beneficial to extract all the learning out of a bad situation. This ensures that you are better equipped to avoid the problem next time or can solve it much more easily.
The timing of decisions is everything. All high-level decisions should be made when your brain is working most effectively.
Most people can be categorised as fowls or owls - morning or night people - and most farmers are fowls, meaning they perform better in the morning. For these people, doing bookwork at night time usually means it takes longer and more mistakes are made.
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Besides physical activity, reading, laughter, listening to music and sleep are important for brain fitness.
In earlier days, farmers remained fit by turning up to work, but with machinery and equipment replacing the labour component, many farmers are very unfit these days.
When combined with little to no reading and laughter and compromised sleep, the brain cannot perform as it should.
Better decisions usually result from a positive mental attitude and doing whatever it takes to achieve this should be a starting point if you want the best possible future.
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