Every dairy farmer wants to run a carefree dairy operation that has the greatest cows that produce the most milk.  Of course, in addition to that they must also have a great family, lots of money, look perfect and live the good life.  Everybody wants that, but   it’s doing it that’s hard!  It’s easier to lower our sights to a more ordinary level and do what everyone else is doing.

Recently I read an article on Huffington Post about how it is easy to want things, but asks, “What pain are you willing to go through in order to achieve these things?”  Now there is no question that if you have chosen dairy farming as your career path you are unafraid to work.  Otherwise, you would have taken a 9-5 job somewhere else.  But in order to get all these other wants typically means that you are going to have to go through at least an equal amount of pain in order to achieve them.

People want to be rich without the risk and without the delayed gratification necessary to accumulate wealth.  Everyone wants to have a herd that turns visitors green with envy upon visiting your immaculate facilities.  But what level of extra work or pain are you willing to go through in order to achieve this level of success? Everybody wants to have great sex and an awesome relationship — but not everyone is willing to go through the tough communication, the awkward silences, the hurt feelings and the emotional psychodrama to get there.

It’s only natural human behavior, the good feelings we all want are more or less the same. Therefore what we get out of life is not determined by our wants but by rather by the amount what pain we’re willing to sustain. Now we all know that “Nothing good in life comes easily,”

Personally, I have always wanted to have six pack abs.  But I have not been willing to suffer the pain of hour upon hour in the gym, calculating and calibrating the food I eat, planning my life out in tiny plate-sized portions, so as a result I don’t have the  much wanted six pack.

We are all guilty of it.  We see other dairy breeders winning all these awards at the cow shows, or for their outstanding operations, and we think, “Man I could do that.”  But we don’t schedule in the hours of work and attention to details that it takes.  In reality, the devil is in the details.  The details include long hours.  Fewer non-cow related hobbies, sports or holidays.  It means reducing every potential activity down to the effect it will have on your cow focused priorities.  It means hours in the barn.  Hours in the field. Dedication to computer, finances and planning. Otherwise, as the years go by, it starts to turn into “What if?” and What for?” and then before you know it is 20 years later and it’s too late.

Probably the biggest lesson I have learned is that to achieve exceptional dairy success, our passion must raise our pain (and work) threshold up to a point where we don’t even notice the sacrifices anymore.

Every day you have to be willing to go that extra mile that is too hard for many.

The Bullvine Bottom Line

Everyone wants something.  We all would love to have the Royal or World Dairy Expo Grand Champion, or the top awards for our dairy operations, but the question is, “What is your plan?  How hard will you work to achieve it?  What sacrifices are worth what you will give up?”  At the end of the day you must be so focused on the gain, that you don’t feel the pain.

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