The Nobility of Your "Why"

4-28-2020

Dr. Ryan Schmid

Growing up, I learned one important lesson in life: always look for the positives in bad situations. It helped me develop a “silver-lining” view of the world, if you will. The current Covid-19 pandemic situation is no different, and one silver-lining I’ve taken away from our practice of communal estrangement, a.k.a., social distancing, is that it has afforded us a unique opportunity, TIME.

I know many of you may feel short on time, caring for kids that are normally at school while also trying to work from home. But I’m not talking about time in our everyday routines. No, I’m talking about the time needed to take stock on what is important in their lives. Reflect on what is really providing purpose in their life.

Lately, I’ve been thinking on this very subject myself. Fortunately, my work as a researcher at Ecdysis Foundation keeps me in contact with some extraordinary individuals. As I’ve been contacting farmers the last few weeks about research projects, I am heartened every time I speak with them. From each person, I hear a consistent message about how Covid-19 changed their life in one way or another. But then, they all continue on about how they simply adapted to the hand they were dealt and moved forward.

This should come as a surprise because there is one thing these men and women have in common. They are all considered regenerative farmers. These types of farmers manage their operations with a long-term goal of sustainability. Understanding that the choices they make now will affect not only themselves, but those around them and future generations that will inherit the land.

While their farms may all look a little different, one thing that all regenerative farmer do is make decisions from a long-term perspective. The reason they can do this is they know the “why” for what they are doing. And once you know your why in life, how you accomplish this will be no barrier.

Thinking long-term and holistically like regenerative farmers is a good place to start in our own lives as we think about our why or purpose. A uniquely valuable outcome of finding your why from a holistic mindset, that many regenerative farmers experience, is that it gives nobility to their purpose. The holistic manner that regenerative farmers think-in, not only takes care of them financially, but also cares for the environment they depend upon and their local communities. Caring for these other aspects of the world, beyond simply themselves, gives their why nobility. Something I believe is crucial to a person’s why for life.

We know one thing for sure, Covid-19 has changed our lives forever. Things will not be the same even after social distancing restrictions have been lifted. Time is a valuable resource we have been given because of social distancing. Use this time to think about your why in life and develop long-term goals. And like regenerative farms, better align your time with something that will give you a noble purpose.