# 11 - It's how you react the drought that matters most

“It’s HOW YOU REACT to the Drought that MATTERS MOST” In this episode, we aim for all of us to not overlook the benefits of the drought situation and how our span of control plays a huge part in real-life challenges. What can you do to control your reaction in regards to this present drought condition? What can you do in all other areas of your business to get through these tough times? We all know drought has been occurring for a long time now and certainly has a significant impact on large areas of the country. Australia has had long droughts in the past, we have to accept that as part of the country we live in. You can’t control the weather, but you can control the way you respond to what’s going on in your farming business. Spend your time and energy focusing on the things you can control in a drought situation and not the drought itself. Andrew is reminded of a fantastic story about one of Australia’s greatest Iron Men: Trevor Hendy was about to take off on a competition day at Port Macquarie when the weather was crazy, the sea was huge and the wind was howling.  The organisers thought of cancelling the event but decided to push through. Trevor was sitting overlooking the ocean and a journalist spotted him and asked, “What is running through your mind?”  Trevor, who was listening to some music, pulled out his earplugs and responded to the journalist, “The environment is always perfect”. Clueless, the journalist asked, what do you mean by that?  Trevor said, “I can’t do anything about the size of the ocean today…  I can’t change the wind…  I know for a fact that I’m not going to get my best time because the condition isn’t great.  But the only thing I can promise you today is that, I can do the best that I can regardless of the weather.  I’m going out there and will give it my all”. We can’t change the weather but there certainly are things that farmers can be doing during drought times. All you can do is your best – and you can control what your best looks like. Let’s now look at the 4 areas to support farmers dealing with drought:   1. LET GO OF THE VICTIM MENTALITY Victim mentality is a state where you start thinking that everything that happens to you is someone else’s fault. You blame the weather or other circumstances. Being a victim means you do not have power over anything that is going on and you are just on the receiving end. But you are in control of your business. You are in control of how you react to the current situation. And if you move into the victim mentality, it makes it very difficult to make strategic decisions. When a business is in a period of adversity, as the owner… YOU MUST LEAD, STEP UP and MAKE GREAT DECISIONS. The drought should not make you feel like you are a failure or any other negative self-talk. If you are locked into a mental framework of being a victim, you are totally un-empowered and unable to make the decisions to improve your situation. 2. MINDSET: DROUGHT IS TEMPORARY  Drought is never great, but as a professional farmer, your responsibility is to maximise the good times and minimise the bad times. Drought is a bad time. The actions that you take right now, the decisions that you make will be just as influential on the long-term prospects for your farming business as the decisions that you make when times are really good. Mentality directly affects decision-making. We can never appreciate the good times without the bad. Look at the fortunate aspects of the current drought. 3. COMPLETE THE RISK PROFILE OF THE BUSINESS Drought only illustrates all businesses have a risk profile. There are certain risks that we all face as business owners. Having a good understanding of what the risk profile of your business is. Attempting to put in place strategies, systems and processes to mitigate risk is just part of very sensible strategic thinking that should go on in all farming businesses. Your business risk profile should always be part of your annual planning. How do we mitigat