10/04/2026
Moments like today really make me sit down and think....
The struggles most personal barn owners/ business owners/self employed professionals alike can only relate too.
The feeling of this current economy rising, the cost of everything from the gas you use to the shipping for all the products you have or send out, the things you have to have to function day to day and the cost you put into things, future plan/goals, basically crossing your fingers that this move wasn't a wasted one and it will help your future plans/goals down the road.
Then days like today come around. The economy has risen faster than what you predicted for last year, the business you're in requires you, yourself to show up! Not once but twice a day every day, no sick days, no vacations unless you can afford to pay someone double or triple what you even make to take your place, if they even can, for a single day. Your cost of owning and trying to withhold your own personal aspersions for your business keeping up with the quality and appearance of not only your farm/business but the care you give, the feed you feed, the hay you buy, the product you use, just trying to keep the standards the same and do the best you can each and every moment really make you sit down and think. Rainy days seem to always bring those moments out, especially after you're out in the pouring rain watching the flooded ground wash away all that money you spent on winter seed (for instance), on fuel to put it out and pick it up, on money to pay those people who showed up to help get it out trying to get ahead of the rain, praying for wet droplets when I woke up this morning because we had none, and now watching the massive puddles drain off so fast in your ditches praying all the seed isn't washing away, just honestly makes my head spin and spiral.
The amount of things that go thru your head:
*I'm so blessed to have my own farm/business
- but burnout is real
* I'm blessed to have these animals/clients whose owners/clients entrust me with their care/work. Ones who know I'll do everything I can to have their animals/clients taken care of to the utmost standard I can withhold.
-but burnout is real
*I'm blessed to wake up every morning, walk outside, see the sky and take care of a business I own and I dreamed of having one day
-but burnout is real
Not to mention even the spiral on making money or burning money, on trying to plan ahead to have future goals, to keep things up to par, to provide variety and care to everyone you're responsible to take care of.
Noone really talks about the stress, the anxiety, the depression you can spiral thru just trying to wrap your head around what the next best move is. Did you make the right decisions? Are you loosing money, did you just blow a big potion of your budget on something that won't make it back?
Finding and juggling on that line for everyone who owns a business is real. You can't just get that money back, or spend more. Burnout is real.
Take a moment as a consumer to think of just how much work, calls, research. How much time and emotions go into every decision a business owner makes to just keep themselves and their clients on the right balance points. Think about them as an individual. Someone who wakes up every morning and has to balance their life. As a business owner just trying to not only survive but provide for others every day.
Think about what type of goals they once dreamed of, sacrifices they make daily even sometimes. Think about how they planned organized and found a way to make their dreams come true and work so hard everyday to try to keep it going. Think about the days they didn't see coming, when they lose a large job, when someone doesn't pay, when you do everything you can with the knowledge you have, when their seed gets washed away, when the hay they buy is trash or the treatment they try doesn't work, or the product they made doesn't turn out and they lose out all that money and have to replace it. Even then, burnout is real.
Think about the amount of time a business owner stays up late/wakes up early. Calls and research to find the right things to offer their clients, the right options on what to buy or change, policies even that no longer can be a standard, when we as owners can't always just be available anymore. We can't always just throw money away because someone thinks this is the right move, you can't just go out to dinner if your schedule is overwhelming and you've got to get this week's schedule worked out or simply don't have the money, if an animal is sick or your just simply exhausted.
Take a moment to thank and think about the amount of time any business owner/barn owner/self employed professional has to take their personal time away from the few things that may bring them happiness, their families, their lives to try to balance the work/life threshold every day to just get by.
Take a moment today to just think... And be thankful!
