Published: January 11, 2008 03:24 pm            

Land Minds: Resolve to be realistic

Originally published in the December 28, 2007, print edition.

So you say you want a resolution?

My apologies to John Lennon and Paul McCartney for taking liberties with their lyrics, but the turn of the calendar prompts the talk of making resolutions.

Only once in my years have I actually made a resolution. I don’t even remember how many years ago that I resolved to not drink coffee. I never really liked the taste of the mud, but the pot was always on at work and free-flowing after church on Sundays; so I drank.

So that was it, one year I just decided no more java.

Other than a half-cup here, and a half-cup there, I’ve stayed off the stuff. I came clean; I got my life back.

OK, maybe that’s a little melodramatic, but that’s the way some people get over making (and subsequently breaking) resolutions.

If you are the resolution-making type, you need to be smart about it. Or SMART, as Eric Sonnek, University of Minnesota Extension educator for Stearns, Benton and Morrison counties, puts it.

In a press release Sonnek sent out just as I was working on this column (great minds think alike), he stressed that “when setting goals, it helps to make them SMART.”

Resolutions really are just goals, aren’t they.

He goes on to say that SMART goals are:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Realistic
• Timely

This is good advice, but I think the main reason people get discouraged by not keeping their resolutions or making their goals is that they really don’t concentrate on the “AR.”

It would not be realistic for me to resolve to lose 40 pounds, because I would need to develop some sort of eating disorder or contract some terminal disease to achieve that goal. God willing, I don’t plan on either one.

It would be unrealistic for me to lose that much weight, thus it would not be attainable. Sure I could stand to lose a few pounds, and that would be much more realistic and attainable.

As you look back on 2007 and ahead to 2008, plan goals that need effort, but ones that are truly within your reach.

On the farm business side of things, 2008 may be a good time to take a look at your expenses. Energy costs will drive the cost of production up. Though you can’t control what a gallon of fuel, pound of fertilizer or gallon of herbicide will cost, you can control the efficiency of using all of the above. Take a look at where you can cut these costs, without sacrificing your bottomline returns.

But remember, be realistic.

Subscription time of year

As long as you’re already in the giving mode, be sure to locate your subscription renewal card in this issue of The Land.

If you wish to continue to receive The Land every other week, you need to complete this card and return it to us. We are once again asking for a voluntary payment, so if you feel so inclined to help us cover the weekly postage be sure to send some money along.

We’re asking a voluntary payment of $10; that works out to a whopping 38 cents an issue for the 26 that you’ll receive this year. That’s one of the better bargains around.

I hope you’ll agree.

        

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