Last year, I came across this article about “passion” and its connotations in the worlds of careers and hobbies. It got me thinking about the Farm and how it has changed from a “passionate dream” to a solid plan, on its way to reality. In this 9-part series, I’ll take the key paragraph from each of the seven P’s in the article and expound on it as it relates to the Farm.
Positioning
Passionate people often come off as self-inflated. They’re legends in their own minds. Positioning means leveraging who you are and what you’ve done as a springboard to what’s next.
I’ve been positioning myself for the Farm for the last four or five years: after researching the crop rotation, I implemented it in my gardens; I started learning how to can. I’ve picked up a spinning wheel and started trying to use it; I’ve started teaching myself how to knit.
But before that, growing up, I learned many skills: pottery, basic carpentry and stonemasonry, cooking and baking, drafting, gardening, a little plumbing and electrical. I even picked up a little machining while helping my dad study for his machining degree and, later, helping him create video modules to assist in him with teaching in the same degree program.
Logistically, I can’t “do it all” all the time, but I still have a self-sufficient goal with the Farm, which means I do need to know how to do everything, at least well enough to get by – “getting by” is just functional, that doesn’t make it commerce-quality. That’s where practice and perseverance come in, right?