Those of us who work with nature have been given continuous lessons in handling Changing Conditions. It’s a way of life for farmers and horticulturists of all sorts and those lessons have proven especially valuable for us in recent times.

Business plans, budgets and forecasts get reduced to spreadsheets but they happen in the real world. And constantly changing conditions shape them daily. It’s more Art than Science to navigate the myriad changes that we face.

I’ve observed that the most resilient and happy people seem to be those who are comfortable operating under changing conditions. The status quo can now be defined as the last 15 minutes and that term may soon be relegated to history. Make your plans, of course, because without them you are driving blind; but be prepared to adapt to changing conditions in real time.

What got you here may not take you there.

The experiences of the past 12 months are but a blip in human history. And similar challenges have appeared previously. The biggest difference now is that we are more capable of meeting them technologically than ever before; but that doesn’t make them less disruptive to us who are living through these challenging times.

There are moments of joy and reflection within our changing conditions. A tranquil sunset can transform to a surprise spring snow storm in only a matter of hours, as I recently witnessed. Both are beautiful if you are prepared to adapt to the changing conditions.

Turning to the more practical from the theoretical, we are in a unique position to help our team members and our clients handle their own changing conditions. We’ve seen them before and we know they’ll come our way again. What have we learned about maintaining focus when the terrain changes? How can we draw on what we’ve experienced, or learn from others who’ve traveled this road before us, to get through the latest challenges?

Life can be hard and current conditions seemingly conspire to make it harder. So we can view changing conditions as more of the same, or our opportunity to navigate past the challenges of the moment. After all, what happens next will result from what we decide to do under changing conditions.

Tempus Maximize!