What Would Change If You Managed Yourself Like the Farm?

A 2015 survey found that 60 percent of farmers were experiencing anxiety, 35 percent depression, and 45 percent high stress. After the 2019 harvest, calls to the farm stress line went up again. Katelyn Duncan opened this Farm Forum session with those numbers and then made an argument the room was not expecting: that working on yourself belongs in the same category as any other farm management decision, and deserves the same seriousness the industry already gives the physical side of the job. She is a producer, a Western Producer columnist, and a graduate student in policy analysis, and she is direct about her own start. At twenty, with her whole identity wrapped up in the farm, she gave two weeks notice and went to work on a friend's operation two hours away. What she learned on the way back is the frame for the rest of the session. What's Inside - Why she argues mental training deserves the same standing that physical work already has in agriculture - The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz's framework, applied to a farm rather than to a general self-help audience - Why unspoken assumptions do more damage in a multi-generational transition than open disagreement does - What she means by learning to master the fire rather than avoid it, and why that distinction matters most during seeding - The research on self awareness among high performing business leaders, and the case that it transfers to the farm gate - The conference habit she names directly: comparing your own operation to everyone else's and calling it motivationConnect with Kately Duncan: Linked In: Katelyn Duncan Saskatchewan Soil Conservation Association: sasksoil.ca Her columns at The Western Producer: producer.comConnect with Growing the Future Website: growingthefuture.ca YouTube: Growing the Future Instagram: @growingthefuturepodcast LinkedIn: Growing the Future Subscribe to the Growing the Future Podcast wherever you listen, and register for Convergence Conference 2027 at convergence.ag.   Register for the Convergence Conference at convergence.ag and stay updated by subscribing to the Growing the Future Podcast at growingthefuturepodcast.ca.