It is hard to turn on the news during this pandemic and not be worried about our collective future. Civic unrest, social dismay, and infectious diseases have become a normal part of everyday conversation. Crazy, isn’t it?

As the Aqua-Yield team and I look at 2021 we are excited about the endless opportunities that this year will create for us and the farmer.

We will double the sales of our distributors and have our products help growers on four million acres. We have come a long way, but believe we are just getting started.

I want to encourage all of Aqua-Yield nation to consider looking at all opportunities with a “growth mindset”.

I was first introduced to this concept in 2014 in a Ted Talk by Carol Dweck in “The power of believing that you can improve.”

https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve?language=en

What is a growth mindset? Well, a growth mindset is the opposite of a fixed mindset.

Fixed mindset: In this mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them.

Growth mindset: In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.

As you look at 2021 I encourage you to look at the struggles we have to face us as opportunities.

Does your most challenging crop have high PF water issues? That is an opportunity to improve your soil and water source. Once that is fixed that field could yield better results. You can learn from all challenges on your farm.

Do you have an employee that is always negative and un-interested in her/his work? Deliberately pay that employee with a compliment daily for two weeks and I promise you will notice a change in their attitude. You can encourage all of your team and help them incrementally improve. Business management is the practice of marginal gains.

How we interact and encourage our employees and growers affect their attitudes.

A positive mindset is a difference between a farmer giving up on our technology because they’re “not a trial grower”. We can all agree that a productive struggle yields growth.

But a growth mindset isn’t just about effort. Dweck writes, “In the fixed mindset, everything is about the outcome. If you fail—or if you’re not the best—it’s all been wasted. The growth mindset allows people to value what they’re doing regardless of the outcome. They’re tackling problems, charting new courses, working on important issues. Maybe they haven’t found the cure for cancer, but the search was deeply meaningful,”.

May we all enter 2021 with a growth mindset looking for positive outcomes and learning opportunities in all that we do.

If we do this, we can all improve in incremental and small ways that lead to big improvements in our daily lives, similar to nanoliquid product applications to big yields.