#118: Staying in the Game: The Story You're Telling Yourself This Season
” A topic we talk about on the podcast or have talked about several times is the stories that we tell ourselves and how much they matter and shape our daily lives.”
This summer, we’re shifting gears. No new guest interviews for a while. No solo deep dives. Instead, I’m pulling together the best insights from past episodes—nuggets of wisdom from the people who’ve shared their stories with us—to give you something meaningful to chew on while you’re feeding cows or folding laundry.
It’s not because I’m burnt out. It’s because I need to be present—in my home, on our farm, with our kids. There are projects we’ve put off, things we’ve been meaning to do, and honestly, I want to be able to enjoy summer without constantly juggling the next deadline.
I talk a lot about stories on this podcast. How they shape our decisions. How they keep us stuck—or help us move forward. Lately, though, I’m not sure mine’s been helping me. It feels foggy, like maybe I’ve been repeating some things that aren’t actually true about our farm, our priorities, or even how we’re spending our time. That bothers me more than I’d like to admit.
So this summer, I’m hitting pause and asking the hard questions. What kind of life are we really building here? What kind of story do I want to be living—and telling?
One book that really helped me dig into this is The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. I listened to it during morning milking, and it’s been shaping how I think about both our farm and our business. Don’t let the title fool you—it’s not just about money. It’s about choices, beliefs, and how we make sense of the world.
There’s one quote that stuck with me:
“People do crazy things with money. But no one is crazy. We all just have different stories.”
That hits deep, doesn’t it? In agriculture, it’s easy to judge how someone else runs their operation—especially when it looks different than ours. But the truth is, most of us are just doing the best we can with what we’ve got, based on where we come from and what we’ve been through.
What looks wild to a sixth-generation rancher might make perfect sense to someone just starting out. Neither one is wrong. They’re just working off different stories.
Another idea from that book that I can’t shake is this:
Tail events drive everything.
Now, if you’re not familiar with that term, tail events are those rare, unpredictable things that sit way out on the edges of the bell curve. They don’t happen often—but when they do, they change everything. Think COVID. Think multi-year droughts. Think that one marketing pivot that completely changes your customer base.
Most of us spend our days trying to follow a formula. X + Y = success. We check the boxes, track the data, build systems. And those things matter—they really do.
But the truth is, most of life doesn’t follow the formula.
It’s the tail events—the unpredictable moments—that actually shape our futures. And here’s the kicker: you don’t know which moment will be the one that changes everything.
So what do you do?
You stay in the game.
That’s the core message Morgan Housel shared, and it’s the one I’m holding onto. The folks who get the most from those big, game-changing moments are the ones who keep showing up. Who keep making moves, even when it feels uncertain. Who don’t walk away before their turning point shows up.
But you can’t stay in the game if the story you’re telling yourself is full of shame, fear, or doubt. You can’t stay in the game if you believe every failure is proof you’ll always fall short.
We tell ourselves things like:
“This is just the season we’re in.”
“That’s just how it is right now.”
“It wasn’t meant to be.”
And sometimes, those things are true. But sometimes, they’re just excuses to stop trying.
What if instead of letting those stories define us, we asked a better question?
Is this story moving me closer to who I want to become?
That question matters more than any spreadsheet ever could.
Now, I’m a marketer by trade. I spend a lot of time with data—predicting trends, tracking ROI, tweaking systems. But even I’ll tell you: the numbers aren’t everything. They can’t predict the drought. They can’t forecast the opportunity that pops up when a competitor quits or a new market opens.
Numbers matter. But your beliefs matter more.
Your story matters more.
Because the people who build lasting, meaningful businesses in agriculture? They’re not just focused on sales. They’re building a life they actually want to live. And they’re doing it in a way that allows them to stay in the game—long enough to catch that tail event and ride it toward something better.
And here’s one last thought I’m wrestling with, and I say this with hesitation because I know how charged this world is right now:
Sometimes it feels like people in power are trying to create tail events on purpose. Stirring the pot. Disrupting the systems. Whether it’s for good or bad, I don’t know. But if that’s true—if change is being engineered from the top down—we’d better be ready. Because how we respond will determine what comes next for our families, our farms, and our way of life.
So here’s my question to you as we move into summer:
What story are you telling yourself?
Are your daily choices helping you stay in the game? Are they bringing you closer to the kind of farm, business, and family life you want to build?
Because tail events are coming.
Some will be brutal. Some will be beautiful.
And if you’re still standing when they hit, you’ve got a shot to turn them into something big.
Stay in touch this summer—I'll still be on Instagram sharing what I’m reading, what we're doing, and how we're showing up every day, even in the in-between. And keep an eye out for those special podcast episodes made from the best past interviews. I’ll see you back with fresh stories in September.
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About the Host of Farming On Purpose, Lexi Wright:
I’m your host, Lexi Wright. I started the Farming on Purpose Podcast from a passion for sharing the future of production agriculture.
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