“The best thing is just to take stock of where you’re at,” he told The Country’s Jamie Mackay.
“You’ve got to come back to the basics, and number one is looking after yourself, your family, your friends, and your neighbours.
“Then everything kind of flows from there.”
Gaddum said cleaning up after an extreme weather event was daunting, and it was easy to feel overwhelmed.
He stressed prioritising what was important.
“That branch that’s sitting on the side of the track, look, it might just have to wait while you go and do all the other important jobs for a while.”
He said one valuable lesson Cyclone Gabrielle taught him was to accept that the land and the farm wouldn’t look the same for a while.
“That was the biggest thing about the cyclone, I guess we learned is that it just doesn’t look pretty, and you’ve got to adjust your mindset of what good is for a bit.
“Because we’re all proud people and proud of our land and proud of what we do and the way it looks, I guess.”
He said reframing your thinking made all the difference.
“It’s so worthwhile because once you make the decision to adjust and get on with what’s important, it makes the rest of life a lot easier.”
Taking a break at this busy time might seem counterintuitive, but Gaddum said this was a must.
“Just taking those small breaks, finding somewhere special to go with your family or your partner...it’s so important.”
He said being off-farm even for a short time helped change the mindset.
“Just concentrate on something else, whether it’s ... kicking the ball around with your mates or going for a game of tennis.
“It’s so jolly important just to look after yourself and put some air in your lungs that potentially isn’t the stuff from your farm, you know?”
Gaddum firmly believed it was possible to train the mind and build resilience.
“It’s resetting and finding the good in the bad things, in some ways.
“It’s understanding that you can actually change the way you perceive the day.”
He said it could start with something as simple as breathing.
“If something’s going wrong, you’ve just got to walk away, take a breath, take a moment, try and understand and then attack it in a different mindset.”
While this could be difficult, Gaddum said it was worth the effort.
“It’s a hard thing to do, but once you control it, once you start to understand it, take a breath.
“Breathing’s really important through these hard times.
“It makes a world of difference.”
- Harry Gaddum is a Farmstrong champion. Learn more about Farmstrong’s toolbox and Five Ways to Wellbeing here.
