How we make decisions when facing adversity is the real test for success. When something unexpected happens that throws our best-laid plans out the window is when and where the rubber meets the road.

Our actions to get back on track - that is, decision-making during adversity can either be an excuse to give up (fail) or an opportunity to change (succeed). Mistakes are often the best teacher, but we have to learn what and how to change to benefit from these mistakes. Or better yet, learn a method to prevent mistakes.

I personally believe that we do possess the power to get back on track. Within these changing times, that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance builds character, and character brings about the strength that I so admire and is present in many agriculture people.

I've seen a rancher cut off a finger when unloading steel fence posts and still continue to get the job done. I admire this strength and know that we are a hearty bunch that can fix most anything when the going gets tough. However, we do need to pause long enough when working so hard to still make good, sound, long-range decisions - like next time, wearing good leather gloves when unloading heavy steel fence posts.

We need some sort of way to prevent us from making costly mistakes, and to prevent poor decision-making. The following questions will help do just that.

I've condensed these questions from Allan Savory's effort working with holistic management. It's a practical, "whole" management process that helps keep decision-making on track and always moving you toward that pre-determined direction.

In fact, the best definition of holistic management that I know about is to just put the letter "W" in front of the word "holistic."   That way, it means we're now trying our best to manage "whole" situations and not just the individual parts. This is the only management thought process I know about that considers the people, their families and employees, all connected to what they personally desire as a quality of life. It's also a method to make better decisions about what's most important to them.

I often hear folks complain about the government, the Endangered Species Act, the weather, environmentalists, the market drop, high operating costs, or taxes to blame for hard times. And, rightfully so, but it's not right to allow someone else to take control of our decision-making.

We must become more "response-able," where we become totally accountable for all our actions and not just reacting to a given situation. What I'm trying to say is to bust free of old ways of thinking and find brand new solutions to everyday problems.

The following are some questions that should be answered each time you make a major decision, after you've developed a purpose-driven holistic goal for your farm or ranch. You can use these questions to test any new ideas to determine which one best moves you toward not only attaining shorter-term objectives, but also longer-term desires as you've stated in your goal. In a nutshell, that's holistic management.

Testing guideline questions

These are to be used before you take any action. Answer each question "Pass,"  "Fail,"  "Doesn't Apply" or "Need More Information."

Test #1  Will this action treat the root cause or only a symptom of the problem?

Test #2  Will this management decision attend to the weakest area of the "whole" situation? (i.e., the Bottom Hole in the Bucket - that one area that drains most of your time, energy, and money)

Test #3  Is this an environmentally and economically sound solution? (If I do this, will it make money and improve the environment (land) as stated in my holistic goal?)

Test #4  Once implemented, will the solution cause other problems and/or affect other areas? (Also think people problems and what your gut feeling is about this new decision?)

Test #5  Will this decision help accomplish your lifetime goal and core purpose in life (holistic goal)?

If you don't have a written-out lifetime goal, I suggest you develop one because this could be the missing link on your farm or ranch. The power of good decision-making lies in the words within the Holistic Goal. The quest for success begins with a common and shared target. What is it we really want?

For example, our personal holistic goal says, "low-stress travel." So when we now go somewhere, I sometimes take the long way just to enjoy the journey more. This one small detail has greatly improved our quality of life. We now see things we would've zoomed right past in my old hurry-hurry way of travel. This small detail has become a purpose-driven decision. I know it takes more time, but now we really look forward to traveling to new and old places.

Here's another example of how these questions work. It's kind of like playing Monopoly, where you must pass certain questions before you can take action.

Let's say you're about to take some action to control some nasty weeds in your pasture. You want to know which alternative to take. The actions you've considered to test are: spot spray the weeds; plow and re-seed the pasture; or do nothing.

Test #1: All three ideas fail to treat the root problem because we don't know the cause of this new weed invasion. The weeds must be a symptom that something=s wrong.

Test #2: They again all fail. Our Bottom Hole in the Bucket is this darn drought we're in, causing the weed to spread.

Test #3: They all fail. Spray will kill some of our good plants. Plowing and planting is way too expensive, and to do nothing is not a solution at all.

Test #4: Fail again. Yep, each decision could cause another problem.

Test #5: The answer is NO, this is not what we want in our resource base.

Solution: We'd better go back to the drawing board and figure out why these weeds became established.

In this example, since all tested actions failed, you'll have to consider some other form of treatment. Perhaps you need to study the first testing guideline question and find out what's really causing this troublesome weed to invade your pasture in the first place - is it really the drought or is it something else? Perhaps you have something opening up spaces in your soils like long-standing irrigation water that killed the good plants, letting the weeds become established. Spraying, re-planting, and doing nothing would not address the real cause.

By the way, you don't have to pass all of these testing questions to have a GO at it. Also, just skip the questions that don't apply. They=re simply designed to help you make better decisions.

As I said before, this kind of holistic management will push you into new thinking that will eventually lead you to finding a better solution. These testing guideline questions really do cause you to think deeper about the whole situation. Like, possibly you should test a new alternative such as using gated plastic pipe as a long-term investment that will better control the amount of water you use in this pasture. Standing water may be killing the plants by robbing them of oxygen. This is just an example of how these questions can work.

Please give these questions a shot at some decision you're struggling with. However, you'll need that end-in-mind goal to test against.

I recently used these same questions to help purchase a replacement vehicle, and they did help us find that certain vehicle that best fits our low-stress-travel goal. However, this decision didn't pass all the testing guideline questions - newer vehicles cost a huge pile of money these days.