“How do you eat an elephant?” When I first heard that metaphor as a child, I had no idea what would come next. Of course, the next line, “One bite at a time,” didn’t exactly clear things up in my mind. I initially thought it was some sort of funny riddle. Then I just pictured cartoon scenes of someone with an elephant and started thinking how ridiculously full and uncomfortable I’d be after eating an elephant.
Recently, I had the fun of introducing my daughter to this same phrase after she and my son made a massive mess of our house. To her credit, she did it in the name of a good cause, but she quickly became overwhelmed at the thought of cleaning it up.
I, unfortunately, fell victim to a terrible stomach bug while my husband was away on a business trip. My daughter did her best to keep her younger brother entertained and well supplied with snacks so I could sleep in after a less than restful night. While successful, the two of them managed to dump out almost every toy they own, leaving them scattered all over our house. Their room and our living room were unusable, as there was no space to walk without stepping on a Duplo, car or piece of toy food.
When it came time to clean up, she cried, “It’s too big!” I responded by telling her it was time she learned how to eat an elephant. She giggled before telling me, “That is so silly,” so I explained that big tasks become easier when we divide them into smaller steps. One tidied-up house later, we rewarded our hard work with a movie night per my daughter’s request.
As we venture out of January and into February, the real work of our New Year’s resolutions and yearly goals starts to sink in. Whether this year’s goal-setting meeting still needs to happen or it’s time to start executing those goals, remember to keep the steps small and realistic. Start with only putting the Duplos in the bin and then move onto the Matchbox cars. Telling my kids to clean up might have been easy for me to say, but trying to clean up six different types of toys at once was overwhelming. It’s no different on a dairy.
From integrating better data management for increased efficiency to feeding calves so they meet the farm’s health and performance goals or even improving biosecurity through strategically placed boot washing stations, this issue is full of ideas for 2026 goals and practical suggestions to accomplish them. And if there is a topic we didn’t include, check out Ask AgProud, an interactive search engine on agproud.com where you can search our entire library of articles.
Whether it is a pizza party, bonus or something else, take time to acknowledge and celebrate accomplishments, no matter how small. I know with my kids, as happy as they were about a movie night as a reward, they were far more excited to hear that I was proud of them for cleaning up.
