Spilled milk, store-bought cupcakes and staying sane
Last week, I sat down with dairy farmer and voice for dairy sustainability, Tara Vander Dussen for Episode 12 of the Uplevel Dairy Podcast. She outlined the bigger picture of the buzz word as three key pillars: environmental, financial and social.
And as I listened to this articulate woman compellingly convey these key messages, I couldn’t help but appreciate her relentless passion and pursuit of speaking up for what she believes in with seemingly endless energy and enthusiasm. In fact, it left me wondering:
What is Tara doing for her own sustainability?
How does she balance motherhood, business and taking care of herself … all while battling the activists, saving the planet and showing up with the most amazing hair?
This, my friend, is the sustainability talk we don’t have enough: Human sustainability.
So our conversation became more like two moms sitting down for coffee.
We connected over our youngest children and their Spiderman-like ability to crawl up into double-decker refrigerators and knock full gallons of milk to their demise on the kitchen floor. We swapped our favorite inspirational quotes. And I soaked in the wisdom of a woman whom I admire as a person who chooses to live life on her own terms and make her dreams a reality.
Here were the five most powerful takeaways from Tara for other women running business, raising kids and striving for true sustainability:
You don’t have to keep all the balls in the air. Just the really important ones. Tara talked about the conversation she had with her two little girls about whether they wanted homemade or store-bought cupcakes to take to school. Their choice: store bought. It was one of those lessons in the beliefs we carry about what it means to be a “good” mom and what really matters to the little people we are raising. Somethings just don’t really matter like we may make them out to in our minds. “It’s not going to be the make or break in our family of what really matters,” she said.
Set boundaries. In a day and age where running kids to every activity has become the norm, Tara is not afraid to set limits and say no in order to protect family time.
You are the five people you spend the most time with. “I have been just really focused on thinking about who is in my life, who's impacting me, because it ultimately impacts my family,” Tara said. That means keeping her circle tight, and having an awareness of the people who lift her up, versus the ones who are energy drains.
Prioritize wellbeing over work. As a box-checking, goal-oriented Ennegram 3 and entrepreneur, Tara recognized the temptation of wanting to work all of the time. That’s meant putting herself on the back burner at times. However, this year, she is committed to prioritizing her health, including getting in a daily workout between dropping her girls off for school and starting her workday.
Let your light shine bright. And perhaps Tara’s most powerful share is the quote that serves as the backdrop on her computer screen. May it be the encouragement for you today too:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. You playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that others won't feel insecure around you.”
This conversation with a sustainability expert reveals so clearly that the meaning of the buzz word is just as much in protecting, conserving and nurturing our priorities, ourselves and the legacy we wish to leave behind.
Follow Tara on the Discover Ag Podcast and on Instragram: @taravanderdussen
