I have long been an advocate for an abundance mindset, rather than operating out of a sense of scarcity. This reflects a way of being in the world, not primarily access to material resources (although I suspect having the latter makes the former much easier).
So it still surprises me when scarcity-based thinking creeps into my own ways of working and/or drives the behaviour of my collaborators. It’s sneaky and it’s everywhere. And so refreshing when replaced by its opposite.
Let me give you a few recent examples:
Workload. I have had enough or more than enough work for all 25 years of my practice. Why then do I still say yes to too much, as though the next project may not come my way? I am behaving according to an implicit scarcity bias despite having significant evidence to the contrary.
Time. Reading books by Oliver Burkeman, Gay Hendricks and Neen James has me realizing that fretting over time being in short supply is a social construct and therefore a choice. Could it be that seeing time as abundant could make it so?
Collaboration. I have had the privilege of belonging to some very generous communities of practice where co-elevation and openness are the norm. When I bump into people who lead with concerns driven by protectionism or who frame interactions in zero sum terms, I’m startled. Thankfully.
Where does a belief that there isn’t enough to go around creep into your thinking? Let’s actively reject that scarcity mindset in favour of a generous, abundant approach. It’s not about either one being objectively “true,” but more about deciding which orientation is more life-giving and generative. Which one helps you show up as the person you’d rather be? I’ll opt for what Keith Ferrazzi calls “going higher together” every time.