Day 32 - Letting Go of Scarcity

The Scarcity Mentality is the zero-sum paradigm of life. ~Stephen Covey

Having a Scarcity Mentality is all about fear, individualism and comparison. To be honest, I have resisted writing a blog because of a scarcity mentality. Over the years as I’ve pondered writing, I was fearful that all the good things to write about have already been written, so I decided I wasn’t going to write. Here’s how it happens…I am pondering something important (or just plain cool) and I decide to go research it. Guess what? Someone has already written something about it and maybe has said it so well that I feel the “win” has already gone to them. In a scarcity mentality, there can only be one “win”, so since they beat me to it, there is no room for me in the game.   Whenever I would mention this to friends or family members, someone would inevitably say, “But the world needs to hear YOUR voice.” To be honest, I’m not entirely convinced, however, as you can tell, I’m in the process of writing for the season of Lent about one topic... Letting Go…and I wonder if I can truly let go of the scarcity mentality and be happy being one of many “wins”.Here is where fear and individualism intersect. A scarcity mentality says there can only be one “win,” so if we operate out of a scarcity mentality, we will be working alone for the individual “win.” A “win” implies someone is the “loser.” There is no such thing as more than one winner in this model. (Our intense interest in sports reinforces this idea, by the way.) I’m sure you can extrapolate to understand that a company or a group is also an “individual” when compared with others, so there is also a winner with regards to corporations… e.g. Avis says “We’re Number One” and Hertz says “We Try Harder”. Which brings up another aspect of scarcity; it’s a comparison game.   Knowing whether I have the “win” requires me to compare myself to others. It’s a silly game.In the account of creation as told in Genesis, there is a framework of abundance. The sea is literally teeming with life; there are plenty of plants for food and beauty; humans are to be “fruitful and multiply” and “fill the earth”. Having an abundance mentality means trusting there is enough for everyone. Abundance is all about community. I like how Parker Palmer describes the scarcity and abundance in his book Let Your Life Speak.

 Nature normally takes us through a reliable cycle of scarcity and abundance in which times of deprivation foreshadow an eventual return to the bountiful fields. This fact of nature is in sharp contrast to human nature, which seems to regard perpetual scarcity as the law of life. Daily I am astonished at how readily I believe that something I need is in short supply. If I hoard possessions, it is because I believe that there are not enough to go around. If I struggle with others over power, it is because I believe that power is limited. If I become jealous in relationships, it is because I believe that when you get too much love, I will be short changed. … The irony, often tragic, is that by embracing the scarcity assumption, we create the very scarcities we fear. If I hoard material goods, others will have too little and I will never have enough. If I fight my way up the ladder of power, others will be defeated and I will never feel secure. If I get jealous of someone I love, I am likely to drive that person away…. In the human world, abundance does not happen automatically. It is created when we have the sense to choose community, to come together to celebrate and share our common store. Whether the scarce resource is money or love or power or words, the true law of life is that we generate more of whatever seems scarce by trusting its supply and passing it around. Authentic abundance does not lie in secured stockpiles of food or cash or influence or affection but in belonging to a community where we can give those goods to others and who need them – and receive them from others when we are in need….abundance is a communal act, the joint creation of an incredibly complex ecology in which each part functions on behalf of the whole and, in return, is sustained by the whole. Community doesn’t just create abundance—community is abundance.

Letting go of scarcity means entering into community and sharing what we have. This concept is exciting to me! When I think of my writing as being part of a community effort, I can let go of my fear of not getting the one “win.”