Do you see a barren desert or the land of milk and honey?
When people are genuinely happy at the success of others, the pie gets larger – Stephen Covey
Mr. Covey had some great insights during his time on earth. Arguably one of the best is the distinction between what he referred to as an abundance versus a scarcity mindset.
When you have a scarcity mindset you see the world as a finite, limited pie. When someone takes a large piece, that leaves a lot less for everyone else (the way Julius Malema thinks about Johann Rupert). There is only so much and all of us need to fight it out to get our piece of the pie.
An abundance mindset is the exact opposite. When someone views the world form this point of view, they are convinced that there is more than enough for everyone to go around. The mere fact that you see the world as a place of opportunity opens you up to act on these when they cross your path.
Now obviously there are large discrepancies in the distribution of wealth in South Africa – most of our population is poor and face a daily struggle for survival. But scarcity and abundance thinking does not just play out in the spheres of finances and opportunities. Here are a few examples of how these contrasting mindsets play out in our everyday lives:
A friend succeeds – you have the choice to be genuinely happy for them, or secretly resent their achievement and wish they fail.
A family member experiences a heartache, disappointment, or tragedy – you quietly listen to them and share in their sorrow or you make the situation about yourself and tell them about all the bad things that have happened to you.
A colleague is praised for doing a good job – you feel proud for them and learn from what they have done, or feel miserable and secretly wish it were you in the spotlight.
You go through a period of change – you courageously face the new season and see it as a growth opportunity, or desperately cling to everything that was before (the good ‘ol days).
Something doesn’t go according to plan – you learn from the experience and come up with a better approach, or you look for someone to blame for the poor result.
Your finances come under pressure – you look for opportunities to remain generous, or hoard what little you have left.
You lose your job – you take stock of the skills you have and look for opportunities to expand on what you know, or get fixated on the lack of opportunity available to you.
You suffer some sort of injustice (maybe you become the victim of a crime) – you seek justice, while remaining grateful for being alive and deal with the trauma in a responsible way, or you become a lifelong victim and allow bitterness to envelop your being.
A new product or system is introduced in your business – you acknowledge what you need to learn and quickly go about it to stay relevant, or you act like you know it all and fail to keep up with the changing times.
You fail or make a mistake – you choose to see it as a challenge which you need to learn from and get better, or as a threat that you need to get away from as soon as possible.
The Takeaway
What you find in the world is largely influenced by what you go looking for. If you see the world as a barren wasteland where everyone must fight for scraps, that is going to impact on the way you treat other people. You can choose to be a vulture or a sunbird. The vulture flies around looking for dead things and that is all it sees. A sunbird looks for flowers and feeds on them.
Life will inevitably get tough. Guaranteed. You have no choice in that. But you do have a choice in your perspective. Success, opportunities, resources, ingenuity, praise, encouragement, empathy, love, and commitment – these things are without limit. If that is the way you choose to see things.
In Closing…
Struggling with your mindset? We provide grouped based and individual coaching to help you change perspective and behaviours for the good.
Which aspects of life are proving to be the most challenging on a personal or professional level? Please let us know if there are any topics you would like to read more about. If you find the content of these newsletters meaningful, please share with anyone you think could benefit from it.
Taking these tough times into consideration and with the knowledge that people are under severe pressure, PurposeWorks has developed a series of workshops aimed at building resilience, enhancing emotional intelligence, managing and dealing with burnout and focusing on the importance of selfcare. Our aim is to provide practical, actionable advice, informed by the science of Positive Psychology in an accessible and affordable format.
Please contact us at hello@purposeworks.co.za for more information on how we can get involved in your environment.
At PurposeWorks we are all about Making You and Your Work Rock. Our focus is on Organisational Health and Design, Employee Centered Culture, Leadership Development and Performance Coaching. For more information on how we can help you create a work environment that rocks, develop a great team, become an inspiring leader or unlock your personal excellence talk to us at info@purposeworks.co.za.
