Scarcity thinking: Art of Possibility musings

In one of the early chapters of The Art of Possibility they introduce two related ideas. The first is that we live in a world of measurement where comparisons are our only way to prove our own success. I'll tangentially talk about that in the next post about Calculation. Today, however, I want to talk about Scarcity. (Look at that word. Doesn't it look bad? It looks like scar city and it sounds like scare city. Yuck!)

Scarcity thinking is something that HTH and I discussed at length when we started our business. Scarcity, as an operating principle, means that you have to take what you can from everyone else and hold on because there is not going to be enough. It is a competitive, "only the tough survive" model. And, as a model for surviving, it is extremely effective. It does not work for me, however, as a model for small business or for my current life.

In the society that I inhabit, there is more, more, more, MORE out there than anyone could ever want or need. And I do mean anyone! Within a 2 mile radius of my house, there are thousands of goods and services for sale. TLC has several shows devoted to people dealing with the overabundance of STUFF that they have added to their lives. As a country, we are facing such an overabundance that we are actually trying to figure out how to deal with increasing obesity in our population. In other words, our population is made up of people who, just like me, have thoughtlessly eaten themselves into a much larger size.

For me, these examples are about our honest, human confusion. When something feels wrong, we all revert to behaviors that comfort us. We build bigger houses to feel safer. We try to feed emotional hunger with physical food. We don't take time to think about what we have, so we fall prey to the "need" to buy more. Maybe I have it all wrong, but it seems like our "survival" techniques are continuing into a world where the objectives are more about growing and thriving. And, since we haven't slowed down enough to think about that, we haven't changed our behaviors to match.

I say we, but all I can say for sure is this: in the back of my head, there is some part of me that believes that there is not enough. Even when I am consciously aware that there is more than I can ever need. Even when I know that I am doing myself a disservice by thinking that. Even when I consciously argue with that voice. And that has to do, in part, with the way I frame my view of the world.

I have been able, at times, to modify this thinking in specific areas. HTH and I worked to end scarcity thinking in building our business. We are aware that this market is more than large enough for our business and half a dozen similar companies to be profitable. I'm in the middle of changing that thinking in my food choices. I have lost weight recently, not because I'm on a diet, but because I'm changing which foods are in my house in abundance.

There is one place, however, that I have a lot of trouble with abundance thinking - which is what I'm calling the anti-scarcity thinking. I just went through the mid year assessment at work. Just about anytime that I deal with the administrative aspects of my work life, I get very grouchy and snarly, because the processes are built on scarcity thinking. I know that this is normal. I know that there has to be a way to reward performance and encourage certain behaviors while discouraging other behaviors. I even believe in that! But I don't like where my mind goes when I am in process. As part of HTR Phase-2, I had been trying to figure out why. Fortunately, this book had some great language that fit with my moodlings on the subject to date. I'll talk about that next post!