Hi, friends! It’s Elizabeth here, and I am so excited to share Episode 795 of Primal Potential with you today! Primal Potential is a podcast all about you — your ability to change is not defined by yesterday and doesn’t need to wait until tomorrow. Your transformation is now, no matter what stage you find yourself in life!
Today, I’ve got a very special episode for you that I hope will completely change your outlook on life. I’m going to be talking all about scarcity and abundance and how it is absolutely essential for you to live with a perspective of abundance. I cannot stress this enough, friends, that living with a perspective of scarcity is toxic and unfulfilling.
I started thinking about this subject recently. I had to update my trust and will since Dagney passed away, and I was talking to Chris about money and death, and I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by it all. I started looking over some of my finance books and came across Lynne Twist’s The Soul of Money: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Life. I wanted to share some of the lessons from that book and some of my notes that I took while reading it. The lessons helped me in that moment, and I know that they can help you too, so let’s get right into it!
Living in Abundance Rather Than Lack
A crucial part of Lynne Twist’s The Soul of Money is the natural Law of Abundance. Abundance flows through the entire universe, but abundance will not flow if you’re living with a perspective of lack and limitation. Abundance will not occur if you’re living with limiting beliefs.
We’re living a world that is dominated by conversations of lack. How often do you hear or say that there isn’t enough of something? Not enough time. Not enough energy. Not enough money. Every day, people engage in this narrative that they don’t have enough of something, and I’m here to tell you that if you find yourself doing that frequently, “not having enough” will be your default state of mind. You begin to see everything through the lens of “not enough,” and everything seems inadequate.
People use the belief of scarcity to justify their unfulfilled lives. They fall back on, “Oh, I don’t have enough time,” or “I don’t have enough money,” and therefore, they can’t do something. They use their beliefs in not having enough resources to justify not following their dreams.
There’s an excellent quote from The Soul of Money that says: “Scarcity is a lie. Independent of any actual amount of resources, it is an unexamined and false system of assumptions, opinions, and beliefs from which we view the world as a place where we are in constant danger of having our needs unmet.”
Scarcity comes from opinions and beliefs rather than the resources that people actually have. And comparison plays a significant role in this. People think that they don’t have enough because of what others have. If you approach life with the mindset that you don’t have enough, you’re never going to have enough. No matter what you have, you’re going to want more because you’re locked into that mindset of “not enough.” How are you ever going to be satisfied if you’re always thinking about wanting more?
Rather than focusing on not having enough of something, you need to focus on how to better use the resources that you have. You focus on how you can better use your time or money or whatever else that you feel that you don’t have enough of. You have more than enough in your life, but you need to better utilize your resources, friends!
Changing Your Narrative from Scarcity to Abundance
Whatever it is that you think that you don’t have enough of, you can change your way of thinking so that you recognize your abundance and can better utilize your resources.
I’ll use time as an example. How frequently do you say, “I just don’t have enough time”? Everyone has the same amount of time — you just need to use it more wisely. Whenever I feel like I don’t have enough time, I write down everything that I need to do for the day. I then determine what on my list is critical — meaning that something terrible will happen if I don’t get it done. My list often involves recording my daily mindset upgrades, spending time in my different Facebook groups, and working on my podcasts. After I write everything down, I determine what is actually critical. 99% percent of the time nothing is critical on my list. I can delay the things that are on my list, and nothing catastrophic will happen.
When I approach my time with that perspective, I realize that I have an abundance of time. I have filled my time with the things that I want to do rather than critical things.
You can also extend this line of thinking to another common problem: money. Rather than approaching your financial situation with the mentality of, “I don’t have enough money,” you can think about how your financial situation is much better than you realize. You have possessions that you can sell, and you can cut back on your spending. For example, you can cancel subscriptions, or you can eat out less.
My point is that you should approach your financial situation with the mentality of making your finances go further rather than approaching it with the mindset that more is always better. If your default mode is “I need more,” you’re never going to have enough.
Stretch Rather Than Chase
Today, I’m going to share with you a lesson from my veteran level 12 Weeks of Transformation program that will help you approach your life with abundance rather than scarcity. I challenge you to adopt the mentality of stretching rather than chasing.
When I say “stretching,” I mean that I want you to stretch the resources that you already have rather than chase more. I want you to utilize your time better rather than wish that you had more time. I want you to think about how you can get more from your current relationships rather than thinking that you need to build more relationships. I want you to think about how you can better utilize your finances so that you don’t feel like you need to chase more money.
Approach your life with the mentality of making your resources go further rather than thinking that you don’t have enough.
You can also think about how you can get more from the things that you already know rather than thinking that you need to learn more. If you approach your abilities with that same “not enough” mindset, you will never feel that you know enough to do something. You might think that you need to read more books about money management before actually utilizing what you’ve already learned. You need to utilize the tools that you already have rather than chase new tools.
If you’re living with the “chase” mindset, you’re always going to be looking towards the next thing rather than what you’re currently doing. You’re always going to be thinking about how more is better and it will never be enough. You’ll always be chasing the next thing rather than appreciating what you have.
Find Adult Electives and Have Fun
Something that I think very much goes along with living with the perspective of abundance is taking the time to enjoy things. Often people say that they don’t have enough fun. Well, you can change that if you take the time to do activities.
The entrepreneur Jesse Itzler said something fascinating about adulthood and hobbies. Do you remember when you were in school — whether college or high school — when you would take electives? You studied something outside of your career focus, and you did it because you enjoyed it. Jesse pointed out that once people leave school, they drop that mentality of doing productive, fun things. People stop learning subjects that aren’t related to their careers.
Jesse challenges people to identify adult electives — activities that you’re interested in that have nothing to do with your career — and I’m going to challenge you to do the same thing. It can be a variety of things like yoga, basket-weaving, sculpting, or whatever else. Right now, Chris and I are looking into doing different kinds of cooking classes. It’s not going to advance our careers or make us more money — we’re doing it because we’re interested in learning how to cook new things, and we think it’ll be fun!
What’s on your calendar that you would consider an adult elective? What’s an activity that you’re doing because it’s fun or it interests you? And I know that it’s tempting to say, “I just don’t have enough time for that,” but, again, that’s coming from a perspective of scarcity rather than abundance. Do you have time to watch Netflix or check your social media? You can better utilize your time so that you can engage in fun, fulfilling activities!
Another excuse that you might make is that you don’t have enough money to take up a fun activity. If you stretch your financial resources, you’ll find the money to do a hobby. Maybe you need to sell some stuff that you’re not using or cut back on excessive expenses, but if you stretch, you’ll find the money to fund an elective.
Reject Scarcity and Excess
Even though the scarcity mindset of not having enough dominates our society, people also heavily struggle with excess. People are spending more and more money on unnecessary items and collecting physical and mental clutter while doing it, and then they say that they don’t have enough. Again, you need to stretch and better utilize what you have.
Once you start stretching your current resources, you’ll realize that there are unnecessary things in your life that are causing you to think that you don’t have enough. You can rid yourself of physical clutter, and that can oftentimes clear your mental and emotional clutter.
Today, I want to challenge you to approach your life with the perspective of abundance and begin stretching your resources. I want you to find a starting place and do it. Maybe your starting place involves getting rid of clutter in your home so that you can better utilize your living space, or maybe you need to take a hard look at how you use your time so that you can do more fulfilling things with it.
Now is the time for you to stretch rather than chase. I believe that if people adopt this mentality of doing more with what they have rather than chasing new things, they can drastically improve themselves and society. People would be satisfied with what they have rather than think that they need more.
Friends, you can do this! You can approach your life with the mentality that you do have enough.
If you need additional help approaching your life with abundance and removing “I don’t have enough of …” from your vocabulary, I encourage you to get on the waitlist for our next 12 Weeks of Transformation! In this program, I work with people in a more personal and organized approach to help them overcome their perspective of scarcity and unlock their full potential! If you’re not sure where to start in accessing a perspective of abundance, then you should definitely check out my 12 Weeks of Transformation!
I also recommend that you sign up for our daily mindset upgrades during these difficult times. I send out daily texts of encouragement to help you think of ways to stretch your resources.
Remember, you’ll never be satisfied if you live with the “never enough” mentality. Do more with what you have and live in abundance rather than scarcity!
Elizabeth Benton