Abundance (or) Scarcity

Have you ever felt half empty?  

Do you know that feeling that traps you into an imaginary box where you can barely breathe because there's no air in the space you've created for yourself?  Perhaps you even have thought small, or someone in your work or life has tried to influence you into thinking you were small or nothing at all?

Sadly, we live in a world full of people who reduce themselves to small.  They take a view that their world is a scarce place and they must defend the little they have in the box they've neatly tucked it in.

But what about the world that is wide open, abundant, and full of opportunity?

Do you know that world where everyone has a seat at the table, a voice, and the chance to play the game?  The people who think wide, deep, big, and round know that they aren't meant for a box or a title.  They know title means nothing and influence, delivery and potential mean everything.  They crave the bigger picture, and not the bigger pocketbook, they seek the what-if and trust that abundance is a sound investment strategy .

The world is their oyster and they harvest the pearl, over and over and over again.

We hear a lot about shortages today.

We're short on people, short on skills, and short on natural resources.   I believe and know we are short on time.  Instead of talking, we ought to be tackling.  Instead of opining about the "whoa-as-me's", we ought to be thinking and innovating to bring about real change.   There are those who see needs and seize the moment and those who stay inside the lines and don't dare color outside of them.  Small people create processes to discuss, spreadsheets to report, and boring power points to hide behind because they have nothing else.   And, after they miss the boat due to their own short-sidedness, we hear a lot of complaining.  (It's a vicious cycle.  Run from people who speak from a shortage point of view!)

You've only got one shot.

Admittedly I've been in this space.  Not too long ago I was offered the option to advance my career as an executive into a role I knew wasn't for me.  I would have been the youngest, the first, and the only female.  It would not have been the first time.  And while it was a lucrative deal, I knew the view into my mirror everyday was more of a meaningful measure than watching my bank balance grow.  I didn't want to wake up knowing I sold out when I had bigger and better things to do.  I did what 99% of the world wouldn't have done: I said no.  If it's happened once, it would happen again.  Arrogance? No.  Abundance.

Success is rarely a one shot deal.

I'm 38, cancer free and blessed.  My life will not be defined by a SMALL box, SMALL thinking or a SMALL person.  Thinking bigger and broader has always paid off.

Scarcity is small.  You're better than that.

In a world of scarcity, people who think small are small.  It's a choice.  In an attempt to control the little they've created for themselves, they alienate, create their own shortcomings and fail to see the beauty of opportunities around them.  They miss out, short change themselves, and truly miss out on the chance to dream big, live big and make big things happen with others.

You're better than scarcity.  Say it aloud.  You are better.

Four things to broaden your view and get past scarcity.

• See the abundance and not the lack of opportunity.  At every chance you have, reframe challenges as opportunities.  Fear is what creates our box.  Bust through it and choose to see a rounded view.
• Be happy with what you have and let the rest go.  You can get to the happy place though until to visit and let go of what creates small thinking.
• Surround yourself with amazing people who can not only see big but dream with you and make things happen.  Peer pressure in this space is a good thing.  Be picky about who is in the circle.
• Pay it forward and share generously.  The good news is the social era rewards those who are generous.  It eliminates the old world and it's silo-ed approach to ... well, everything.

 How do you see the world you are creating?  How do those around you see it?  How are you influencing others to live and lead?  I invite you to open your eyes wide and go beyond scarcity.