This random car just cut me off in traffic! Are you kidding me? I’ve been sitting in my lane for the last five minutes behind this BMW, so at this point I pretty much own this spot. But apparently no one told this guy; what a jerk… Ok, just breeaaattthheeee it out, Dan. Let’s think about this rationally. Did anything actually happen to you? Did he physically or emotionally hurt you? Did he make you late for your child’s bedtime stories? Did he even look in your eyes, say any words to you, or acknowledge you as anything more than just another car in the sea of multi-colored vehicles on I-85 North? No. He didn’t do any of those to me. Like I wrote about a few weeks ago: “Things don’t happen to you, they just happen.” So what’s going on right now with my mindset to make me feel negative about this occurrence?
Well, I’m of the opinion that this is the result of having a mindset of scarcity. This way of thinking made me feel like he took something from me: MY established spot in traffic that I worked so hard to obtain and defend for the last five minutes. But, if we dig just one layer deeper, that concept actually dies as hastily as it was born. He took my position behind the BMW, and now I’m in a new position behind him. There’s no need to react in any fashion to this, as there’s an infinite number of positions I can occupy in this miles-long traffic jam. So, let’s switch my mindset of scarcity to a mindset of abundance. 🎶“There is plenty of air for us all to breathe, just as there are plenty of fish in the sea. There is plenty of room for all our cars, even if you cut in front of me.”🎶
Doesn’t that sound better? Plenty of everything for everyone… Having a mindset of abundance brings a peaceful calm and blanketing warmth to our mental hamster wheels when events aren’t our version of ideal. If you feel like you’re always rushing in your daily life, between work, food, kids, exercise, commuting, etc, try to embrace a mindset of abundance of time as you execute your routine. There’s enough time to get everything done. Maybe being more formal with your to-do planning and cutting out non-essential tasks will help create more free time in your day. Maybe finally swiping away from TikTok will help create more time. Whatever you choose, just think of time as being abundant and plentiful in your life, instead of scarce.
Being short on time is just one concept that may or may not apply to you. The cool thing about having a mindset of abundance is that you can quickly slap your “MOA sticker” on any concept or area of your life that you want, as many times as you want. My kid doesn’t love sharing toys with his friend during a play-date; guess who’s getting an MOA sticker right between the eyes? We missed out on the dealership selling the SUV we wanted, so we put an MOA sticker on our clunker’s bumper and drove to other dealerships further away. Guess what happened there? We got our desired level of trim and color combination, but with 4WD instead of 2WD, for even less money!
There’s a movie called “The Good Dinosaur” that you can watch on Disney+, and my boy was obsessed with this movie when he was two years old. He was in his “dino phase” and we were dodging plastic Dino figurines on the floor of every room in our house. (They actually hurt way more than Legos; think stegosaurus spikes). There’s a really sad part of the movie that we frequently skipped through, and then the main character, a young male dino, has to journey by himself to find his way back home. There’s a pretty desolate, prehistoric feel to some scenes, and then we’re introduced to a psychotic pterodactyl and his gang of like-minded friends. Even though he’s the evil villain of the film, his tagline is a prophetic little statement that has real-world application: “The storm provides”. He’s talking about finding prey to eat during dry spells in dinoland, as large storms bring critters out into the open to be snatched up; but I found it to be right in line with our theme of abundance. Even in the darkest and most savage time periods of our existence on Earth, life will provide. If we stay calm and rational in our thinking, we’ll be in a much better state when it’s time to receive life’s gifts.
Is this an added twist to a “cup half-full” mindset? Yes… yes, I think so. The cup is always full if we make it so. Perception is reality, and our reality has an over-abundance of resources. Live! Thrive! Work hard! Love harder… xoxo