Overcoming the fear of scarcity, overcoming the fear of success.
Posted on March 13, 2008
Filed Under Emotions |
Whilst reading something completely unrelated to the context of this site (Mark Hurst’s Powerless over infinite data?) I came across the following statement that resounded so deeply with me I had to share and discuss it:
“We are programmed for scarcity and can’t dial back when something is abundant”
Portals by Lee Gomes writing in the Wall Street Journal
This is an extremely powerful idea, not just in the overwhelming amount of data and information we have to almost constantly process in a modern technological society, but also relating to our lives as human beings.
The core of that idea is, we’re used to not having enough of something and so when we get offered it we grab it with both hands. Much like we do all too much food with high levels of sugars & fats - our ancestors needed those to survive and they were relatively rare so we learned to be greedy when they were on offer. Now-a-days, fats and sugars are abundant but our bodies and psyche are still programmed to eat as much of that once scare commodity as we can.
To my mind this is as much resistance to change thinking as it is greed. So often we are scared of change - and success will mean a change - that people actually plan for failure albeit subconsciously. It’s a safety mechanism, you may not accept this at face value but consider:
- Being successful at school might have made you more of a target to bullies or brought other mostly unwanted attention.
- Being too successful might make you a geek or a nerd to your peer group.
- Achieving success in the work place could make your co-workers behave differently towards you, talk about you behind your back, etc.
- Creating a successful business might make people think you only care about money and not about the important things in life.
Right now things are a constant for an individual, and although we’d like them to be something better, we’re alive and comfortable with the way things are (even if we aren’t actually truly comfortable with our surroundings, relationships or careers) so we place obstacles in our own way to ensure that we don’t have the success we deserve or that our skills merit.
We are used to scarcity and are scared of abundance when it comes to success, but not when it comes to food or information. We need to swap those things around, consume only what we need and require, and build the success that we can enjoy.
Being successful is not making someone else less so, being rich doesn’t make someone else poor, being loved doesn’t make someone else hated. Money and love expand - the more there is, the more there can be.
Embrace your success today.
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