A MINDSET OF ABUNDANCE

This weekend, I was walking on the beach collecting bits of sea glass – an increasingly rare commodity in these parts, though I always manage to find a gem or two.

Paul and I bring our coffee pot and our mugs to the beach early most weekend mornings and generally find ourselves alone at that time.  This weekend though, someone was there before us and she appeared to be collecting sea glass.

SHE HAD A BAG.

I didn’t even sit down. I filled my mug with coffee and started up the beach – head down and eagle eyed, all the while thinking about how greedy the woman with the bag was…methodically combing, leaving no spot unexplored, determined to find every piece and claim it for herself.

NOTHING.

I quickly returned to Paul and our beach chairs empty handed.

I sat and sipped my coffee and thought about all the times I have walked this beach in the past.  Some of my walks have been in the middle of the day.  Some have been at dusk.  It never matters how many people have been there before me, I always find sea glass.  I never doubt I will.

Then I started to think about the woman and the immediate and wholly unjustified feeling of competition she inspired in me.

It made me smile.  Truly, I had to laugh at myself. 

Of course I didn’t find any sea glass.

I had replaced my belief of plenty with a mindset of lack.

By now, the woman had moved on. I got up and headed in the direction where she had been so meticulously collecting, knowing exactly what I would find.

In the time it took me to drink half a cup of coffee, I returned to my chair with a handful of sea glass.

I told Paul about my revelation.  He didn’t buy it.

“You found those because you showed up – because you didn’t give up, Wendy.  Your mindset has nothing to do with it.  There’s only so much sea glass,” he said “if everyone in town were here with you, it would absolutely have run out.”

He’s right of course – sea glass is not an infinite resource.

This is not merely about what there is however – it’s equally about what we make of it.  And in that arena, mindset is everything.

There may be a time that there is no sea glass.  I’ll pick up black stones.  When there are no black stones, I’ll pick up tiny whirled shells.  On a beach with no shells, I’ll fInd driftwood.  The point?

MY BOWLS WILL ALWAYS BE FULL.

I want to be careful here – to make sure that this metaphor is not misconstrued to promote the depletion of resources that we collectively must learn to conserve.  The idea that I’d like you to consider is that we will always manifest what we believe.

Believe in lack and competition and you will find little – and what you do find, you are likely to hoard, creating the very lack you expected and feared. (Toilet paper anyone?)

Believe in plenty and you will never take more than you need.  You will see sea glass where you once saw picked over sand. And you will innovate to create new resources when circumstances change or opportunity in one area dries up.

This Week: Creating PLENTY

1.  NOTICE when the fear of scarcity creeps up on you, or when you feel that you have to compete for resources.

2.  SHIFT your belief to allow for the possibility that there is always enough.  When you do, you will:

• Find opportunity others miss.

• Slide easily into innovation and create what is needed when the resource you seek is scarce.

• Live in greater peace and harmony.

3.  SHOW UP and do the work.  Paul’s right, no one finds sea glass while they’re thinking about it from their couch at home.