Scarcity and Prosperity are two terms I had not heard of until I entered the coaching world. At first I felt they were worldly concepts of the common pursuit of wealth and possessions… connected with the overused term: Abundance. I soon learned about the truth found in these concepts and see the huge impact our perspectives of them have on everything.
First of all, Scarcity vs. Prosperity is talking about your perspective on the world. Scarcity focuses on what you don’t have and cannot do. It is negative and dwells on how you are limited, held back or unable to move forward as you would like. It shows up like this:
- Business owner: I can’t do any mailings because it costs to much.
- Mom: I can’t get out of the house because there is no one to watch the kids.
- Unhappy professional: I can’t change jobs because I need the stable income.
- Executive: I can’t hire more people; sales are down.
Prosperity is the flip side of scarcity. It is looking at what you DO have. It is positive, up-beat and solution focused. It finds what IS good and what IS possible. It asks “What CAN I do?” I might sound like this:
- Business owner: Mailings are expensive, but I have a small list of 100 names from the Chamber that I CAN do a series of target mailings for and test their effectiveness.
- Mom: I can get out of the house and take the kids to the park. My spouse is home Friday nights and I can plan to do errands then.
- Unhappy professional: I need stable income and CAN take a few classes to explore other interests while working my current job.
- Executive: Sales are down, but I CAN hire short term contract help to pull through this slump. I can also come and work on the floor 5 hours a week to support the team.