Every night as I sleep and re-charge my battery, my beloved MacBook also gets her battery charged on the desk beside me. By morning MacBook is 100% and once I have a Diet Coke and a shower I can at least fake 100% and off we go to shake up the world. MacBook’s battery lasts most of the day and since working puts me in the zone and I never want to stop, I use the end of her battery as a reminder to keep balance in my life and I put her away and focus on my family, my health, my home or anything else that’s not electronic. It’s a beautiful dance we do, MacBook and I.
Today when I began working I realized MacBook didn’t get charged last night. Something went terribly wrong. Someone messed with the system by unplugging something in the mess of chords under my desk (by someone I mean me when I got out the sewing machine this weekend) and I have a few hours left before I head home and no charger. And you know what home means right? It means little fingers wanting to push buttons on the keyboard and little voices wanting to tell me a story or needing a snack and dinner that insists on being made and…well…. the end of MacBook and I and our precious dance for today.
Logically, it would seem that this limited battery problem would help me really focus on what’s important and not get off task by the distractions of:
click, watch, read, pin, share, like, tweet
that steal bits of my attention as I work. It should force me to prioritize and stay on task. But it’s not doing that at all people! It’s doing the complete opposite! It’s paralyzing me.
This FEAR that my laptop battery might die, is causing me to second guess and third guess everything I begin to do. I’m afraid. If I begin to work on something, it will use up precious computer battery that I might have needed for something else I didn’t consider and I’ll be left high and dry! HELP! There’s not enough! I’m spinning myself into a mess of indecisiveness and unproductivity. Every time I begin working on something my mind goes to a place of, “I should be doing that other project instead. It’s more critical,” rendering me quite useless today. I need a Life Coach right now.
This destructive pattern is one we experience in any area of our life where we feel there isn’t enough.
I see it over and over again with many of the women I coach. Scarcity around money is the most common one, but it can also show up in the area of love, food, time and many others.
A woman I used to coach was always worried about not having enough money. The money she did have, she used to purchase things like food, clothing, and excessive amounts of toothpaste and toilet paper. She would stock up on massive amounts of what most of us would consider the basic necessities of life and things she knew she needed so that if the money ran out, (as she was sure it would) at least she could wipe her bum!
When we talked about her dream of earning a degree in interior design, she always said she could not afford to go to school, not to mention how long it would take and the time she didn’t have because of the kids. She worried that she might spend her time and money on school and then not be a successful designer in the end. She understood logically that training and education is much more likely to generate more money than a shelf full of shampoo and baby wipes, but she couldn’t get to a place of taking effective action when she was worried about not having enough.
While it shows up differently for different people, I want to emphasize that scarcity is not your friend.
He pretends to be looking out for you by warning you to be cautious, but he is in fact sabotaging you by helping you create the very outcome you fear. He’s a tricky little guy and he doesn’t want to be discovered, but the power that will come from noticing him can change the results you get in your life. I pinky promise.
So, if you think scarcity is visiting you, begin by noticing him. Just notice that he is showing up and see if you can identify the spin he is putting you in. What does he feel like and how is he impacting your behavior? The awareness alone may allow begin to fix the problem, so begin there.
If you think it’s going to take more to get rid of him, focus on thoughts that create abundance.
First, notice what you already have. It’s as simple as increased gratitude people. Remember that part of your prayer that should come first? Yeah, it can change your world. A grateful mindset helps you notice that you have more than enough of everything you could possibly need which helps you operate at your best (out of abundance) and then create what you want to continue to have and more of it.
For the areas of my life where I know scarcity visits me the most, I like to find a mantra that I can practice believing and create evidence for. Here are some general ones which you can add words to like, “money, time, love, food” etc…
There is more than enough.
I am capable of figuring out how to get more.
There is always help figuring it out if I need it.
I don’t need more than what I already have.
There’s more than enough to go around.
There is always a way.
I’ve got this.
I have the perfect amount.
There will always be more available.
Finally, remember that the Atonement can make up for any gap in any area of our lives.
It’s the ultimate mantra and the reason scarcity is never necessary for us in this life. We don’t have to rely on only us. He will close the gap on anything we truly need in this life to have peace, joy and happiness. Truly.
I’m to the end of this post and my MacBook battery is flashing red. I told myself I had the perfect amount of battery to write this post and miraculously I did. It doesn’t always end that way, but if the battery had died it truly would not have been as big of a deal as scarcity wanted me to believe. I would have finished it after the kids went to bed while I watched the Bachelor and ate kettle corn. Wait… that sounds amazing. That’s what I was fearing? Wow.
Do you suspect scarcity is visiting an area of your life? I’d love to help you identify him and bring him out of hiding and into the light. He hates this because he loses all of his power that way. Join my membership group if you’re in.
Have a great week.
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