How "Scarcity Mindset" is Costing Us More Than Our Waistlines

scar·ci·tyˈskersədē/ noun  

the state of being scarce or in short supply; shortage.
"a time of scarcity"

For most of us, scarcity is entirely conceptual: it is not something that we will ever experience in our lives. We have a roof over our heads, food in our bellies, ways of earning a living, and some discretionary income for recreation and leisure. Chances are that we'll never experience famine or a situation that forces us to ration our food and other resources.

From an evolutionary standpoint, scarcity was functional: it helped our ancestors survive because they possessed the intelligence to successfully compete for a finite amount of resources. If they didn't scramble to acquire as much as possible when the opportunity struck, as well as consume as many calories as possible when food was available, they would not have survived or proliferated. Scarcity, paired with trying to outwit a harsh environment, required our ancestors to think about nothing beyond the present and what it would take to survive another day.

In the modern world, however, the scarcity mindset is detrimental. When your focus is on getting as much as you can because you might miss out has no contemporary application because we are no longer competing for survival as a species. Scarcity-thinking is a trap that we are all vulnerable to because we live in a society that encourages wealth, accumulation, competition, and success at all costs. What we possess is an indicator of what we are worth, and the desire to prove our worth by these means leads us down a dangerous path that keeps us unhealthy and unhappy.

A scarcity mindset forces you to make sacrifices that have consequences, many of which are unintended and may at first appear unrelated. For example, in his article for unleashthealpha.com, Mike Campbell argues that the scarcity mindset is attributable to the obesity epidemic in our country. All-you-can-eat buffets, giant servings, free refills, buy-one-get-one-free, happy hours and other such marketing gimmicks play into our irrational fears that we're missing out if we don't take advantage of a deal and get our money's worth. We are tricked into consuming more than is healthy, and we justify it by saying "It was such a great deal; I couldn't pass it up!" or "Well, I spent my hard-earned dollars, so I better eat my fill!"

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I'm sorry, but wha?!? Not only does this not make sense because 1) food is not scarce and generally available any time, any where; but 2) this behavior justifies heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and other chronic diseases that costs us--and will continue to cost us--trillions of dollars. All on account of the fact that we need to get our "money's worth"...does that make sense to you?! It doesn't to me, and yet I totally get it. We work hard to earn our money, so it's natural to want to get "as much as we can" out of money. At a certain point, however, we have to consider what the scarcity mindset is actually costing us.

If you think about it, the scarcity mindset is not only hurting our waistlines; it's affecting our ability to fully engage with the world around us. Scarcity mindset encourages a "one-track-mind" version of thinking that can inhibit deeper social connections and one's ability to make a positive impact. I'll give you an example from my own life. When I first started getting into weight training, health, and nutrition, I could not get my hands on enough information: I was a voracious reader of tens of blogs, magazines, and books; I followed everyone I could on social media; I listened to endless podcasts. Talk about information overload! It was awesome, but also incredibly overwhelming and confusing: after all, everyone I listened to had their own opinion, philosophy, approach, and method that worked for them and their clients. How could I possible ever discern what was "right" or rather, right for me? I couldn't, and yet the idea that I had to know everything and be "in the know" on account of my clients compelled me to keep consuming more and more. The feeling that I could never possess enough knowledge--even though it's impossible to "know" everything--was what kept me on the path of conspicuous consumption.

I started hoarding fitness magazines, articles, workouts, tips, and bookmarking blogs and articles that, not surprisingly, I never had the time to read. Ironically, the more I consumed, the less motivated I was to read through it and so it piled up....and up...and up! The piles of information and unread articles overwhelmed me to the point of paralysis, and that initiated a cycle of guilt which (unsurprisingly) did nothing to curb my impulse to consume! The more I didn't read, the worse I felt, and the worse I felt, the more I felt soothed by the thought that I would feel better once I read allllllll the things...

Can you imagine how well that worked out?!

My experience with information overload illustrates that too much of a good thing is, in fact, bad. Hoarding information about health and fitness left me no time to actually practice health and fitness! I was not getting any better, nor were my clients getting the best of me. I wish I could say that I dealt with this compulsion and it's all in the past tense, but I still struggle. In fact, I'm staring at a binder full of workouts clipped from magazines that I will never do right now :-)

All joking aside, it's HARD to let go of these habits and compulsions despite the fact that we "know better." Knowing better and doing better are two different things, and it's at the intersection of the two that abundance mindset comes in. An abundance mindset is the opposite of a scarcity mindset because it's based in gratitude: for what we have and who we are. It is not passive submission or relinquishing our power; rather, it's active acceptance, and giving ourselves the benefit of the doubt in order to face challenges from a place of renewed purpose as opposed to guilt, shame, or a place of lack.

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Gratitude and scarcity are mutually exclusive: it's impossible to reconcile a true appreciation for where you are right this moment, and the all-consuming need be a million places at once for fear of missing out. When we practice gratitude, we are present: where we'll be days or even hours from now, and what/if food will be available, or when we'll get around to reading that new squat research is no longer a pressing concern. To practice gratitude is to trust, not only ourselves, but the universe. It's about enough being enough, and redirecting our mental energy towards enjoyment and appreciation for what you do have, what you've built, and what meaningful contribution to want to make to the world.