Have You Ever Watched Someone Who Was REALLY Fearful?
Scarcity & Fear. Maybe I’ll just have a Twinkie
Have you ever watched someone operate out of fear? Like wholly paid attention to it? It’s a site to behold when you become aware of what it looks like, and holds powerful insights for us all if we’re aware enough to see them.
Life is full of change and the uncertainty can be unsettling to say the least. And yet, it’s real and it happens to us all all the same. Sometimes we force it, and more often it’s pushed on us. Getting hurt or bumped or riled isn’t what makes us. It’s how we adapt that makes us really who we are.
Long ago, I listened to a very brilliant mind speak – speak about feeling your way around life and business. He talked about how so many of us look at the world like a pie, and you’ve got to get YOUR piece and make sure it’s enough of a piece. Then make sure someone next to you has LESS of a piece, or doesn’t get their fingers near your piece. It gets ugly. People go into survival mode. They don’t turn into their best selves.
They deny what’s really happening around them: bury their heads in the sand and pretend like everything’s ok. Oftentimes missing out on new paths, trails, and opportunities that could open up or hands that could be reaching out.
They hold tight to what they have and know. It’s hard to share and have a giving heart when you’re afraid of how much pie you have. Afraid if it’s enough. Afraid someone else might take some of your slice.
They get judgy and mean as if somehow someone being bold about pie dims THEIR light. They assume the worst. Take. Nab. Condescend and even steal. There’s this protective, exclusive mindset that feels like watching two teenage boys vie for the last piece of pizza in a the box – you’re afraid to even go near it lest you might get hurt.
We make up stories to justify our fear, our actions, and our grabbing. We shun others, push them out, shut down their opinions and ideas. It’s a very exclusive pie club. If you’re somehow mean enough or sharp enough, or big enough, you’ll survive and maybe even stoop to play the game. The smart ones quietly back away and explore their options. Maybe look for a Twinkie instead.
But is that real? Is it right? Is it necessary?
This brilliant mind talked about the fallacy of thinking in terms of a “pie”. There’s no finite, measurable pile of “success” “money” nor “stuff” that we are all after. It’s the stark, unfiltered true beauty of the country we live in – the ”IDEA of America” as Bono brilliantly puts it. Life is about creation. Growth, Expanding, and abundance. If you have something, the person next to you can have it, too. And then you can make another and more. Not only is it more “pie” or stuff or success or money — it’s people and heart and love and relationships, too.
I’m pretty lucky to be blazing new trails with visionaries and abundant thinkers. Spending time with big minds who spend their energy on what CAN be, what could be created, and what the future holds is a glorious place to be. Are you lucky enough to enjoy the same? I’d challenge you to take a little look around your universe and consider the voices in your ear. Are they fighting for pie? I mean – I LOVE pie, but only the RIGHT kind of pie is worth it. This mentality all around you makes up more of who you are than you might be aware. Take a look.
Gotta run… I’m off to make more pie.