FREEDOM FRIDAY: Do you believe in scarcity or abundance?
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Pop quiz, hot shots...
You're a chef and you just baked an incredible pizza pie. That pie has six slices. Someone comes and eats a slice. How many slices do you have left?
The most common answer I get when I asked this is: five.
"Of course the answer is five, Curt, don't you know basic math?"
Well, I would submit to you that the answer, "five", is based on a scarcity mindset.
The answer provided by one with an abundance mindset is...
"Unlimited."
Here's why...
If you are a chef or a baker, you are a creator. Hell, if you are a human being, you are inherently a creator.
You created that pizza. So, guess what?
You can create more pizzas.
If someone eats a slice or your entire pizza, you can simply bake more. If you run out of supplies, you can go to the store and get more to make more.
The Pindar Principle
In their legendary book, The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea, co-authors Bob Burg and John David Mann introduce us to the character, Pindar, a wise and wealthy businessman who mentors the main protagonist, Joe.
Through this book, and the follow-up books in The Go-Giver series, a principle which comes to be known as "The Pindar Principle," serves as the foundation of all the lessons shared in the book.
That principle is...
"The more you give, the more you have."
Mann explained this principle further when he was on my podcast, The Freedom Media Network, last year to discuss his latest book, The Go-Giver Marriage, which he penned with his wife, Ana Gabriel Mann...
"There's this theme that we call the 'Pindar Principle,' which is articulated in all 'The Go-Giver' books, and it's the heart of ''The Go-Giver Marriage'...which is this idea that the more you give, the more you have."
How does this principle conflict with our understanding of abundance and scarcity?
Mann said the Pindar Principle is the opposite of what we're taught in traditional economics, which, as he points out is called, "the dismal science." He explains...
"If I've got 10 bricks and I give you five, now I've only got five, which is true for bricks, but it's not true for feelings and experiences."
Pindar Abundance
The Pindar Principle is at the heart of an abundance mindset.
In the case of the pizza, a successful pizza restaurant doesn't create abundance by hoarding its pizzas. It creates pizzas, sells them, and then creates more.
And with all due respect to John, in the case of the bricks...
When the bricklayer uses up all the bricks, he goes and buys more from the brick producer who, when he sells his bricks, makes more.
Abundance is about creation. It's about using one's talents to create impact for other people. When you create impact for them, they provide you impact in return. This is how revenue is generated; not by hoarding and saving alone, but by the creation of additional impact for more people who provide you impact in return.
Karmic Marketing
Earlier this year, Dr. Joe Vitale released his latest book, Karmic Marketing. I had the pleasure of welcoming Dr. Joe to my podcast, during which he described what Karmic Marketing actually is...
"Karmic marketing, it's really the philosophy and psychology of giving with the belief and the understanding and faith that that giving is going to come back to you in some benevolent way."
Sound familiar?
Giving leading to receiving.
The more you give; the more you have.
You see, prosperity is a cycle. That cycle is simple law. And to keep the cycle going, there needs to be a constant, unblocked flow of giving AND receiving.
I'm not talking about "transactional" giving solely with the hope and expectation that people will return the favor.
I'm talking about giving of your time and talents in order to create positive impact for other people. Not all of those people will return the impact your way.
But make no mistake, the impact will return to you in some way, shape, or form.
As Pindar shares in The Go-Giver, the Law of Receptivity holds that...
“The key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving.”
And that law directly stems from the Law of Influence, which holds that...
“Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interests first.”
Create impact for other people. That impact will come back to benefit you.
What Choice Do You Have?
A few years ago, my wife and I intentionally made some decision which led, a year later, to us owing $80,000-plus to a certain government agency. We knew this was coming, which didn't necessarily make the news easier.
After a call with my accountant, my wife came into the room in which I was sitting to share the news.
At that moment, I had a choice.
I could curl up in the fetal position; cursing the government agency and formulating a plan to batten down the hatches. Put our family on a strict austerity "diet", focused on protecting the remaining "slices" of my pizza. Play defense. Protect what we have.
Or, I could choose the route which I actually chose...
I smiled and told my wife, "well, I'll just have to make an extra $80,000."
That's it. And instead of circling the wagons, I focused on creating impact for more people.
I focused on baking more pies.
I could've focused on the missing slices. Where would that have gotten me?
A winning football team, even if it has an incredible defense, still has to have an offense that takes the field and puts points on the board.
A scarcity mindset focuses on playing defense.
An abundant mindset plays defense, but focuses on putting points on the board.
So I put points on the board, and we paid that debt off rather quickly. In fact, I can't even remember having significant discussions about it after that day.
Abundance and Scarcity Reside in Your Beliefs
When someone takes a piece of your pie, how you think and act will determine whether or not you get results rooted in abundance or scarcity.
But how you think and act is rooted in your beliefs.
As I've shared in previous editions of this podcast...
Your beliefs fuel your thoughts which fuel your actions which fuel your results.
So, while I can suggest your immediate thoughts when someone takes your slice is, "I'll just bake more pies!"...
And while I can counsel you to, if you're facing a big debt, to think and say, "I'll just make an extra $80,000!"...
If your limiting beliefs are fundamentally rooted in scarcity, those thoughts and actions might never occur.
This is why, when most professional and personal development gurus talk about "mindset," they're doing us all a disservice by simply focusing on thoughts and actions.
But thoughts and actions aligned with disempowering beliefs will only lead to disempowering results.
And those disempowering results will simply reinforce your beliefs that got you here in the first place.
If you truly want different, more abundant, results in your life, you first have to create a relationship with your subconscious mind, which is where all these beliefs reside.
Once you create that relationship, you can more easily and effectively identify the limiting beliefs that are foundation of your thoughts, actions, and results.
Then you can clear and clean those limiting beliefs and replace them with more empowering beliefs.
Once you do that, you can align your beliefs with you behaviors (thoughts and actions) to begin attracting the results you truly want in your life.
How Can We Do This?
Okay, sounds great, Curt, but how do you do that?
Great question.
This September 15 and 16, we are holding our Beliefs and Behaviors Workshop which will specifically lead you through the process I outlined above.
Identify, clear, and clean your limiting beliefs and align your beliefs with your behaviors to attract what you truly want in life.
It's a two-day, intensive workshop, but it's not just about those two days.
During the course of the workshop, we will teach you the tools you can use for the rest of your life to dissolve the limiting beliefs that are keeping you from your life of joy, fulfillment, and freedom.
This workshop isn't free; it's an investment. As I told a potential participant who was worried about the "cost" of attending...
Until he learns that he can bake more pies, he is not likely to invest in himself.
If you're ready to make that investment and make more pies, and it would be worth 30 minutes to you to get on a call with me to learn how I can help you dissolve the limiting beliefs that are keeping you from living your life of joy, fulfillment, and freedom...
Click here to schedule a call with me.
Whether you believe it or not, you are an abundant creator.
Let's work together to get you to believe it.