Hello, farm family!
Are you farming out of scarcity or abundance? I’m not talking about the balance in your bank account, the number of people on your payroll or even the pounds of product you sold this week.
I’m talking about your mindset.
The Scarcity Mindset
A scarcity mindset starts from the premise that there are finite resources available and that giving resources to someone (or something) equals taking resources away from someone (or something) else.
The scarcity mindset is represented by the old word problems we used to solve in math class: Tom has five bales of hay and 11 cows. Each cow eats half a bale of hay a day. How many cows can Tom feed?
The “correct” answer is 10 … leaving one of Tom’s cows to go hungry. Some creative students may suggest distributing the hay equally among all cows, but that’s still unpleasant because all can eat something, but none are satisfied.
Poor cows. Poor Tom, who can’t provide for all his cows.
The Abundance Mindset
An abundance mindset, on the other hand, believes that there are endless opportunities to create and produce resources and that those resources can be freely given to one without depriving someone else.
Let’s apply the abundance mindset to Tom’s situation. To amply feed all his cows, Tom could buy more hay, supplement with alternate forage, lease a cow to a neighbor for weed control or numerous other options.
Happy cows! Happy Tom, who creatively provided for all his cows!
The Benefits of an Abundance Mindset
Obviously, farming is much more complex and challenging than solving an elementary-level word problem. There are many factors beyond our control, and sometimes we feel as if we are just plain out of options.
This is where our mindset can make the difference between despair and determination, defeat and distinction. I can look back over my life and identify key moments where I was faced with the choice to give up or give it all I had. I suspect you can identify a couple from your life as well.
The times I gave up still bring a sense of regret, like an opportunity abandoned. Giving it all I had – even if it didn’t turn out the way I’d hoped – brings a sense of pride because I tried … and I learned something valuable in the process.
As I have started actively cultivating an abundance mindset, I notice positive benefits in every aspect of my life. I see opportunities where I once saw obstacles. I see potential where I once saw failure.
This mindset improves my relationships because I am more likely to notice others’ strengths rather than their shortcomings. It even improves my relationship with myself because I focus on taking steps I can take instead of finding reasons why I can’t do anything.
A scarcity mindset disempowers. An abundance mindset empowers.
Cultivating an Abundance Mindset
I said I was “actively cultivating an abundance mindset.” The truth is that my default mindset was programmed for scarcity for far too long. Fortunately, we can reprogram our mindset with a few simple steps.
- Recognize a scarcity mindset. You can recognize when you’re programmed to a scarcity mindset by listening to the things you tell yourself (and others!) about your farm life. Key scarcity phrases include “too much” and “not enough” – There’s too much to do. There are too many bills. I have too many responsibilities.
Let me pause here and acknowledge that farmers really do have an awful lot of things demanding their time, energy and resources. It’s normal to look at those responsibilities from time to time and feel overwhelmed.
This is where a mindset shift can make all the difference.
- Shift to an abundance mindset. To shift from scarcity to abundance, we first acknowledge the challenge and reframe the way we approach it.
Let’s take the first one above: There’s too much to do.
That sentence communicates the idea that we’ll never be able to do all that is on our plate because it exceeds our capacity.
See what happens when we reframe it: I have so many opportunities for action!
There are still a lot of things to do, but now there’s a sense of anticipation and forward movement. There is also a sense of agency and choice. Opportunities are something we can take or not take as we see fit.
That phrase “so many” is a great replacement for “too many,” especially when paired with an opportunity.
Here are some other reframings for your consideration:
- From “There are too many bills” to “There are so many opportunities to grow and create income!”
- From “I have too many responsibilities” to “I have so many opportunities to prioritize what matters most to me!”
Reframing as an opportunity and a choice gives us permission to get creative, to find solutions we wouldn’t have imagined were there before.
Act Out of Abundance
A scarcity mindset tends to operate on overdrive. Our mind and body live in a constant state of tension, speed and panic. This hinders that creativity we just mentioned.
However, we can kick our system out of scarcity and into abundance with these simple tricks:
- Breathe in slowly and deeply then out slowly four times.
- Stop and use each of your five senses: notice 5 things you see, 4 things you hear, 3 things you touch, 2 things you smell and 1 thing you taste.
- Take a drink of cool water and notice how your body feels as you drink.
These steps will immediately increase your energy and focus so you can be more resourceful and experience more abundance.
Give these a try and let me know what you think at kcastrataro@pen-light.org, penlightfarmers.com or Pen Light LLC on YouTube.
It’s your time to grow!