SCARCITY ATTITUDE

I know it elicits feelings of a kind whenever one accomplishes set objectives, whether short or long term. Undoubtedly, life is a game of goals. We set goals for ourselves both formally and informally and yearn to see achievement of the same. We achieve on some of the goals and we miss out on others for reasons both of our making and others beyond our control. As long as we still have life with us, the game of setting goals is here to stay. At any given point we are all looking forward to something. Big or small your achievement, the resultant feeling is one you would want to have every other day.
The disturbing twist is that many of us miss out on a good number of our objectives, despite well knowing how good it feels to achieve. A number of reasons contribute to this disappointing state and I have already alluded to some in my previous Focus Talks. Today, I want to discuss one major contributor to our none achievement of some life objectives – a scarcity mentality or scarcity attitude.
This is the kind of attitude that makes us believe that we are not adequately endowed to succeed in whatever we set as an objective. We often begin by citing the missing ingredients in the recipe of our goals long before we embark on them. Each time we are faced with a task we begin by defining what we lack. Sentiments such as, ‘if only I had a degree……’ or ‘This is a good course except that the funds allocated are inadequate’ or ‘the only thing I am lacking are connections’ or ‘its achievable except that the allocated time is very short’. This is how we kill our potential for achievement right from the onset. It matters less whether you embark on the task or not since you already killed it before it began. We need to have an optimistic mindset from the beginning.
I want to urge us to emulate the attitude of the lion. We keep saying the lion is the king of the wild but we do not stop to ask why. The lion is not the largest of animals, the elephant still is. The lion is not the strongest, rhinos and elephants are much stronger. It is not the fastest, cheetahs outrun it by far. It is not the tallest because giraffes still hold that record. But it is still the king nonetheless. Why? The lion has a royal attitude. It looks around and says I know I am not the largest, not the strongest, not the fastest and not even the tallest but I am in charge of my territory. Physically, the lion realized that all it has is a royal look and a roar that can tremble the whole wild. The lion chose to capitalize on what it had and ignored what was lacking. The lion therefore is the king. It does not hide in the bush. It always walks in a manner to tell the world that the king is around. This even scares away other animals from disturbing its peace.
What about us? We often have adequate resources to accomplish virtually every task only if we appreciate and focus on what we have. We always have more than what the lion has but we often refuse to view ourselves as the kings that God meant us to be. There will always be a missing ingredient in the accomplishment of your endeavors. Turn your mind and concentration on what you have and do something with it. Let’s stop whining and giving excuses and start winning with what we have.