The Abundance Mindset

This guest blog post is by Lindsay Gross, director of facilitation services for Event Garde.

A well-respected colleague of mine often talks about having an abundance mentality. I have always respected her passion around the idea of abundance. It is energizing to think about the idea of countless possibility and opportunity for all. But what happens when there is a lack of abundance thinking? What happens when people view life through the lens of scarcity? Recently, this theme of abundance vs. scarcity has been popping up in various aspects of my professional and personal life. 

Imagine yourself sitting at the kitchen table as a child and your mother plops down one piece of cake for your entire family. Do you panic? Shove your sibling out of the way and grab the biggest portion of it you can get? Eat the cake like a wild animal looking around to see who else you might have to protect it from? 

Now imagine a four-tiered wedding cake gets plopped down on the table for you and your family to share. What happens then? Do you calmly take a slice for yourself? Cut some for your family members and then start packing up the leftovers for your neighbors or coworkers?

While this might not be exactly how this would have played out in your house, this is an example of an abundance vs. scarcity mindset. How we respond to our environment is impacted by this mindset. Professionals that enter a space with an abundance mindset often do so with confidence and willingness to share with one another. Conversely, those with a scarcity mindset work to protect their territory or domain and at times might not be willing to share with others. 

With our clients, the impact of this can’t be understated. Organizations typically reach out to Event Garde when their event is underperforming or they need facilitation services to assist with coming to consensus on the vision and future of their organization/association. We often begin our work with groups facing a room full of participants dealing with a current scarcity – too few attendees at an event or too little money to go around to their programs. Their choices seem obvious: Cut here or discontinue there. 

However, it is our role as consultants and facilitators to uncover the other solutions available and expertly guide participants away from the fear this scarcity has potentially created. There are always some additional options on the horizon that have yet to be explored or uncovered. Creating spaces where participants can feel safe enough to think creatively is key to unveiling these additional opportunities that can make way for abundance. When participants and organizations embrace an abundance mindset they are able to break free from the fear that is holding them back and move into a future full of opportunity and possibility. 

Let’s go back to the example of a family only having one slice of cake. One might think your only option is to fight for your piece of the small slice and protect it. What if that family was challenged to think of a creative solution that could provide more for all? I wonder what that might look like. Perhaps they work together as a team, reach out to their neighbors for any necessary ingredients and bake another cake. Perhaps that cake would be so large there would be plenty to go around, even dare I say …. an abundance of cake. 

My colleagues at Event Garde and I choose an abundance mindset and are always working with our clients to help them do the same.