Abundance v. Scarcity – Mental Fitness

This mindset in today’s world, however, isn’t nearly as useful. Yes, it can help us have a sense of focus and urgency when we need to meet a time bound goal. More broadly, however, a mindset of scarcity limits our intelligence and creativity.

For example, a number of years ago a study was done with farmers . Farmers are a unique group to study because pre-harvest they are at their financial worst. Post harvest, however, they are at their financial best.

Researchers decided they wanted to study their IQ over this period of time. IQ is supposed to be something that is static. It is not something that is generally supposed to change based on circumstances or situations.

However, what researchers found is that farmers were 13 IQ points smarter with a mindset of abundance (post harvest) than they were with a mindset of scarcity (pre-harvest). That’s almost 1 entire standard deviation of change. That is a huge and significant amount!

With that being the case, it makes me wonder how we as humans are underselling our potential living in mindsets of stress and scarcity. 

When the majority of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, how creative can we be? When people are working 50+ hour work weeks just to make ends meet how inventive can we be?

When we are stretched beyond our capacities and mental health has become an epidemic, then how can we expect us to have the bandwidth to create a better future?

If we want a better future, one’s mindset cannot just be an individual responsibility. Mindset needs to be a priority of our social systems so that we can have more abundance and create a better life for ourselves and the generations to co