Scarcity vs Abundance

Dear reader, life has enough challenges as it stand. Enough negativity assailing from all sides. The few things that are in your control, don’t give it up to fear. Just take the bull by the horns (to use an expression) and make the best of the situation you’re in.

There are moments where that conversion of nervousness into fuel is highly beneficial. It will boost creativity. And that creativity will help solve problems one might not have been able to solve otherwise.

Example… once, during a photo-shoot, it became very abundantly clear that there would not be enough space on the memory card for all the photos being taken, and the battery was going to run out without a charging option before the shoot was over.

In the fear mindset, the logical option was to shoot less photos to slow the filling of the card and the burning up of the battery life. While great for the photog (me), not great for the client who wanted all those photos as options to chose from for their album.

In the opportunity mindset, a quick brainstorm revealed that in the camera bag was an extra USB card-reader. The client had their laptop with them and it was tethered to their phone for WiFi access. A quick transfer handled the card filling while getting the files into the cloud. During the transfer, their friend ran to the store to buy another battery set while the client prepped for the next set of photos.

Had the nervousness of finding out there wasn’t much battery juice and card memory space caused fear (was interpreted as a scary thing to have happen in the rookie moments of doing photos), then the client wouldn’t have gotten all pix they wanted, nor recommended the photog to friends.

before anyone asks, the shoot had been long enough to burn through several battery packs already and there were more scenes scheduled to be photographed that day

How does this tidbit applies to the reader

With practice, one can learn to better understand one’s emotions. Through that understanding, it becomes easier to frame feelings into the right context so that opportunities look way less scary than they are.

In the words of a podcaster (regret not remembering the name)… situations are neutral… it’s our choice on how we color them. Meaning, a book fell of a table. Just a fact. We can opt to feel upset, glad, terrorized, hurt, distraught, overwhelmed, shocked, stunned, elated, or indifferent about that book falling. All based on what we make of the content and context of the fall of the book.

Wait..what?

Yes. It’s our brains that color the experience. If it’s a random book that fell, no big deal. If it’s your grandma’s favorite cook book that feel onto a soaked wet floor, whole different emotional response. Same as if it’s a book that fell because the person holding it, who you don’t like, tripped into the counter, knocking it out of their hand after they had forcefully taken it from yours. Get the point?

Liberate yourself

Be mindful of how you ascribe feelings to circumstances. Be sure that those are the feelings you want. If you rather never speak on stage, then, it’s OK to avoid the stage. However, don’t let the butterflies in your tummy dictate if you’ll give it a try or not.

Don’t let fear grip you because you felt a flutter in your stomach and though of it as a knotted pit.

Do let rational thought and wisdom bring focus into your feelings as you decide what you’d like to get done. Then, let the feelings add fuel to your success.

Just like a caterpillar has to break out of the cocoon to reveal it’s truest beauty, sometimes, one has to work past feelings to learn necessary skills to let blossom the many talents one may not know one has.

Dear reader, do please work on living an un-limited life. Be wise about it, of course, but not limited. Feelings are there to notify you of the conditions about you, not make the decisions for you. Not every shadow deserves full fledged flight. Not every flicker of light deserves full fledged exploration.

Whatever you opt to do, make sure you’re using the right frame to focus your destiny and goals.

Stay blessed. Here is cheers to these words providing some thought and inspiration for the coming New Year goal setting activities.