Success and abundance trumps avarice and scarcity
I was puttering around face book this week because I’m an information junkie. I came across a post on my timeline by Erin DeMarine who we interviewed in episode 146. It was her birthday and she posted a picture of herself in her birthday suit.
Not really, she was joking, but she is a model as well as being a mom, a triathlete, a business owner, basically beautiful, super-smart and successful. The picture she posted was of the incredible, photo-shoot, athletic, bikini-type genre.
It got me to thinking.
I remember when I interviewed her I said something, half-jokingly, along the lines of “You are so smart, beautiful and athletic, how do you think that makes the rest of us feel?”
As I looked at her picture it struck me that she, like most successful and admired people, while definitely in possession of some inherent gifts – was also the product of hard work.
It struck me how we only see the results. We assume that person is lucky or blessed or ‘born that way’. We might even be jealous of that person’s success. We say ‘yeah but it’s easy for you’.
My first point, is that success is never a gift, and is seldom easy. It’s usually the result of making the right choices, of doing the work and of patient dedicated focus. Even for the gifted among us, success is in the use of that gift. (How many stories of wasted gifts have we seen?)
Secondly, there is no reason to be jealous. You should celebrate that other person’s achievements.
Do you feel that you can’t celebrate them because ours is a world where we share resources and the beautiful, smart and athletic people are perceived to get the larger share? They get to be prom kings and queens. They get accepted more readily. They get the breaks … Is that what you think?
The only way that logic works is if you see the world through the lens of scarcity. If you see the world through a lens of abundance there is no zero-sum, there is a infinite possibility and infinite elbow room for everyone’s success.
We should celebrate the bright and the beautiful because their radiance is making all our lives bigger and making all our worlds more expansive.
In an abundant word beauty and success expand the pie for everyone. A member of our community’s success increases the opportunity for everyone. They stand as beacons of possibility for the rest of us and that should warm your soul.
So, happy birthday Erin. Keep it up. We’re all with you.
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