A mindset is defined as a mental attitude or inclination and research has shown that humans are hard-wired for fear and scarcity. The scarcity mindset makes us believe everything is limited. It makes us afraid of not having enough, not being enough. It is behind every type of addiction we have – from alcohol, food, gambling, and hoarding. It is what makes mankind and organisations overproduce, over consume, over buy, overeat, and over hoard. The marketing world preys on our scarcity wiring and sells to us with a promise that if we buy a service or a product we will feel enough – prettier, more handsome, freer, more adventurous, more loved. There is a problem though. For the future to be sustainable we all have to shift to an abundant mindset. There is a lot of research done in the area of ‘the psychology of scarcity’ that tells us that fear and scarcity drive our thoughts, actions and decisions.
There is a classic case study in the ‘psychology of scarcity’. In 1975, researchers wanted to know how people would value identical cookies in identical glass jars. One jar held ten while the other contained just two cookies. Participants almost always picked a cookie from the near-empty jar. Scarcity somehow affected their perception of value. Even though the cookies were identical, their subconscious told them that if it is ‘scarce’ it must be more valuable. Some of the examples of the scarcity mindset in action: People stand in long lines to buy the next new apple product or the latest ‘Harry Potter’ novel even though they will actually be available in abundance a week later. People work hard to send their children to that ‘one school’ because it’s a matter of prestige and ‘seats’ are perceived to be limited. The more scarce something is the more insane the human behaviour.
For a sustainable future, we need to move to an abundant mindset. Our children need to grow up to feel enough, seen enough, loved enough, good-looking enough and therefore consume ‘less’ in any endeavour to feel ‘more’. Where do we start? Educate our children so they think in terms of abundance. Abundance-based thinking is about focusing on possibilities, rather than limitations. It’s about seeing what works, rather than keeping busy with what doesn’t work. Report cards should only highlight what a child ‘CAN DO’. When children feel enough at home and in school they will focus on solutions and innovation, rather than learning ‘the correct answer’ to a question asked in a book or from a teacher.
Futurist Peter Diamandis in his book ‘Abundance – The Future is Better than you think’ quotes that “We are racing toward a world of abundance, and we are going to be increasing the quality of life for everyone on this planet. The world’s biggest problems are the world’s biggest business opportunities.” Peter Diamandis in his book ‘Abundance’ says that the future is better than we think. Once we overcome the psychological blocks that our amygdala causes – the future is wonderful. The accelerating rate of technological change will “put an end to what ails us» within 25 years. What ails us like scarce energy, health, learning, money, expertise and resources will become increasingly abundant thanks to technological advances. When seen through the lens of technology, “few resources are truly scarce: Yet the threat of scarcity still dominates our worldview.”
To break away from scarcity and fearful thinking we must first understand why it exists and then what we can re-pattern our behaviour. Why do we value what is scarce? Why are our brains always on the lookout for danger? Why does fear drive us? Once upon a time, we were hunters and cavemen. Resources were scarce and vital to our survival so highly valued. What was once a survival necessity has today become hard-wired in our subconscious brain and is detrimental to our growth and development. Why fear? Our brains always had to be ready to fight or flee from any danger – a snake, a tiger.
In terms of the education space, to move from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset, as a society we need to start with switching off any cognitive bias we may have. Only then can we radically shift learning and education. This includes doing away with learning happening predominantly inside brick and mortar schools, subjects being taught as different isolated verticals, and the Board Exams as they exist. While change is happening, it is slow and that is because any change is essentially met with resistance and there are many examples in the education space.
When literacy was born Socrates warned against children writing claiming that it would create learners’ souls to forget as they would depend less on their memories. He warned parents about allowing children to read and hear stories with a claim that children cannot distinguish fantasy from reality and that stories would negatively affect the development of our children. The same was the case when the radio, television and technology were introduced. We found some reasons to resist it and there is enough research to prove that the right use of technology can help children learn the concepts better.
Remembering that learning needs to be a fun and engaging affair, where the focus is on actual learning, and not on how well a learner has memorized a concept for an assessment. According to me, even our assessment pattern needs to change. I am an advocate of open-book testing. As it helps us move from encouraging children to memorise things for the exams to truly understanding the concept and applying it in real-life situations. It also encourages children to creatively use what they have learnt. Universities need to test skills and aptitude rather than look at grades for admissions and companies need to look at the skills of the candidate rather than the university they attended or the marks they scored.
If we are to move towards an abundant mindset and here are a few simple things one can do to help children believe in abundance:
1. Don’t compare them with others or even with their past success.
2. Develop the attitude of gratitude in children.
3. Encourage children to dream big and help them work towards achieving them.
4. Encourage children to keep trying till they achieve a result that they are happy with.
5. Teach children to look at every roadblock as an opportunity to learn.
6. Work towards creating situations where children can apply the skills they are learning.
7. Make them believe in themselves and let them find their path.
8. Children tend to model behaviour, make sure you choose your actions and words wisely.
9. Affirmations are a great tool to practice abundance and gratitude.
The future is all about developing an abundant mindset. Let’s work towards it today to help children build a strong base and believe in abundance.
Lina Ashar is an educationist.