Her Success Is Not My Failure + Giveaway for Uninvited Book

Okay so I know that I typically post tutorials, life updates, and fun little travel tidbits but today I wanted to share my heart about something that I've felt like God has been teaching me over the last couple of weeks. The concept of scarcity vs. abundance in life. Seems a little complex or deep for my blog but, let's be honest, not everyday is filled with making pancakes and traveling to new coffee shops. Some days are filled with quiet time, deep thought, and conviction.

I've shared previously that my word for the 2017 year is "joy." Over the last few years I've come to realize that I'm quick to take a pessimistic point of view or see a situation negatively and it's been like a sickness slowly encompassing my heart and the joy that God gives us through life-changing salvation. I had had enough of the heavy thoughts, sad mornings, jealousy and anger. It does no one any good to live like that!

So, I've been focusing on joy. I've been making lists of things that I'm thankful for. I've been reminding myself that I should never underestimate the power of speaking with love and kindness. I have decided to dwell on what is going right rather than what has gone wrong. Like Martin Luther King Jr. said, "I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear." It's so true!

I've been reading Lysa TerKeurst's book Uninvited over the last couple weeks and going to a study on it on Friday mornings and it couldn't have come at a better time! (Well that isn't entirely true...If I had read it last year I'm sure I wouldn't have dealt with some things that happened since then, but maybe they were supposed to happen to give me a little insight and show me how badly I needed to change the way I think about myself and life.) In any case, I was reading an excerpt this morning that talked about how another's success shouldn't threaten mine. I see this so much the older I get, the competition. Especially in the 'blogging world,' I see so many people striving to come up with the best post and the newest idea with hopes of going viral. It often seemed like a waste to me, because no idea is original. That doesn't stop us from trying though! And the harder we try, the more we want it and the more we want it, the more we don't want someone else to succeed because hey...you've been working so hard for it.

Sound familiar? I know I've thought that way before.

But what if we all cheered each other on instead of put each other down? What if we helped one another succeed instead of being greedy with resources and information? Why do we have this mentality that if they succeed it takes away my chances of succeeding too? Because we are looking at life with a scarcity mentality.

 I had never heard this until I read about it in Uninvited. You see, we all have a choice to think positively or negatively. The more you think negatively of yourself or others ("I'll never do it. She stole my idea. I wish I was as well liked as he is. I wish my blog had more page views because its so much better than so-and-so's") the more it starts to seep into your actions and words. Your demeanor becomes.... meaner, and you see the opportunities in life as being scarce.

Luke 6:45 says, "The good man brings good things out of the good treasure of his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil treasure of his heart. For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks." Whats in your heart eventually comes out, and the thing is, we're all susceptible to jealousy, anger, irritation, or self pity. So how are we going to stop this habit of negative thinking? By stopping the scarcity thinking.

In 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey puts it like this, "Most people are deeply scripted in what I call the Scarcity Mentality. They see life as having only so much, as though there were only one pie out there. And if someone were to get a big piece of the pie, it would mean less for everybody else.

The Scarcity Mentality is the zero-sum paradigm of life. People with a Scarcity Mentality have a very difficult time sharing recognition and credit, power or profit—even with those who help in the production. They also have a hard time being genuinely happy for the success of other people.

The Abundance Mentality, on the other hand, flows out of a deep inner sense of personal worth or security. It is the paradigm that there is plenty out there and enough to spare for everybody. It results in the sharing of prestige, recognition, profits and decision-making. It opens possibilities, options, alternatives and creativity." 

I hope that in sharing this I've not only encouraged you, but opened your eyes up to the reality of the creative life. Yes, there is a competition in the field. Yes, having a drive and passion for what you do is excellent and will totally benefit you! BUT you should also be okay with someone else having the same drive and passion and love for creativity/work/ministry that you do! We're all in this life together so instead of filling your heart with jealousy and anger, celebrate with each others successes. I leave you with this:

Her success doesn't belittle my own. Her success is not my failure. Her passions should be celebrated just as much as my own.

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