Thinking Abundantly: Who and What Are Already Available?
When you’re stuck, or work is not naturally moving forward on something, consider what resources are already available.
“What if everything you need is already available?"
This is a message we kept posted on a shared whiteboard in our kitchen downstairs for the last few months. It was meant to serve as a clear reminder of the abundance which surrounds us.
But even when we know a certain truth on one level, the chances are that at times our best realizations need repeating. Over and over and over again. Even the hardest-earned realizations can be difficult to hold onto over time. Too often life drags us backward into the currents of everyday distractions and stress, returning us to a scarcity mindset.
Realize There Will Always Be Enough
From a young age many of us are taught there’s not enough; if we need solutions, we will have to find them alone, through struggle. But it has been in the midst of the struggle I’ve experienced during TBI recovery that the opposite truth has really presented itself: we are not in this alone.
That bears repeating. We are not in this alone. As an example for us right now here at PF, with the development of the Momentum app, help has arisen from so many unexpected places, as if it’s been waiting in the wings. PF has been around for more than 14 years now. We have created a lot in that time: a lot of content, but more importantly heart-based connections, abundance, and goodwill.
So, how can we remind ourselves of what's already there and available if we were open to it? For me quite literally it took seeing a mantra on a whiteboard many times a day for months. This mantra turned into the following two questions in my mind over time: What is already available? And more importantly, who?
Look for Who and What's Ready to Assist
Who might be ready and able to help you, if you were only willing to ask? We focus a lot on how to conceptualize projects in terms of goals that are possible to bring to fruition. But what if there was a part of your current project that at first seemed impossible, but with the right kind of help you could see it through to a level of success you can’t even begin to imagine at this moment?
And more radical still: What if that help were only a phone call, email, or a degree of separation away? When I consider our business, the same questions are relevant. For every possible stuck point, it’s worth asking: what do we already have available? What has already been created?
Recently, due to health concerns which made me slow down a lot, I had to reacquaint myself with what resources were already available to aid in my recovery. In fact, I've gone back to using our daily and weekly planners, but in a very different way for where my life is now. I didn’t need to create something new, I only needed to lean into what had already been created and ask for help from Charlie with modifications for where my current capacity is.
In this instance, I used both the what (the planners) and the who (in this case, Charlie) to help me solve a very real issue I was dealing with at the time. That’s the beauty of asking these questions: often the support you most need is waiting for you to realize it is already abundantly available.
Sharing the Who and What with New PF Teammates
We’ve been going through a lot of change and growth in our company over the last couple of months, bringing on many new teammates. Because we have been in business for nearly 15 years there is a lot that has already been created. And, even more importantly, phenomenal relationships that have been cultivated over time.
Given the new makeup of our team I thought it was an important reminder for all of us (seasoned or new) to have the questions of what and who brought to the forefront of our minds, so I shared them recently during our weekly huddle. So much has been created. We all needed a reminder to look at what those who came before us made. Being human we can add to, change over time, and layer our creations.
This is also how we can honor the work of others, as well as keeping time and energy and resource waste down. It gives us more space to use our creativity to improve upon what exists. We can add to, and make it better, not recreate the wheel.
“What is already available” can be something tangible: a workflow, content, or a system which may have already been created. Take some time to experiment with how this might work for you in your business or position. Whether it is writing an email, posting on social media, calling up a friend, or asking a veteran teammate these are great options to tap into your existing resources.
Innovating through Abundance
Within a team or in a project, it is worth stepping back to look for what already exists. There may be space to make a brilliant innovation by looking at pre-existing systems. That's where all art occurs: through innovation on an older form that was available, and seeing these forms in a new light. Workflows are created for us to work better as teams, in order to serve our clients or customers.
Most times these are already in place. So posing the “what’s already available?” question to new teammates or hires is a way to demonstrate an important principle. For our team we suggest looking to teammates for help and for support. To solve a problem you can put the question out for others to help answer. Collectively-sourced solutions are often far better than answers that come about alone.
Ultimately the benefit is not just in problem solving, but actually better solutions and most importantly from my perspective strengthening of team belonging. When you’re stuck, or work is not naturally moving forward on something, consider what resources are already available.
Community Brings Abundance in the Darkest Time of the Year
PF benefits from an incredible existing community in a multitude of ways. Our community is full of heart-centered people who are in the work day in and day out helping to make the world better. This network is a reminder of the who that’s already available to us. Our relationships are part of an ecosystem built over time. They grow and flourish in proportion to how we tend them.
I often need to remind myself that our community wants to support us. That is true for you, too. Your community wants to support you. Winter is a time to celebrate our bounty, and what we will need to fuel ourselves through the colder months.
We’re in a moment when we need the harvest we’ve already reaped, and when it is time to lean into the abundance that's available.
As we move into a darker time of year, what light might be available to you if you allow it? What is already available?
And, Who is already available and ready to support?