Why I Love Surfers: They Understand Abundance
Hanging in the ocean reminds me why I love surfers so much. They understand abundance. They don’t have a scarcity mindset. The waves just keep coming and coming, forever. There’s no regret over a missed opportunity down the beach because the next set will have the perfect wave with your name on it. There is enough for everyone with plenty to go around. Sometimes you wipe out, sometimes you get tubed with a ride you’ll never forget. Risk, reward, and abundance is what nature has for us all if we’ll just paddle out.
I thought about this while hanging out with my family on the beach in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Here's a little video reminder of that day. Either click the image above to view on DTube or via YouTube below.
I haven't surfed Puerto Rico yet, but if we come back, I'll make it a priority, as I did in Costa Rica.
What do you think of a scarcity mindset verses an abundance mindset?
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The Scarcity Mentality is the zero-sum paradigm of life. The Abundance Mentality, on the other hand, flows out of a deep inner sense of personal worth and security.
Governments love scarcity mentality. Always a great opportunity to set up some artificial scarcities, make people stand in line for some license or endorsement (and pay for it). Not to mention the evergrowing administration handling such things and the centralized power vested in it. Yes, it's for your own good people, we have to carefully distribute it, since it's so scarce.
I agree with your sayings @vortac
Abundance it is! I think it's a choice you make. Sort of half glass full half glass empty philosophy. You can think there are only a few perfect waves, moan over it and not even try to take them or see them in abundance and enjoy whatever is coming your way.
If you have the time check out our latest post, it sort of sums it up in a one minute video: Life on the road
What a cool story that perfectly fits with the content here! Thank you for sharing it, and I'm following for more. I'm glad to see your latest post is being rewarded nicely after what appears to be many posts which didn't get much attention.
Thanks for the compliment! Yeah, learning how to swim in these steemit waters is quite tricky, but as with anything I am very persistent in finding my way and I truly believe in this platform. Like with anything it takes times and a lot of effort to make it happen! Thanks for the follow!
Building real relationships takes time. We can't tweet to 0 followers and expect engagement. Doing what you did, posting a relevant link to valuable, related content, is how I built a following here and, more importantly, so many relationships. I have three posts I link to here you may find useful in these waters.
Thanks!
You are about 10–15 minutes away from a couple of popular surfing spots in the San Juan (metro) area. They ste Ocean Park, Aviones, and Piñones. There are many others but those are the closest. Be careful with these for the family though as the underwater currents are dangerous for swimmers (watch out for your family). It brings me nostalgia seeing you in some of the areas I used to enjoy there!
Yeah, I've thought about heading down to Ocean Park and renting a board. It's a bit difficult to plan stuff like that with no car and three little kids to entertain, but I will definitely be surfing here at some point in the future.
And yes, I've been hyper aware of the changing conditions here. Some days are like a kiddie pool, others have some very dangerous rip tides and currents. Thankfully, I have a lot of experience evaluating these changing conditions and my kids are learning quickly how to stay safe. I know even with experience, anything can happen in the ocean.
I only picked up surfing last year and I have to say surfers are some of the friendliest people I've ever met. Honest and always willing to lend a helping hand, well at least that has been my experience as someone fairly new to the sport
Regardless of the country and the language, I've always had a similar experience and I look forward to meeting new surfers and improving my skills and trying out new spots!
To me scarcity mindset is having a limitation to what one can do. Abundance mindset is having to try new things, impossibility is just a word, ready to take that risk and explore.
Life at the beach is always fun.
Well said. :)
That's a good point. There are plenty of waves that most surfers would love to be catching, but if they don't get one... wait for the next. Eventually you'll get a wave and it will be awesome!
I was thinking about a similar thing while sitting in traffic. There are some people who freak out and try to jump from lane to lane in order to get ahead. I prefer just to stay in one lane and "relax." I'm already on the road and going somewhere, so I'm ahead of the people who haven't left yet. We're all going the same direction, but how am I going to use my time and energy as I go?
Not directly related, but in my head it made sense. Relax and enjoy the journey because it's over too soon. No need to stress about the past, it's over. Just focus on what's in front of you.
Very well said, and I think you're analogy fits perfectly.
When something can be made abundant, it's great. Not everything can be, though.
Information is the ultimate naturally-abundant resource. It intrinsically replicates through use, and its value increases the more it gets replicated. (With some caveats; there are advantages to secrets, but those are the exception.)
Time is the ultimate naturally-scarce resource. You have only 24 hours in the day. No more. Ever. You will eventually run out of days. You may be able to stave off that scarcity longer with modern technology but your days are still scarce.
Physical and emotional energy is also largely scarce, although your supply will vary depending on how healthy you are (physically and emotionally). But you have only a finite amount.
Ultimately, we all need to make use of our scarce time, and coordinate and incentivize each other to use that scarce time effectively. The ways of trying to do so are varied, and what fits for an activity or resource that is mostly-scarce will not work for what is mostly-abundant, and vice versa. And of course technology shifts what is scarce and abundant over time, to a large but not complete extent.
Food is currently abundant in the US... for most people. But the time that people have to invest in producing that abundant food is not abundant. It is finite. And then we need to distribute that resource (food) effectively or it goes to waste and people starve.
Don't let your love of abundance and how much of it we have blind you to the lack of abundance that still surrounds us, and to the lives of those for whom little is abundant.
That's a good reminder, but I'll also say it's not a scarcity mindset which ends up feeding more people. Those who innovate and increase the size of the pie we all enjoy are ones who are willing to use their scarce time to imagine something better. They don't live in fear, but are comfortable with taking calculated risks in order to create.
Extreme poverty which used to be over 60% before 1970 is now below 10%. It would be irrational not to acknowledge and celebrate that. More on that here.
Sure, we've made huge progress and that's to be celebrated. No question.
But increasing the size of the pie isn't useful if a large chunk of people don't have access to it. Or if they're allergic to pie (to abuse the analogy even more).
Abundant means simply "more than you need", and is contextual. It's not "infinite", nor "universally accessible". I have an abundance of space in my house, for instance, but that doesn't mean it's infinite.
The "don't have access to it" part is what I see tokenomics and tokenization solving in part. It's the regulatory capture, revolving door politics, and monopolization that I see with Nation State governments that, IMO, obscure and distort this free access to all.
I'll let Bruce Fenton's tweet from yesterday serve as one of many examples:
Yes, we need to help those who can't help themselves, and we need to provide access to all with equal opportunity (not equal outcome). I think voluntary systems of governance based networks of shared records of account and smart contracts will lead us there.
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for dinner.
I've yet to see any reason why blockchain token magic will be able to do what 10,000 years of human society hasn't managed yet. It's just an EventSource database with a conflict resolution algorithm. Potentially useful, but not a reinvention of the human condition.
I didn't advocate for democracy for this very reason. I'm about effective governance.
Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature discusses how humans have changed a lot even in the past few hundred years with regards to empathy, compassion, cooperation, and more. When people use broad labels like "human nature" or the "human condition," I tend to tune out a little. If they are talking about specifics, I'm fully engaged and excited to demonstrate possibilities. I wouldn't feel the way I do about these systems and their ability to improve the world if I hadn't seen enough evidence of it already improving things.
After more than 5 years following this stuff, I'm comfortable at this point just sitting back and saying, "Wait and see." I'd rather help build it and show people later than try to convince people with words. There is, however, a network effect and adoption curve that can bring about the future I imagine that much quicker the more people who see it and embrace it now instead of later.
Either way, I'm glad you're open to exploring possibilities.
Theres something i just have to try, a lot of people talk about the freedom and fun, and its very applicable to real life recognizing that everyone has their wave, so really no regrets, thanks for sharing beautiful post.
To those who have scarcity mindset will never have. To those who have abundance mindset will never lack.
As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he
Scarcity is what gives us prices. Now, maybe waves themselves aren't scarce, but waves that can be surfed may be.
Moreover air isn't scarce (for the most part), but healthy air may be. Robert P. Murphy has a great presentation on this.
Without scarcity, we wouldn't have economics, or a Free Market or Capitalism. What's the point of finding the most efficient use of resources if they aren't scarce? Wouldn't it create a wasteful mindset? The abundance mindset is an ideology that is deeply rooted in Socialism and left-libertarianism like the Venus Project. I'm cautious of it.
I disagree that scarcity gives us prices. My belly-button lint is uniquely scarce and also "priceless" (more accurately: "worthless"). Price discovery comes as an emergent property of chaos via individuals participating in voluntary exchange of value. They have different perceptions of value, so we get different valuations and exchange. The waves which can be surfed are more scarce, but they still have no price.
That presentation sounds interesting. I'll have to check it out. If scarcity facilitates valuable prices, then we'll be falling for the broken window fallacy and creating artificial scarcity not supported by real market forces. That's not valuable. Economics happen all the time without scarcity. Even when there is free, easy access to clean, filtered water, people still choose to pay for bottled water. Economics is a means to an end. It's supposed to be economical ("giving good value or service in relation to the amount of money, time, or effort spent") but many distorted views of economics create massive, massive waste and destruction of the planet. I agree, we have to be careful and concerned with efficiency. When I sit in the water, I certainly paddle to the best position to catch the next wave, even if there is abundance in the long-term.
I think there's an important distinction between an abundance mindset and what the Venus Project discusses which is post-scarcity. Post scarcity (short of time-travel) is and always will be impossible because humans value things differently and will use their scarce resource of time uniquely. That said, I agree with many of the criticisms Jacques Fresco and Peter Joseph have of crony, wasteful capitalism. I think, as with many things, there's a balance which makes the most sense. The "good" version of what many label as evil socialism and the "good" version of what many label as evil capitalism.
We should definitely do some recorded discussions on this stuff. :)
I regularly consume content which contradicts my current views. One that I enjoyed was the "a culture in decline" series by Peter Joseph. I don't agree with much of his condemnation of money, but I do like some of his ideas.
Such a beautiful beach. I have always wanted to go surfing but can't yet. I have never been to a beach, still stick with studies and stuff. Puerto Rico is amazing, it's good to see you enjoying with your family. Family is not only important, family is everything. Good to give time to family. Enjoy my friend.
Thank you! We've had a fantastic time.