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Greetings, Carl here.
This podcast is super simple, it's me wandering through the world noticing things about how to align my use of capital (time and money) with what is actually important to me.
-Carl
Good morning. This is Carl. We have a problem. At least I have a problem. I think based on my conversations with many of you and and many of my readers or listeners around the world, we have a problem with enough.
Carl:It's just a it's just a challenging idea that we could have enough, and part of it's because our brains are not wired to accept the reality of enough. Our brains are not wired to accept the idea that enough can exist. And Michael Easter, who I've hosted twice now in a monthly conversation that I hold, his new book, The Scarcity Brain, there's this great quote that I just wanted to drop in here for you to consider. Here it is. This is from Michael Easter's new book, The Scarcity Brain.
Carl:In the human brain, less equals bad, worse, or unproductive. More equals good, better, and productive. Our scarcity brain defaults to more and rarely considers less. And when we do consider less, we often think it sucks, Quote directly from the book. And here's another one that's that's close to it.
Carl:The scarcity loop, which is a a concept that Michael names in the book, the scarcity loop seems to be the serial killer of moderation. Isn't that fascinating? The human brain rarely in the human brain, less equals bad, worse, unproductive. More equals good, better, and productive. So we're almost we're we're wired we're wired to want more.
Carl:And if you think about the environment in which that wiring took hold, it was a good thing. But now we live in an age of abundance where there's more food than you'd ever need, And that wiring that served us so well and should be thanked, It was adaptive, has become maladaptive in the current environment. And one of my favorite exercises on behaviors that were at one point important for survival and have now become maladaptive. One of my favorite exercises is to turn to that behavior and thank it for its role that it played in the past and its secondary role that it might still be playing and help it understand that we've got it from here. Right?
Carl:Like, thank you so much for being there. You kept my ancestors alive. And in some cases, you even keep me alive and play a really productive healthy role. But in most cases I've got it from here. Like, we're gonna be okay now.
Carl:You don't need to worry so much. You can come, like, as Elizabeth Gilbert says about fear, you can come on the trip. I like having you around, but you're no longer allowed to drive. I've got it from here. We're gonna be okay.
Carl:You've done your job. I think that's such a beautiful way instead of, like, trying to battle or resist or squash or get rid of or overcome or conquer. There's just this beautiful posture of turning hands maybe even in in, like, prayer, you know, the prayer symbol and just saying thank you for the role you've played. I've got it from here. And I think we need to do that with the idea of more.
Carl:Like, thank you. It's been really valuable, and your services are now a secondary consideration. So it's not that they're no longer needed. It's just that they're a secondary consideration because turns out I've got enough. Love that.
Carl:Hope that's helpful for you. It's been super helpful for me. Cheers.