I was listening to an old favourite song the other day, New Shoes by Paolo Nutini.
It's got a wonderful lyric in it that got me thinking about mindsets.
It's from the chorus and I've highlighted the specific lyric below:
Hey, I put some new shoes on
And suddenly everything's right
I said, hey, I put some new shoes on
And everybody's smiling, it's so inviting
Oh, short on money but long on time
Slowly strolling in the sweet sunshine
And I'm running late and I don't need an excuse
'Cause I'm wearing my brand new shoes
Short on money, but long on time.
Since hearing it again, I've fallen in love with the two-part question—What am I short on? What am I long on?
What we have a little of and what we have a lot of, can change.
In fact, the very same thing can at one point be something we're short on and at another, be something we're long on.
Time often fits this category fairly well.
Short and long is just another way of choosing to view the world through either a scarcity or an abundance mindset.
Personally, I've found that I default to scarcity—what I'm short on—more often and it's not much fun.
What makes it hard, is that scarcity is often easier to grasp because the consequences are known and near.
Let's go back to time as an example.
If I'm short on time, I often know what might happen if I run out of it.
It's very hard in those moments to switch and view life through the abundance-mindset—try to focus on something I'm long on.
We are always both short and long on something.
If I'm short on time, I find I'm also short on patience.
While this might seem obvious, it makes no sense. My impatience does not control the speed of time.
Let's say I was short on time, and instead long on patience.
What's really hard about choosing to focus on patience, is that the rewards for being patient are usually unknown and far.
A quick summary:
In a scarcity-mindset, when we're viewing life through what we're short on, the consequences are known and near.
In an abundance-mindset, when we're viewing life through what we're long on, the rewards are unknown and far.
What if we could trick ourselves to switch to the abundance-mindset by making the rewards known and near?
When you next find yourself short on time, what if you could reward yourself for being patient?
Perhaps it's not patience you want to be long on. Perhaps that's too hard. There are plenty of other things to pick from.
Let's take kindness.
When you next find yourself short on time, what if you could reward yourself for being kind?
We are always both short and long on something.
Let's choose our frame appropriately.
