It’s been quite a journey as we’ve explored living in a world of sufficiency, to borrow a term from Bucky Fuller and Lynne Twist. Maybe not quite as exciting as ziplining through the mountains, though potentially more life enhancing if you integrate some of the “nugget of gold” insights into your life. In the first four installments of this series, we explored the three Scarcity Toxic Myths:  “There’s not enough,” “more is better,” and “that’s just the way it is,”  and the first Sufficiency Truth #1:  Money is Like Water.

Today we finish up the series by delving into Sufficiency Truths #2 and #3.

Sufficiency Truth #2:  What You Appreciate Appreciates

Lynne Twist writes in The Soul of Money: “This simple but powerful act we call appreciation expands the freedom, creativity, and ultimately the success we experience, particularly in our relationship with money. Appreciation is the beating heart of sufficiency.”

I have found this to be so true in my own life.  A few years ago my family discovered a little cluster of raspberries growing in a corner of our yard.  When they became ripe, we picked them and thoroughly enjoyed their taste.  We so appreciated this bounty from the Divine that each year we’ve looked forward to early July when the next harvest of raspberries would arrive, and each year the bounty has grown. This year, we had so many we gave several pints away to friends and still had enough to also preserve several jars of raspberry jam.

Being grateful and “counting our blessings” are integral practices of many religions for one simple reason — they work, and they sure are powerful and purposeful ways to start your day. It’s also smart to continue throughout the day to declare and identify the abundance of blessings all around us. It is also be an effective way to jump start a purposeful pivot.  (More on purposeful pivoting online here. )

Let’s say you’re moving through your day on purpose when suddenly you get blindsided by an ‘unprovoked attack’ of the fear and scarcity thinking that stems from the Inherited Purpose.  You’ll know this is happening because you suddenly feel ‘ichy’ — angry, frustrated, anxious, overwhelmed — fill in the blank of your most common Inherited Purpose emotions that trip you up.

If you find it difficult to move back into the space of purpose, peace and play, then jump start your pivot by acknowledging what you do appreciate about your life. You might want to declare these items out loud either to yourself or a purposeful partner, and/or write them down.  The more active the pivoting process the better.

The more often you do this, the more powerful you will become in attracting the conditions of life that match with your level of appreciation.

Sufficiency Truth #3: Collaboration Creates Prosperity

According to Twist, “collaboration and reciprocity are natural, and yet in the world we inhabit, competition and the fear of scarcity often block us from seeing these ways or being with one another.  In a you-or-me world, reciprocity and collaboration don’t fit. A you-and-me world is full of collaborators, partners, sharing and reciprocity.”

I believe with the growth and popularity of the internet and global communication we’re beginning to see a significant shift away from fear-based competition and towards a more loving and life enhancing spirit of cooperation, collaboration and co-creativity. I know in the last six to nine months a steady stream of purposeful partners have presented themselves to assist Life On Purpose Institute in being a catalyst for creating a world on purpose, and I’m very appreciative of all of them.

Perhaps the recent economic downturn that has hit many people so hard has forced our hands just a bit, and that may be one of the most positive outcomes of the downturn.  It has given us all the opportunity to reexamine what matters most to us, what are our core values, and how can we all “get through this together.”

The distinction of sufficiency and the accompanying spiritual truths could be key to transforming our unsustainable culture to a sustainable one. Now is a perfect time to recapture the essence of living in a world of sufficiency where there is enough of everything for everyone to have a satisfying and fulfilling life — a life on purpose.