Abundance.

I lost my wallet two weeks ago – and with it all of my bank cards, personal information, and some cash. I knew I should cancel my cards and replace everything but dragged my feet – convinced it would show up around the house. It didn’t. Then last night Stacie calls me from the store – “Do you have my debit card.?” I did – and she encouraged me in a direct and loving way to get my shit together 🤣. I assured her I would take care of it immediately after Christmas.

I got up early this morning. Couldn’t sleep. In the middle of making breakfast I feel a phone vibrating in my back pocket. It’s Christmas Eve, who the hell is calling me at this time of the morning? I answer it. “Hi, is this Todd Poquette?” I confirmed. “This is First Bank. Someone called from Econo – they’ve had your wallet for about two weeks.” Well sunuva-bitch! What are the odds? We wrapped up breakfast and the kids headed downstairs. Stacie took Rogue to the vet. I finished up some stuff around the house, worked out, and headed over to Econo. After a brief and light-hearted interrogation I managed to prove I am in-fact Todd Poquette. I was genuinely curious – will the cash be gone? After I jumped back in the truck I opened it up to check. All there. No shit. What are the odds?

I just sort of sat there… feeling something but uncertain what it was. It wasn’t relief. It wasn’t thankful (though I am). And it wasn’t gratitude. It took a bit – and eventually I had a word. Abundance. I smiled. A perfect word. In the darkest year on record I’ve come to the end of it feeling my life has an abundance of positive memories, opportunity, happiness, amazing people we’ve shared it with, and many more amazing people to meet. Where did all this abundance come from? Striving to create it for others. I truly believe that.

A brief digression: In an earlier chapter of my life titled “Corporate” – nothing was abundant except the daily grind of competition. Compete against competitors, and compete against some of your customers. The pie was only so big and everyone was out there fighting for the biggest piece of it. It’s a very finite world – where one side wins and the other loses, success is both fleeting and scarce. A draining, uninspiring, polarizing, and toxic life. Customers would leave you for a dime and sales people would jump ship for a guaranteed salary. The bad news… that’s how a lot of companies and folks live their lives. Anything viewed as a competitive property to which you lay claim or win will never be abundant. By pursuing a thing, you limit the thing.

I truly believe the secret to our experience lies in what we focus on and work to create. If we seek to create abundance for others, it will in turn be created for us. If we seek to compete for power and money, we limit the amount of power and money available. Our caveman brain hasn’t fully evolved from the days when we truly had to compete for limited resources. Today’s world is optimized for collaboration. How do I know this? Experience. My experience. By seeking to empower others they in turn empower us. When we focus on what we can give, others look for ways they can give to us. It’s not rocket science.

Seeking to create abundance will remove false ceilings. What false ceiling? The false ceiling of your beliefs. If you believe something to be limited – it’s going to be limited. In contrast, if you believe the opportunity for something to be limitless, I truly believe through collaborative and collective effort you can in fact create more, or a new version, of something previously believed to be finite.

During a summer when good news was most definitely believed to bee scarce – I witnessed day after day of personal victories, and months of success stories from a community of people who refused to believe things could not be better – and because they refused to believe good was limited, it was unleashed. I watched a team of more than 130 volunteer coaches put aside personal politics to serve their communities and get kids outside – when the popular belief was such a thing could not be done safely. Many of them did it for the benefit of the children we reach, and in turn benefitted from the experience themselves. Once again, a mindset of abundance. By creating an opportunity for the kids they created one for themselves.

The main reason I ran down to write this today is share a very basic thought – stop chasing more and focus on creating it. The pursuit of a thing limits the thing. Whether it’s success, happiness, money, friendship, material things etc. It’s always going to be the same – by chasing it we limit it. By attempting to control it we limit it.

When we share, it can grow. When we share, we can grow. That’s all for today. Merry Christmas.