I was at a Strategic Coach workshop recently with Lee Brower and the ice breaker exercise for the day was about living in abundance vs scarcity. Lee asked us for our description of what living in abundance looked like.
After a few minutes of listening to the discussion in the room, I remembered a Bruce Springsteen lyric that has stuck with me since his album Darkness On The Edge of Town was released back in the late 1970’s. On the title cut Badlands, Bruce sings:
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside, that it ain’t no sin to be glad you’re alive. I want to find one face that ain’t looking through me, I want to find one place, I want to spit in the face of these badlands.
This for me epitomizes the struggle between living in abundance vs living in scarcity. Living in abundance means being glad you’re alive. Badlands represent scarcity.
I want to be the leader that spits in the face of scarcity as I celebrate life and those living it with me. I am not always successful, but I am continuously mindful of the leader I aspire to be.
