Retrospective: 2008 – Scarcity vs Abundance

Hitting the road meant leaving my bubble, where my identity was rooted. I was now regularly meeting new amazing people across the country and constantly navigating new things.

That should be exciting, right?

My career, my social network, my place in the world was in transition. I had left my foundation behind. I had given up everything that society judges as a measure of success – accumulating ‘stuff’.

It was intimidating.

I was constantly comparing myself to others and their skills, passions and accomplishments. While neglecting my own.

I didn’t have… fill in the blank. A hefty bank account. A huge salary. A college degree. A major life transformative experience. A trendy Silicon Valley job. An artistic talent. Famous friends. A truly super geek background. Silky straight hair. Written a book. A slender figure. A fancy piece of property. A huge refrigerator. A fancy car. Whatever.

I was seeing what I wasn’t.

I was operating from a framework of scarcity.

Regardless of how many accomplishments I already had – or how amazing my life actually was (living on the road, for crying outloud) – I was unable acknowledge them and build from there.

And that left me feeling empty. Without value. Without potential. Without seeing a future path in how I could contribute to and explore the world.

In 2008, we were introduced to the Abundance League – a group of folks in the Silicon Valley area. I don’t even know if they’re still around.

This positive casual supportive group encouraged people to look at what they have, not what they don’t.

To shift from a scarcity mindset to one of abundance.

Instead of looking at your lack of income, look at your abundance of skills. Instead of looking at your lack of meat in the fridge, look at your abundance of vegetables you can build a meal from. That sort of thing.

For when you operate from a place of assessing what skills, traits, resources and passions you have – you feel more full. You see yourself better, and what you can uniquely contribute to the world. Of who you want to be. Of what you can do.

That shift, that lesson, changed everything for me. It was just what I needed at this moment in my story.

By the end of 2008, I was on a path of living from a place of abundance, not scarcity. I was able to build a new foundation for myself.

And it’s a shift we encourage everyone to try to make. For so often we hear – ‘I wish I could hit the road like you, but I don’t have …..’.

You don’t need to have what we have. Or what they have. You need to have what you have. (repeat that over and over again until it sinks in)

2008 was the start of our second year on the road – in which we had a custom Oliver Travel Trailer made just for us. A home with a bathroom, kitchen and table for an office. It would take us many places in the years ahead.

As would this new foundation I had to reframe for myself.

Technomadia 15 Years Retrospective Series

In the lead up to Cherie's 15th Nomadiversary on May 10, 2022 - she shared a retrospective post for each year with a lesson about nomadic life and our own journey.

Here's a video recap of the series (caution, it's over 50m long!):

And here are the individual chapters of this series:

Retrospective: 2007 – Overcoming Obstacles