Scarcity Loop – How Much is Enough?

Scarcity Loop – How Much is Enough?

How much is enough? When will we be satisfied in life with what we have and not constantly yearning for what we don’t? When will you be satisfied with having “enough” money? How many overtime shifts are you going to work to feel that you have “enough” money?

Before I had a son and when I was a new nurse, I worked all kinds of overtime – I mean how could you not when the incentive pay was about $95/hour. So, in one 12-hour shift I was making about $1140 (before taxes of course). I kept picking up because I was motivated by money, I would tell myself, “if I just pick up this one shift I can pay this off or I can buy this.” One shift turned into three or five and I was literally never home except to sleep, I was never seeing my husband or enjoying my life, but man was I making that money. Did I save any of that money? The correct answer would be no. So, I continued like clockwork to pick up more and more shifts and I continued to buy more and more meaningless things or pay off credit cards. I was stuck in a loop that eventually would lead to burn out.

Let’s get back to the loop. You may be asking what the heck is a Scarcity Loop? The scarcity loop is defined by Michael Easter as a bad habit that you do over and over. Simply put it becomes an addiction. You can read more about this phenomenon in his book The Scarcity Brain.

“Everything is permissible for me, “but not everything is beneficial.” “Everything is permissible for me, “but I will not be mastered by anything.” (1 Corinthians 6:12)

The scarcity loop has three components: Opportunity, Unpredictable Reward and Quick Repeatability.

1. Opportunity: the ability to get something of value
2. Unpredictable Reward: we don’t know when we will receive the thing of value or just how valuable it will become
3. Quick Repeatability: the ability to quickly repeat that behavior/action.

Let’s look back at my overtime shift experience. The opportunity for me was availability of incentive shifts which lead to the fat paychecks (unpredictable reward) that would make me want to pick up more shifts (quick repeatability). Can you see the loop we are getting into?

I sit back now as a mom, and I can’t even imagine working all those hours just for extra money. Yes, I still work but I pretty much only work my scheduled number of hours. Do we have “enough” money now? No, but I want to watch my son grow up and enjoy being a mom. Time is a thief, and I don’t want to work my son’s childhood away because I was striving to get “enough” money. Let’s be honest here, we will never have “enough” money. There will always be that newer bigger thing that we will want which will require more money.

There is always more money to be had but there is not always more time to be spent with those that matter most. So right now, I can say my family is enough – being a mom is what I have always dreamed of and more.

I encourage you to think about when you will be satisfied with having “enough”.  Are you going to let these mundane materialistic things become your life and take you away from all the blessings God has already put in front of you? Change your perspective and look at your world differently to see all that He has for you.

“I pray the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the mighty working of his strength.” (Ephesians 1:18-19)