The 9 Benefits of Scarcity
Scarcity. It’s something no one loves to think about, but it’s the reality of living in a physical world. We all have to grapple with limitations in resources like money, time and physical goods.
The inventory of buyable and harvestable goods is not infinite, things do sell out and the materials used to make them do become unavailable.
Money, time and labor resources also are not infinite.
Even if you have plenty of money to buy things, you only have so much storage space to put them in. Even if you have infinite choices on where to go for dinner, you can only have the time to choose one place to eat.
Examples of scarcity are everywhere.
Scarcity, or the study of limitations, is a fundamental concept in economics. Scarcity in economics states that because goods and services are limited in supply, they can be priced.
There’s demand driven scarcity, where the demand for something exceeds the current supply. There’s supply driven scarcity, where as the amount of something decreases, the demand for it goes up.
There’s structural scarcity where the rarity of something depends on the location - there’s only one Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, Amazon Rainforest.
There’s labor/human scarcity - there’s only one you.
While time and money scarcity circumstances are the most common, you may have to deal with scarcity of raw materials to make goods or very few people available that are proficient to do the job that needs to be done.
Rather than ignoring its presence, scarcity is something you can embrace, accept and find value in.
As tough as it may sound: you can’t satisfy unlimited wants with limited resources. At some point during your time on Earth, you’re going to have to figure out a way to satisfy what you can with what’s available.
Below, you’ll find 9 benefits of scarcity:
1 - It forces you to make the best of the situation
There are two ways to look at the world. You can see the negative and lack or see the good and potential opportunity.
Scarcity can encourage you to make mindset decisions, guiding you to see the best of it, identifying the opportunities available in a situation, in spite of the lack.
Chances are when you encounter scarcity, it’s a limitation not in all areas, but only in a couple areas. When you choose to use scarcity as a tool for identifying the contrasting potential growth opportunities, it helps you make the best of any bleak situation.
2 - It encourages swift decision making
When scarcity presents itself, you can wallow in it or take action. To move through the situation fastest, taking action is always more productive than wallowing.
Scarcity asks you to confront reality by making a choice and getting on with it.
You have limited time to do chores on a Sunday morning - do you clean your makeup brushes or mop the floors? You can only drink one brand of coffee tomorrow morning - should you buy this brand or that? What choice will make you or your household and team happiest?
It helps you be decisive and choose what’s best for you in the situation.
3 - It helps you prioritize
On the note of making choices, when scarcity presents itself, it’s asking you to decide what’s most important.
With limited funds, which of these projects will yield the highest return? With limited labor, which of these tasks is most important to do first? You can only do one activity on Christmas morning, which is the best?
Scarcity can point you toward what’s the most important/impactful thing to do, allowing what matters to rise to the top of the decision making process.
4 - It creates innovation
You need crafting ribbon for an urgent project, but don’t have the time to go to the store to buy it. How does time scarcity help you? It will direct you to raw materials you have on hand to make it or inspire you to repurpose something else for the task.
In another example, your grocery money is on a cost cutting plan. So, instead of buying, you have to go to your pantry and make something edible and enjoyable with a few random ingredients in the back cupboard.
Scarcity has just helped you design a never-before-made meal, sparking new skills.
When money, time or materials are scarce, it can boost your creativity, allowing you to overcome the limitations in the situation.
5 - It reduces waste
When resources are scarce, you’re less likely to waste them.
You might repurpose the scraps for another project. You might see if you can use something a few times before throwing it away. You may decide to harvest from existing items for other uses. You might choose to buy a product that lasts longer over the one that’s more convenient.
Scarcity can encourage you to make the most of your resources by squeezing every bit of usefulness out of them.
6 - It can save you money
When you have money scarcity, it will guide you to lower cost options which save you money in the end. Lower cost options can be better and more sustainable for your budget than their higher cost counterparts.
When you seek more affordable alternatives to present needs, in the long run, it benefits you, your family or work team.
7 - It can help you become more environmentally friendly
With money, time or labor scarcity, you might decide to find more fuel efficient routes for your deliveries, errands and adventures. This can reduce your carbon footprint and usages of scarce fossil fuel resources.
Scarcity can inspire you to explore new energy conservation methods to reduce variable expenses, like heating and cooling costs, it can also inspire you to choose more native, drought tolerant landscaping, to reduce water costs.
These scarcity-driven decisions help you and the environment.
8 - It weeds out inefficiencies
During times of abundance, you may have a lot of extra processes happening that are not as efficient as they could be. You might be paying for duplicate services, doing things without any targeted strategy or accidentally creating unnecessary waste.
When you operate with a scarcity awareness mindset, you’re “operating lean.” Lean operations help you identify processes and procedures that could be optimized to reduce inefficiencies.
Scarcity helps you pin-point things you can stop doing because they aren’t creating much benefit or it’s a duplication of effort.
Useless or redundant tasks that may have been invisible in times of abundance, you can now see clearly because resources are limited and every bit counts.
9 - It helps you value what you do have
When resources are limited, you’re more likely to see the worth in what is there and be more grateful for what you have.
In times of abundance, this can be challenging to do because everything is present all the time, so what can happen is the abundant resources are taken for granted.
Precious goods, time, money or people might be squandered, wasted or thrown away, under the assumption they’re a given; something available to all, that everyone gets.
Once resources disappear, the reality of their importance becomes evident so what may have previously been overlooked, is now cherished.
As you can see, scarcity has value. It can help you:
See opportunities available
Make swift decisions
Prioritize what matters most
Spark creativity
Become more environmentally friendly
Save money
Reduce waste
Cherish what you have
Instead of seeing scarcity as being a problem to solve, you can now see how scarcity can be a multi-benefit blessing, only disguised as lack.
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