"Attitude is perceived through that viewpoint of scarcity and abundance which is where we have a choice, where I have a choice."
Erik Wahl
Erik Wahl has become one of my soul brothers! He and his wife Tasha are not only some of the most passionate and inspiring people that I have befriended, but they show up! They have come to two of my shows including a benefit concert that my all-star band hosted for Create Now, a children's charity.
Erik is truly one of a kind and has created one of the most successful and unique speaking careers of the many brilliant speakers I know. Erik is an American graffiti artist, speed-painter, author, motivational speaker and entrepreneur based in San Diego. He owns The Wahl Group, a consultancy firm, and has spoken at conventions by Microsoft, Disney, NBC and Honda. Wahl makes paintings of thinkers, leaders and cultural icons such as Michael Jordan, Steve Jobs, and Bono during his presentations.
As an artist, Erik has a truly unique lens through which he sees the world. Check out this interview excerpt:
"Erik:
It's frightening to say that attitude's everything. Everyone says attitude is everything. I think the trick is to define attitude... for attitude, it can be values, it can be work ethic, it can be positivity.
Mark: Or your viewpoint which is where you are looking from... where you are looking from determines what you see.
Erik:
That's really where it is. So the viewpoint, the attitude for me, that I've found most helpful is scarcity and abundance. It's realizing that we live in that spectrum, in that pendulum and we have a choice. We have a choice to live in a world of scarcity and that is an attitude, that is a choice that makes all other choices around us have an impact. How hard I choose to work, choreographing my dance 10 hours a day because I want it to be right on stage, how I interact with other people, what kind of hope I experience through the business, how I deal with setbacks when things haven't met expectations.
That is what attitude is and control over that is a discipline. It's like gratitude is a discipline. Creativity is a discipline. Joy is a discipline. Being able to immediately shut off negative input is a discipline because you are at best starting to shape your overall attitude.
You start to shape what comes out with it and over the years, having the emotional intelligence to be aware of chinks in your own attitude is vital. You're stepping into a position of authority now with people. You're not behind the lead singer, now you're going to have to think about what you say. People are going to be listening to what you say, so having the right attitude going in is so strong.
Because if you're drawing from a place of scarcity, like the competitive nature- I've only got so much, I've got to protect this. It creates that wrong mindset going in. You can also be just positive. Some people make an entire career off that but for me, it's about balance and shaping so you're aware of positive and negative. They're not good or bad... they come together and my attitude is a reflection of what I'm able to choose- what direction, truth or consequences to achieve the behavior and consequences. So the attitude isn't set, that's what changes.
Mark: If I didn't get anything else from you, that would be just marvelous. This maybe seems like a strange question because you were talking about the spectrum of scarcity and abundance. Do you ever or can you ever see a value in taking an attitude of scarcity? Is that something that you would just always naturally move away from?
Erik:
So I use scarcity relative to time. I have a finite amount of minutes to prepare for this presentation. I have a finite amount of minutes to spend doing this. And so I will use scarcity and not allow it to get me stressed. That's where I want to be opportunistic with it. Just set my time, plan my time so that I understand scarcity on the time pendulum. I understand outside of that on natural relationships, health. I want to always view those through abundance. Even something like health that I realized can be scarce.
Mark: Although there's a difference between finite and scarce.
Erik:
Very much so.
Mark: That makes sense though. With time, time is something that can be scarce or abundant.
Erik:
Yes, actually.
Mark: So you respect the scarcity of that as deadlines approach.
Erik:
Respect it and then use my attitude, my resources, my passions, and my weaknesses to understand that scarcity so that I use that time well."
I love this guy! He has so much more truly interesting things to say about attitude and Dr. Jim and I can't wait for you to read more!
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Big love-
Mark
