When I was four years-old, my dad created a scavenger hunt for my birthday.
My brother and I raced around the house following little clues, eager to find the next one.
At the end, there was the treasure, a pile of quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies that was a fortune to my four year-old self.
I remember feeling reluctant to take the money, because if I had those coins in my pudgy little hands, nobody else could.
This is my first memory of money. A lesson that there’s not enough for everyone.
I’m not even sure if the memory is accurate, but the “lesson” stuck.
Lately, I’ve been seeing the money game very differently.
I was talking with my sweetie about zero-sum games and non-zero sum games.
In order to understand the concept better, I asked my friend Chatsby to explain it to a ten year-old. (I figure that should cover me.)
A zero-sum game is a fixed pie.
There is one pie. It never grows bigger.
If you get a bigger slice, someone else gets a smaller one.
What one person wins, the other person loses. That’s zero-sum.
A non-zero sum game is a growing pie.
The pie can get bigger. People can help each other win.
One person doing well does not mean someone else has to lose. That’s non-zero sum.
For years, I treated money like a fixed pie. Playing with money, in its physical form, is a zero-sum game.
If I took the money, someone else went without. If I needed more, I had to push and strive to make it happen before it ran out.
No wonder money felt stressful!
I don’t like thinking about money this way. And in fact, I don’t. Not anymore.
Because money in the physical form isn’t the real game. The real game is value.
While the amount of physical, printed, or minted money may be fixed, the value exchange money represents is limitless.
Ideas are limitless.
Creativity is infinite.
Help, support and contributribution are never scarce resources
And that’s what money really is. It’s creative energy. The energy of exchange.
Money is the energy of creation itself.
Abundant. Flowing. Enabling the flow of value between people.
Four year-old me had already picked up the belief that money is scarce. There’s only so much to go around, and you better not be greedy.
But what she didn’t see was the energy of money all around her. The enjoyment her father got from putting together the game. The creativity of little Stephanie who figured out how to make sure her little brother “found” some of the treasure, even when she got there first.
Somehow over the past month or so this finally sunk in.
I used to imagine money as a scarce resource that was all up to me to create.
Then I started to notice that worry and pressure wasn’t necessary. If life is abundant and the potential for contribution is unlimited, then money is abundant, too. Life will provide for that, just like it does everything else.
Money started to feel natural. Having it is as simple as brushing my teeth or going to the grocery store.
Make money by delivering value. Give and receive. Receive and give. As inevitable as the tides and the seasons.
It almost feels as if I’ve lost my ability to worry about money.
This is a shocking development for someone who’s been worrying about not having enough (or having too much) money since she was four years-old.
Worrying about money just doesn’t make sense to me anymore.
I still feel the occasional money-worry thought, but it’s so clear now. Worrying doesn’t help. It only feels bad.
On the other hand, feeling light and grateful helps alot. It’s when the most creative ideas come to me and when I’m at my best in helping others.
This feels like a miracle. It’s one of the conversations I am excited to explore inside something new that is forming.
In the Pantheon, we’ll experiment with different forms of exchange. Not just financial, but ideas, resources, support, collaboration. Ways of creating more value together so the pie actually grows.
A non-zero sum community.
A place where your contribution makes the whole richer, and the whole supports you in return.
If something in you lights up at that, you might be one of the first intrepid explorers we’re calling together.
You can join the Pantheon Wait List here.
https://portal.stephdragonheart.com/coming
Yours in love and play,
Steph 🐲❤️🔥
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