The Art of Enough: 7 ways to build a balanced life and a flourishing world

By Becky Hall

Ever feel like you aren’t Enough?

Overwhelmed by too many demands?

Concerned about over-consumption and the climate crisis?

You’re not alone. The Art of Enough is the challenge of our age.

In a world full of pressure to be more, do more and consume more, this practical guidebook will help you find your own version of Enough. Enough is a springboard for self-belief, a healthy work pace and sustainable living, so you can move from striving to thriving.  

Weaving together ideas, stories and practices, The Art of Enough offers seven ways to ease away from the pull of scarcity and excess, towards flourishing with Enough; finding the balance and boundaries we all need for ourselves and for our world.

Becky Hall is a coach, facilitator and speaker and has worked for over 20 years with teams, organizations and leaders, helping busy people all over the world create their own Art of Enough.

Filled with practical tools and techniques, The Art of Enough offers seven ways to free yourself to flourish in your life, your work and our world with abundance, flow and clarity.

The Art of Enough invites us to find the balance we all need for ourselves and our world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Practical Inspiration Publishing
• Release date: Sep 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781788602884

Book preview

PART 1

THE ART OF BEING ENOUGH

ART 1: ENOUGH MINDSET

SOURCE YOUR THINKING FROM ABUNDANCE

The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitude of mind. If you can change your mind, you can change your life.¹

William James

In Art 1, we will explore the mindset of Enough. For some, not being Enough can manifest as the well-known phenomenon of imposter syndrome; for others, it might be a feeling of inadequacy around not being worthy, or clever or kind – the list goes on. We will be looking at how we can move our mindset from one of Scarcity or Excess to Enough – sourcing our thinking from abundance.

We will explore:

•the power of mindset;

•the Scarcity Mindset – the fear of not Enough;

•the Excess Mindset – the fear of too much;

•the Enough Mindset – trust in abundance;

•how to identify your mindset;

•how to re-set.

THE POWER OF MINDSET

John is looking straight at me, through tear-filled eyes.

The thing is, Becky, I just don’t understand how I am doing this job, and I am constantly worried that I’m not up to the task. I feel like a fake the whole time – just pretending to do what I’m doing and waiting until I’m found out. I feel like a kid dressed up in a man’s suit, and I’m terrified nearly all of the time.

My client is the CEO of a highly successful legal firm, who has built it up to double the size in the past three years. When I remind him of this fact, he merely responds, ‘Well, there was a lot of luck in that. And now the shareholders want me to grow it even more, and I just don’t think I’m good enough if I’m honest. I feel like a sham.’

John is far from alone. Have you ever felt that you are not good enough? That it’s a fluke that you have your job, and you have to work really hard so people don’t find out that you shouldn’t really be doing whatever it is you are doing? I know I have. Sometimes when I’m about to do something – even something that I have done many times before – I can hear a little voice in my head saying, ‘How on earth did little old me get to be doing this? What do I know?!’ This is fine if it’s a moment in time – nerves before a big event. ‘What if I trip over / forget my lines / say the wrong thing?’ It keeps us humble and real and in the moment. What is more concerning for any of us is when this voice presides over everything that we do.

Whenever I mention the Art of Enough, it is the ‘not good enough’ phrase that first provokes people’s interest. I get smiles of recognition – or even responses like – ‘OMG yes! I never feel good enough!’ It would appear that for many people, across many walks of life, feeling good enough requires work. Imposter syndrome is a real issue for so many of us, and nearly everyone I talk to has experienced a version of it. And of course, it’s not only ‘good’ enough that people recognize. Each of us has our own version of what we lack. For some, it may be not knowing enough, others not being strong enough, or correct enough, or successful enough, or creative enough, or clear enough, or experienced enough, or energetic enough, or acceptable enough. What these all have in common is the inner belief that, somehow, we are lacking what we need to be Enough.

Our underlying inner beliefs shape who we are, what we do and what we allow ourselves to be capable of. In my coaching practice, I see over and over again that what clients hold as core beliefs about themselves and the world, can fundamentally limit or enable who they are and what they do in the world. What you believe becomes crucially defining – if you are living from a belief that you are not Enough then you will constantly be trying to re-balance that by over-compensating in other ways. If you believe that the world is a hostile place or lacks the resources to give you what you need, then it will affect how you interact with it.

It was Carol Dweck who coined the term ‘mindset’.² Dweck, a psychologist, has spent her career researching the way in which our beliefs about our capability influence how successful we are at achieving our goals and overcoming challenges. For Dweck, ‘mindsets frame the running account that’s taking place in people’s heads. They guide the whole interpretation process.’

Dweck identified two mindsets in particular that define how people approach life: ‘growth mindset’ and ‘fixed mindset’. A fixed mindset is one in which people believe that their skills, intelligence and capabilities are finite – a resource which they have no control over, and which can be compared favourably or unfavourably with others. It is this mindset that leads us to judge ourselves lacking. Dweck’s research found that ‘the fixed mindset creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over.’

A growth mindset, on the other hand, is one in which we believe that our basic qualities – our skills, capabilities, intelligence – are a starting point from which we can grow. With this mindset, we believe that we can grow and develop, learn from our mistakes and from what we’ve done well, and allow others to help us. A difficult scenario or setback is thought of as a challenge rather than a limitation. It is not that we are incapable; we simply might require a different approach. Marcel Proust summed this up beautifully when he wrote, ‘the real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.’³ Rather than seeing a setback as insurmountable, we look beyond it to see where a solution could lie.

Here’s an example of what this can look like in practice. I was coaching an extremely talented young woman who told me, ‘I couldn’t possibly apply for that job; I don’t have all the experience.’ We talked about mindsets and I invited her to apply a growth mindset – the possibility of thinking beyond the problem. She moved from focusing on herself as inadequate to focusing on the purpose of the role and what she could contribute. This led her to, ‘I know I adapt quickly and am really good at engaging people, which is, I think, what this role is looking for. Maybe I’ll give it a