One of the best ways to foster sufficiency is by encouraging the full use of our talents and abilities.

Pursuing our talents and abilities at work or at play allows us to feel confident in our capabilities and in our usefulness, getting us closer to believing in our own worth or sufficiency. It also simultaneously makes us feel mentally, emotionally and spiritually satisfied, more respectful of the environment and ourselves but more innovative and productive. When we use our talents and abilities to their utmost, we feel happy and sufficient. Our self-expression feeds our souls like nothing else, making us feel like our cup is overflowing. And because of this we no longer need to consume or hoard as much. We feel we have more to give and are more able to receive.

This may sound too simplistic or too anthropocentric for those who see the solution to our self-destructive tendencies as regulatory (e.g. limiting human activity through laws and policies) or monetary (taxes and penalties). These may be part of the solution but I would argue that man and his attitude (his insufficiency perspective) is the problem. We feel fear, we feel a huge spiritual void and so we consume and hoard to resolve this. And when this doesn’t work, we consume and hoard some more. The solution to greed and over-consumption and the havoc it wreaks on the environment and society is not necessarily more regulation and taxes but a methodology for changing people’s attitudes or perspectives to see themselves as sufficient. And one of the best ways of changing that attitude is by helping people to fully use their talents and abilities.