The #1 Mistake Keeping NGO Leaders Stuck in “Not Enough”
Have you noticed how quickly your motivation drops when the thought “there’s not enough” starts dominating your leadership thinking?
In the humanitarian and development sector, funding cuts, layoffs, and limited resources can easily create a sense of scarcity. When leaders start believing there isn’t enough—time, funding, staff, or opportunities—it can quietly reduce creativity, confidence, and action. This episode explores how shifting your mindset can help you lead with possibility and regain control, even in uncertain environments.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
- How to recognize when “not enough” is a thought pattern rather than an objective fact.
- A practical way to shift the story you’re telling yourself so you can move from discouragement to proactive leadership.
- A simple mindset practice that helps you notice existing resources and opportunities so you can lead with greater creativity and momentum.
Press play now to learn how to shift from scarcity thinking to possibility so you can lead with more confidence, creativity, and energy—even during uncertain times.
If today’s conversation resonated with you, I’d recommend listening to another episode of the podcast called “The Mindset Shift Every Resilient NGO Leader Needs.”
In that episode, I talk about why some leaders are able to stay grounded and resilient even when everything around them feels unstable—and the simple mindset shift that helps them lead with confidence instead of feeling defeated.
If you’re navigating uncertainty, funding changes, or big transitions in your work right now, I think that episode will complement what we discussed today.
FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
The #1 Mistake Keeping NGO Leaders Stuck in “Not Enough”
Torrey: [00:00:00] Right now, many leaders in the humanitarian and development sector feel like the ground is shifting underneath them. Funding cuts, staff layoffs, programs closing. Constant pressure to do more with less. In environments like these, one thought starts to dominate our thinking - t here's not enough. I've seen it with my students, I've seen it with those I've been coaching, I've seen it in the humanitarian space in general, online. Not enough funding, not enough jobs, not enough staff, not enough time. And when we start believing that story, something subtle but powerful happens. Our motivation drops, our creativity shrinks, and our leadership begins to operate from scarcity instead of possibility.
So today I [00:01:00] wanna talk about how 'not enough' thinking impacts us as leaders and how we can shift from it. Because even when circumstances are difficult, the way that you think about them shapes how you lead. So in this episode, I'm going to share three ways to shift from a scarcity mindset to a leadership and more abundant mindset of possibility.
My name is Torrey Peace, and you're listening to the Modern Humanitarian and Development Leader podcast.
How to recognize when 'not enough' is a thought and not a fact. How to shift the story so you can regain control and a mindset shift that will help you see abundance even in uncertain times. So first of all, let's first recognize that 'not enough' [00:02:00] is a thought. It is not a fact. Oftentimes, I think there is a lot of confusion between our thinking and reality or, and facts.
And the first step to getting out of 'not enough' thinking is just to realize that 'not enough' can feel like a fact, but it's actually a thought. It's an opinion, and here's why that matters, because once our brain starts to believe something like there's 'not enough', it immediately starts looking for evidence to prove it.
So when we believe there's not enough funding, we will find articles, statistics, and examples that will confirm that belief. And right now, because so many of us are seeing evidence for all of these, it becomes even more amplified. When we believe there aren't enough jobs, we will notice every [00:03:00] story about layoffs.
When we believe there's not enough time, we will constantly feel rushed and overwhelmed. So our brain becomes a type of confirmation machine. And when we believe there isn't enough, we tend to feel discouraged, anxious, or even demotivated. I mean, just thinking that there's 'not enough' brings up those more uncomfortable or negative feelings.
And when we feel that way, we take less action. We stop trying new things, we stop exploring possibilities, and we start protecting what we have. In other words, the thought there's 'not enough' creates exactly the kind of behavior that keeps us stuck. Now, I want to be very clear about something. I'm not saying that thinking that 'there is enough' will magically create more funding [00:04:00] or more time. But, what I am saying is that focusing on scarcity rarely helps us lead better.
So the first step is simply noticing where am I telling myself that there is not enough? And how is that thought impacting my motivation, my behavior, and my leadership? Okay, step two, change the story so that you can regain control. So first of all, I like to think of thoughts as stories because they essentially are stories.
They're not true or factual. There are narratives that we tell ourselves about ourselves and about the world around us. It's how we interpret the world is through stories. So the second step here is to learn how to shift your story in a way [00:05:00] that gives you more agency, more control. So let me give you a personal example.
Sometimes when I'm marketing my leadership course, Becoming the Modern Humanitarian and Development Leader, I sometimes start to think there isn't enough funding right now for people to sign up. It's very easy for me to slip into that mindset. For example, I just did a launch for the May course and, or sorry, this March course, and that was one of the thoughts that came up for me.
I noticed, I started to feel demotivated. I started to feel, um, inactive, and I realized that it was because of this thought. So, if I stay in that thought, I immediately start focusing on things that I cannot control. Organizational budgets, for example, funding cuts, donor priorities, these all come [00:06:00] from that thought, 'there just isn't enough funding right now', because that's something that's not within my control, right? So, when I shift that story slightly, the situation changes. And when I noticed I was thinking that and when I noticed it was creating de-motivation and an action because yeah, it's not very motivational to think there's not enough funding, so what's the point, right? Instead of thinking there's not enough funding, I shifted my story to, I just haven't reached enough people yet. Because I am sure that there are at least 30 people in the NGO world. There's still thousands and thousands of people working for NGOs, and there's still a lot of people looking for leadership training in those NGOs, and so then the story becomes [00:07:00] more about me and my outreach and the number of people I've reached, and less about the funding that's available. And that makes it within my control because I can change the story or I can, um, when I make the story a numbers problem instead of a hopeless problem, I can do something about it. I can start reaching out to more people.
I can start, you know, broadening my network. Because the truth is there are definitely people in the humanitarian and development sector who have access to more funding for professional development. It's more likely that I still haven't reached them yet. And so, when I think about that way, I start asking different questions, more hopeful and helpful questions like, how can I reach more people, where are they, who can introduce me? I take control of the problem. The moment [00:08:00] the story changes, action becomes possible again. The same thing can happen with your time. This is one of the biggest things that I see in the NGO world that a lot of leaders tell themselves is, I don't have enough time. I don't have enough time to coach my team.
I don't have enough time to focus on leadership. I don't have enough time for the important work. And the way we talk about time often makes it sound like we are a victim to it. Like it is a helpless or hopeless situation, like time is something happening to us. But the reality is that everyone receives the same 24 hours in a day, right?
Two people can have exactly the same amount of time and use it very differently. The person who believes I don't have time will always feel rushed and overwhelmed, versus the person who [00:09:00] believes I will make time for what matters, approaches their day very differently. They take ownership. They take control, they prioritize.
They decide what matters most. And then they do it. So the question becomes, where can you change your story so that you are back in control? And then we have step three. So, so far we have done step one, which is the awareness of that 'not enough' is just a thought and not a fact. Step two, changing our story so that we can regain control.
And step three is generating gratitude, focusing on what is enough. So, when we focus on what we don't have, the world starts to look like a glass half empty. We start noticing what's missing. We start noticing what's uncertain, [00:10:00] what might disappear, and that makes us feel very, uh, in the scarcity mindset and very desperate, almost.
But gratitude and the action of gratitude, the feeling of gratitude shifts our attention to what is still here, what is still working, what is still possible. And one of the interesting things about human nature is that we often only realize how valuable something is, after it's gone. So for example, after a job ends or after a team member leaves or after a project closes, and then we realize, oh my gosh, I had these things.
They were so wonderful and now I don't have them. But what if we started practicing appreciating those things while they are still here? Gratitude doesn't mean [00:11:00] ignoring real challenges. It simply means recognizing the resources, opportunities, and relationships that you still have. Maybe you're grateful for your team.
Maybe you're grateful for the funding that is still important in supporting your work. Maybe you're grateful for reliable internet. Or a supportive colleague or the chance to make a difference or a great supervisor. When we really truly feel gratitude, and I mean not just think it, but we actually feel it, our mindset begins to shift.
And we move away from scarcity and toward abundance. We start seeing all the things we do have, and that from that place, we tend to lead with more creativity, energy, and hope. So the next time you catch yourself [00:12:00] thinking there's not enough, pause for a moment and ask yourself, is that a fact or is it a story that my brain is telling me?
And then ask a more powerful question, what might still be enough right now? Enough time to take one meaningful step, enough resources to try a new solution, enough opportunity to move something forward. Leadership doesn't mean pretending challenges aren't real, but it does mean choosing your mindset so that you cannot move forward anyways.
And if today's conversation resonated with you, I'd recommend listening to another episode of the podcast called, The Mindset Shift Every Resilient NGO Leader Needs. In that episode, I talked about why some leaders are able to stay grounded and resilient even when everything around them feels unstable.
[00:13:00] And this simple mindset shift can help you lead with confidence instead of feeling defeated. I'll put the link in the show notes. So if you're navigating uncertainty, funding changes, or big transitions in your work right now, I think this episode will compliment what we have discussed today. You can find it on https://www.aidforaidworkers.com/blog or wherever you listen to podcasts.
And once again, I'll put it in the show notes too. And until next time, keep evolving as the modern humanitarian and development leader that your team needs. Bye for now.