No, crab mentality is not about approaching life as a grouch, crabbing about all the things that are wrong. It refers to an interesting phenomenon with blue crabs. When they are in a bucket, if one of them climbs out to escape, the other crabs will reach up and pull it back down.

It’s as if to say, if I can’t go, no one can! The behavior carries over to humans as well. Something about us almost revels in seeing someone else try and fail. There are entire TV shows dedicated to picking people apart. For some reason, people love a fall from grace. People will snipe at another person’s success and belittle their achievements to bring them back down.

We should aspire the be the crab that lends a helping claw. If we see someone going for something we should encourage them and help them in any way we can, just as we would hope others would do for us if we were in that situation.  The world is not a zero-sum game where someone else getting something means that you won’t. The world is a huge, amazing place and there is more than enough to go around for us all.