How to Have a Mindset of Abundance Over Scarcity!
“We do not create abundance. Abundance is always present. We create limitations." -Arnold Patent
Your mindset of scarcity is a critical component of your success in your life, business, and career! Do you focus on what you do not have (no transferrable skills, no jobs, no money, no time, no connections to get a job and money)? Do you always feel behind on bills with other responsibilities piling up? Do you over schedule yourself? Do you say yes to opportunities or stay in toxic situations because you are afraid another one or a better one will not come? Do you see life as one pie and when one person takes a big piece it leaves less for everyone else? With a mindset of scarcity in the workplace, limited resources exist, information must be stockpiled, micromanagement is needed, and short-term thinking becomes the norm. Yale University’s study on middle-aged adults, showed that those with more positive beliefs around aging lived 7.5 years longer than those with less positive beliefs. Children who have a growth mindset that intelligence can be developed are better able to overcome academic challenges than those who have a fixed mindset that intelligence is predetermined, according to Carol Dweck, Stanford Psychologist.
These are signs you have a mindset of scarcity which can be a self-fulfilling prophecy keeping you stuck in scarcity. Your mind has a limited bandwidth at any given time. Constantly needing to think ahead to outsmart a person or a situation drains your bandwidth. This reduces your cognitive abilities leading to out-of-control self-defeating actions, such as, not leveraging preventative healthcare, lack of follow-through, being less productive at home and work, inability to be an attentive parent or spouse, or making poor financial decisions.
Abundant thinkers see material things as material that do not hold power over them unless they let them. Success releases dopamine in the brain that wants more and will increase the needed growth behaviors to release more dopamine. To switch from a mindset of scarcity to one of abundance to grow, you must:
• Accept and Be Gentle with Yourself: Stop using your limited resources to fight accepting where you are now. Whatever you have done has gotten you through to today. Now that you know better do better.
• Acknowledge the Good in Your Life: This is the foundation of abundance. Do not wallow in self-pity. Oprah Winfrey said, “If you look at what you have in life, you will always have more. If you look at what you do not have in life, you will never have enough.” Improve your mental and physical well-being that impacts your overall experience of happiness.
• Define What Abundance Means to You: It does not matter what abundance means to everyone else. This is your story and life. What does abundance look and feel like? Journaling helps.
• Practice Recognizing the Possibilities While Making Small Changes: An abundance mindset allows you to see more options, more choices, and more resources. Train your mind through practice to create an expanded awareness. If you knew you could not fail, what would you be doing? This opens your mind up to what is possible. Understand what thinking is holding you back the most. Make small positive mindset tweaks in that area. It adds up. What do you enjoy that fills your time and add to it?
• Be Present: Pay attention to your current moments to enjoy life and calm your brain. You will think more clearly.
• Surround Yourself with Abundant Minded People: Attitudes attach to you, and if scarcity-minded individuals surround you, you must counteract that to make positive changes. Tony Robbins says, "The quality of a person's life is most often a direct reflection of the expectations of their peer group." Do you look up to the people within your circles of influence? If not, make some changes.
• Create Winning Situations for All Parties: Look for ways both personally and professionally that leave everyone with a sense of accomplishment and a better feeling about the relationship. Do not judge or censor. Understand what a win-win means. Brainstorm to find solutions that satisfies all.
With an abundant mindset, you know a) there is more than enough to go around, b) the importance of everyone succeeding, c) collaboration and sharing is required, d) that you cannot receive what you are not willing to give. and e) you must learn from others, promote their achievements, and trust being open to other options and possibilities. You also know that the pain of disappointment is real, but you see something greater than yourself from that experience. You deserve good things in life!
“Abundance is not something you acquire. It is something you tune into.”
Article written by Gladys Agwai:
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