Scarcity Vs Abundance Mindset And How To Make The Shift
There are two different ways that people can view the world and which mindset you have will more than likely have a dramatic effect on the quality of your life.
Scarcity mindset believes that there is a limited supply of wealth, happiness and love in the world and they need to protect what they have right now because they may not be able to regenerate these things in the future.
Abundance mindset believes that there is a natural abundance of everything positive in the world and with hard, smart and dedicated work, they can attract an abundance of wealth, happiness and prosperity into their lives.
The scarcity mindset and abundance mindset are two opposite ends of the scale and you may find yourself anywhere along this scale at the current moment but the shift from scarcity to abundance mindset can literally happen overnight and that can be one of the most important shifts you will ever make.
The Scarcity Mindset
The Scarcity mindset can alter your opinion on anything positive in your life and it can strike at any time.
In Business
The scarcity mindset usually strikes me when I think about generating new sales to grow the business or think about clients not needing our services anymore.
It doesn’t matter that these things have happened before in the past and we have gotten through them easily and the customers have kept rolling in, no matter how the economy has performed or how much new competition has entered the market place.
Scarcity mindset is a sort of anxiety that slows you down in your tracks and I have found that simply taking action is the very best way to combat scarcity mindset when it pops up so you can nip it in the bud.
Shifting To Abundance In Business
If you are afraid of not generating new sales, why not pick up the phone and start cold calling, go to a business exhibition or get out and network. If you are too busy taking action, you won’t have to worry about scarcity and you can easily grow your business and return to that feeling of abundance that you desire.
In Risk Taking
Taking no risks in life is the biggest risk of all!
One of the biggest manifestations of scarcity mindset that I see is in Risk taking. One thing that all successful people in the world have in common is that they have jumped! They have decided that the risk of failure was worth taking, put their faith in abundance and quit that job that they hated, started that business, moved to a new city or asked that girl on a dream date.
Many years ago, I knew deep down in my heart that I wanted to run a business and that working a 9-5 was making me miserable, depressed and unhappy with my life and this was manifesting itself as anxiety.
Eventually, I decided to take the leap and start my own business. It was incredibly tough at the start but with the right action, discipline and persistence we were able to overcome any obstacles and went on to set up a highly profitable and fast scaling business which led to further growth and creation of assets.
Taking a huge risk and leaving a company like Microsoft was a big jump but probably the best decision I ever made in my life looking back besides quitting cigarettes maybe.
Scarcity Mindset With Money
Scared Money Can’t Make Money
Hoarding money is another area where I have seen the scarcity mindset attack me in my years in business and it is not in a logical way.
The less money I had, the less worried I was overall about money. I spent the money to grow the business, had enough to pay the rent and expenses and pushed forward to grow the business.
Starting the business was a stressful time but when I needed to generate more income, I got on the phone or chased down new business and everything was kind of simple.
The more savings I generated, the more I started feeling protective of the money, cutting expenses and thinking long and hard about where to invest the money to grow. This is scarcity mindset manifesting.
By Hoarding money, you are hurting your future growth by believing there is only a limited supply of money and that you have been lucky to acquire the amount that you have.
This is something that even affects millionaires as they protect their money and worry about its depletion instead of realising that they can make more and multiply what they already have.
The abundance mindset states that there are plenty of investments for that money where you can increase and multiply it and in the long run having smart investments and passive income is the best possible way to a life of wealth, happiness and abundance.
Perfectionism
Thinking in your head that everything has to be perfectly arranged so that there is no chance of failure and not being willing to say, start a business until the ideal conditions and the perfect opportunity is available for you.
The truth of the matter is that the perfect situation is never going to happen and you just have to take the leap and faith and an abundance mindset that you will be able to make success by working hard and working smart.
Perfectionism is a form of procrastination, waiting for ideal conditions that will never occur.
Not Taking Opportunities When They Arise
Not taking opportunities that you know deep down you are ready for or could grow into because you are afraid to increase your expenses, afraid of rejection or feel that everybody can do these things better than you can.
Scarcity says I am not ready for this opportunity, Abundance boldy states, “I will do whatever I can to take this opportunity and become successful in it.”
When you take the abundance attitude, not only will you be more successful when opportunities do arise but more opportunities will also arrive for you to take advantage of.
Indecisiveness Or Changing Your Mind
Not being able to make a decision because you are worried about the consequences, this is scarcity thinking or even worse making an abundance mind decision only to be crippled with doubt and changing your mind about the best course of action to take.
Deep down you know the abundance mind decision is the right one to take and you should learn to control your scarcity mindset to move ahead with the best decision for your business.
“In the end, we will only regret the chances we didn’t take and the opportunities that we passed up on.”
Procrastination
Constantly imagining some sort of dream life that will somehow happen in the future without taking a single shred on action to make your dreams come through. People can procrastinate for their whole lives and go to the grave with all of their music still inside of them.
We will only regret procrastinating our way through life when we are old and it is truly too late to take action.
The Abundant Mind knows that all we have is the present moment and the actions that we take right now are the only ones that can draw us any closer to achieving our dreams, goals and aspirations.
Living In The Past
Looking back on a time in the past and wishing you could revisit that time and place is another example of scarcity thinking. It underlies a belief that times could never be as good as they have been in the past and there is no point in working towards a better future because the best days have already gone.
The truth of the matter is that these times probably weren’t as great as the person makes them out to be or they are just imagining them as ideal while leaving out all of the bad parts that took place.
The abundant mindset will always believe that the future can be better than the past and by working in the present to make it so.
The Hardest Part Of Shifting Our Mindset To Abundance
Often times, We fear losing our place in the tribe by striving for our own uniqueness, creativity and brilliance and this will stop us from taking action.
Our human instincts realise that all human groups rely on conformity and adherence to a particular set of norms and if we strive for better or start acting differently, we will be excluded from the tribe and that may even be true.
The tribe may consist of our peers in work, our friends, family, boyfriends or girlfriends or even the community where we live or society at large.
The truth is that you may actually have to leave these groups as you will not fit in anymore but that can be the best thing for you. People who are not living abundant lives may grow cynical towards your new path as it makes them think about their own failure to live an abundant life.
I personally left my work peers, broke up with my girlfriend at the time and lost countless friends in my pursuit of abundance and that is not a bad thing.
When you become a pro or switch to an abundant mindset, you will often end up alone as others don’t share your mission or don’t want to improve themselves so they sabotage the relationship and you end up parting ways.
The space they leave behind in your life will be replaced with abundance over time if you work hard and work smart towards your goals and your abundant lifestyle.
How To Shift From Scarcity Mindset Into Abundance
One thing worth keeping in mind is that even the most abundant of thinkers will face moments of scarcity thinking but they are better trained to deal with them and push back through to abundance thinking.
Taking Action
One of the best I ways I have found to escape scarcity mindset is to take massive action to address the issue I am experiencing the doubt about.
If I am worried about business growth I will plan for ways to expand. If I am worries about money, I will begin thinking about new ways to generate passive income and start working on them.
If you are having a scarcity mindset moment, you can immediately start considering what you could do to overcome that scarcity and turn it into abundance thinking and if there is nothing you can do then you probably shouldn’t be worrying about it anyway.
Positive Affirmations
Plenty of billionaires in the world today have attributed positive affirmations to a lot of their success and when repeated daily and believed by the brain, the subconscious mind will get to work in finding ways to achieve your goals, dreams and aspirations.
The subconscious mind is twice as large as the conscious mind and it will continue to work even when you are asleep or performing strenuous exercise.
When you ponder things through in your mind, like say, making $10,000 a month and list out the possible ways that you could achieve, the subconscious mind will keep working on these problems even when you are not aware that your subconscious mind is at work.
Affirmations that I have personally used when out walking every day:
“ I am a winner, I am growing every day, Opportunity flows to me in abundance, I am a millionaire.”
“ I live a life of passion, love and abundance and I encourage others to do the same.”
Reading Books And Education
If you want to create abundance, learning from those who have done it before is going to be one of your best bets, every time.
I personally like to listen to audiobooks related to the self improvement, business and biography niche to learn how others have done it before me and what their keys to victory have been.
Audiobooks have probably had the biggest impact on my business career to date and when you are listening to positive, abundant mindset, big thinkers about what they have done and how to emulate it, it is a great way to grow your own abundance mindset along with your skills and your earning capabilities.
Books and audiobooks are incredibly cheap and if you are looking for hands on training, there are a ton of online courses available that can teach you anything from Web Design, Blogging, Youtube, Writing Books, E-Commerce and Print On Demand to give you the skills you need to create abundance in your life.
Cut Negative People And Habits Out Of Your Life
“Show me the 5 people you spend the most time with and I will show you your future.”
You don’t want to be spending all of your time with scarcity mindset people if you want to develop an abundant and positive life. You can show those that are close to you about your plans and if they are willing to come along, that is great but if they make fun of the plans and want to stick to their old ways, it may be time to move on from that particular person.
If you are successful in your abundant lifestyle, you can always come back and help them in the future if they want it.
The Same Goes For Partying, Alcohol and Drugs
Abundant thinkers are fulfilled by their work and their mission. They are satisfied with growing the knowledge, skillset, income and wealth. Abundant thinkers or ‘Pros’, don’t have time to be in the club or smoking weed or getting wasted on drugs because they know that the next day, they will not be able inch closer to their goals, ambitions, hopes and dreams.
We are not saying you cant have the occasional party but if you want a life of abundance, these scarcity mindset activities will need to take a backseat.
The Abundant Thinker Is Consistently Working Hard
Once you have the abundance mindset, you are likely to know that not everyday is going to be a walk in the park but you show up anyway and chip away at your goals making small steps of progress that will compound into giant leaps over time.
Judge a persons success not by their 10 best days in the year but by their worst 10 days. What do those 10 days look like. If there is solid work being done on those days, you can almost guarantee that person has an abundant mindset and will arrive at wealth sooner rather than later in their lives.
Conclusion
Making the leap from scarcity to abundance can happen quickly and take you an amazing journey full of wealth, fulfilment, abundance, love, joy and happiness but you will never know until you dive in and decide you can do it, you are worthy of more and the world has plenty of wealth to go around for everyone to fulfill their wildest dreams.
Everybody dreams but only abundant thinkers take action on those dreams and you would be surprised to learn how often they achieve exactly what they set out to achieve from the very beginning. Become an abundant thinking or pro today and start working towards your goals.
