What Is Your Mindset? Determine How You Think
As mentioned before, a mindset is the way that ones think. It is possible to hold different mindsets in different areas of your life. In this chapter, you will find a description of behaviors often exhibited by individuals stuck in a scarcity mindset. You can make a list of the ones that you recognize yourself in. Being aware of your challenges will be helpful in identifying what can change in your life to access more abundance.
Focusing on the Gaps
A common mistake that we tend to do in a scarcity mindset is to place all our attention and energy on what is missing in our life. On the other hand, people that live an abundant life are natural at putting their energy on what they want to manifest. By switching your thoughts to be more oriented to what you want, you are painting a clear picture of what it is that you desire. By doing so, it is easier to find what you seek when you know what you want, as opposed to what you know you don’t want. Do you find yourself listing things that you are missing in your life? Do you sometimes wonder why you don’t have what you want? Are you the type of person that is always focused on getting more?
Take the time to write down the areas of your life where you tend to focus more on what you don’t have.
You Don’t Ask for Help
In order to bring more abundance in your life, you need to be open to receive. And that includes receiving help from others. If it is difficult for you to say “yes” to someone who offers you help, you are telling the universe that you are not deserving of receiving from others. The same applies if you have a hard time asking for help. That is often a surprise to many that showing independence in our life can lead to blocking the flow of abundance. This is because if you can’t accept help from others, you can’t accept a little help from the universe. In order to shift this habit to bring more abundance in your life, try to find ways to ask for help, most people love helping. Accepting someone’s help might just make their day.
Thinking of your daily life, where could you use more help? For example, do you ask for help at work? If not, what can you do to change that?
You Are Uncomfortable With Compliments
Compliments are a form of receiving similar to asking for help. If you are uncomfortable with receiving compliments from others, you are demonstrating that receiving is difficult for you. This can automatically lead you to more scarcity. Try to reflect on how you behave when someone compliment you on your skills. Do you try to find excuses for why you are not that great? If you want to be more open to receive and attract more wealth, start by saying thank you when someone recognizes your value.
When was the last time that you’ve received a compliment? What was your reaction? How did you respond?
You Dwell on the Past
To dwell on the past means that you spend a lot of your precious energy thinking about things that are no longer relevant. That behavior leaves you with little energy to manifest what you want in life. If you want to change or accept your past, you have to make a choice now and bring your focus back to what you can do, now, to feel happier. If you want to have a more fulfilling life, ask yourself, what choice you can do right now to help you access more abundance. What good do you have going on in your life now? People with an abundance mindset don’t delay living a happy life based on something they will get later. They find the joy in the present.
Is there something from the past that occupies your mind a lot? How can you make peace with it and let go of it?
You Often Use the Words Don’t or Can’t
Our vocabulary says a lot about our mindset. A person with a scarcity mindset will use many limiting words such as “can’t,” “won’t,” or “don’t.” These words have the tendency to nourish a deep belief that we don’t have enough and will never be able to access what we want in life. To shift to a more abundant life, pay attention to the words you use. Catch yourself using words that set a limiting belief and reframe them into words that empower you to do something about the situation.
Scarcity Mindset | Abundance Mindset |
I don’t have enough money to go on a trip with you. | I can save some money if we go on that trip next year. |
I can’t seem to attract the love that I want. | I want to attract a partner who is supportive and loving. |
I don’t like my job and hate that I am stuck in this. | This job allows me to stay in the work force while I find the perfect job that will fulfill me. |
Why can’t I be pretty like the people on Instagram? | Every day, I will recognize something that I like about myself. I will express more self-love. |
I can’t do what I want because I am broke. | I want to be able to travel the world, let’s find the opportunities to do it. |
I won’t be able to go out with my friends tonight because of my work shift, my life sucks. | My work shift tonight will allow me to bring more financial abundance in my life. |
I can’t do this. | Let’s figure out how I can make it happen. |
You Envy Others
When we live with a scarcity mindset, we tend to experience feelings of jealousy and envy. We will often catch ourselves looking at others and wondering why we can’t have what they have. One of the thoughts you could often have is wondering why is it that everyone else has what want and not you. Envy is a feeling that attracts scarcity because we focus on what we don’t have. It can also lead to resentment toward some people and ruin relationships with friends and families. In order to shift to an abundance mindset, you need to start recognizing the good in your life and stop comparing yourself with others. Start by acknowledging what it is that you like about yourself, others or your life in the present moment.
Do you sometimes look at your Instagram and envy the people in the pictures? What do you envy them for? Instead of being envious, take the time to write it in a positive affirmation and set an intention to manifest it in your life. For example, if you see a person that is in Hawaii and you envy them. Your intention could be: “I am saving $10 a week for my trip to Hawaii.”
Feed a Sense of Urgency
Some believe
that being in the present moment means to manifest everything you need now. In
fact, it is demonstrated that people who feed a scarcity mindset will be more
likely to focus on immediate “wants.” They feel the need for instant
gratification, a sense of urgency that the need has to be met now. This type of
behavior can be detrimental to one’s life and have a negative impact on one’s
future. A great example is when an individual receives a sum of money that
wasn’t expected. Those with a scarcity mindset will have the urge to spend it
right away on things that are not necessarily essentials in the long run but
something that they really want in the present moment. It is almost as if they
think the money will disappear overnight if they don’t spend it now.
Blame Others
Do you feel like life isn’t fair? Maybe you feel that a lot of the unfortunate situations you have experienced are not your fault but someone else. If so, it might be time for you to take matters into your own hands. It is basically giving up on your power and leaving all control of your life to external factors like another person. When you give up on your power, it leads you with hopelessness and inability to change your situation. One of the most common behaviors in people with an abundance mindset is their ability to take responsibility and do something to change their situation. If you don’t acknowledge your responsibility in your life, you are unable to feel empowered to do something about improving your life.
Make a list of things that you find unfair in your life. Once you have a list, review it. This next step will be very hard but try to see how you can take responsibility for those and what you can do to change the situation.
The points above are examples of behaviors that could be limiting you in your life. These behaviors are what we are trying to change with this guide. In the next chapters, we will go deeper into what abundance is and how you can access it.