Abundance v. Scarcity Mentality

Confession.  When I was first introduced to the “abundant mindset”, the belief of unlimited resources and enough for all, my mind immediately jumped to “It can’t be true! There are only so many slices in one pie”!  Imagine my surprise when I read that the famous thought leader, Stephen R. Covey, was the person who coined the “abundant mindset” phrase. He actually used the pie analogy to describe the opposite of an “abundant mindset” as a “scarcity mindset”. He described the pie as a scarce resource in which a limited number of people can only get one slice and then it is gone! Busted – my thought exactly!

 I had to acknowledge that I had a belief (a thought repeated many times) that there was not enough ________ (fill in the blank – time, money, pie, etc.) in the universe to meet my needs and desires.  Trust me – my brain certainly found evidence of this scarcity daily!  I realized that I also had the “good girl” syndrome going on; I believed if I took something that I wanted I was actually taking it away from somebody else, and I certainly didn’t want to be THAT kind of person!

I discovered living in scarcity mode had two major impacts on me.  The first was mental:  I lived in fear of “not enough” - food, money, love, you name it.  This meant I was showing up in all areas of my life as a Victim.  Ugh.  Not the look I wanted.  The second was physical: I became aware of how fear showed up in my body -shoulders up around my ears, inability to focus, sometimes literally curling into myself in a fetal position. My physical body was definitely blocking any inward flow of resources, plus I was exhausted and frequently in pain. I realized that something (i.e., me) needed to change.

 Oprah said it best. “If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more.  If you look at what you don’t have, you’ll never have enough”.  I no longer focus on what I don’t have.  I am consciously grateful for everything I do have.  I am able to see options and choices, plus I am more creative. I view others as collaborators instead of competitors. In other words, I gave up worrying about enough pie to go around!

Choosing abundance is a happy, fulfilling way to live.