Having a scarcity mindset can be exhausting. However hard you try, there’s never enough. A scarcity mindset can be learned through actual poverty and struggle. Once the experience of struggle is hard wired into your brain, everything becomes a struggle from there on out. “You” are never enough, therefore whatever you do you bring the same set of judgements with you.

If you carry around a scarcity mindset, no amount of opportunity or wealth can be realised; you continue to think in terms of limitations, regardless of your situation. If you believe you have a scarcity mindset, notice what you are focusing on. Is it the actual things around you, or the things which are out of your current reach?

If you are constantly and persistently dissatisfied in life, focused on what you can’t have, and feel as though no amount of effort has brought you what you desire, you might have a scarcity mindset.

Overcoming Scarcity Mindset

Are you looking for bargains, afraid to take risks and on the scout for quick fixes in life? Do you judge people who are doing better than you are? Are you trying to keep up with people who have more money than you, but can’t quite make it? All of these things can be connected with a scarcity mindset. If you never feel as though you are enough, you’ll continue to experience more of the same. The problem needs to be resolved from the inside, not the outside.

To overcome a scarcity mindset, you first need to recognise what you are doing. Are you focused on what you don’t have? If so, this will likely be perpetuated throughout your life, whatever you attain, unless you resolve the tendency to do it.

One of the easiest things you can do to switch this tendency is to start a gratitude diary. Gratitude switches your focus from what you want (and can’t grasp) to what you already have and are grateful for. If you’re used to being in a state of lack and panic, this can be a tough exercise, but an important one. Gratitude helps to change the energy of lack to one of abundance. Feeling as though you already have something, is the antidote to feelings of lack.

Take some time each day to write in your gratitude diary about the things you already have. Start with small things such as your health, the clothes on your back and somewhere to live.

Overcoming Scarcity Mindset – Right And Wrong

Are you a stickler for what’s right and wrong? Is there a “right” way to be? Do you judge those who don’t fall into your idea of how someone/something should be/act? This can be part and parcel of having a scarcity mindset too. If you hold yourself (and others) accountable to standards which are impossible to uphold, the only outcome is you feel as though you are not good enough.

If you’ve experienced this, perhaps you should let yourself off the hook a little? When you see this for what it is, a mindset of scarcity, you can unhook yourself from its tight grip on you.

Allow yourself to be ok being you – just the way you are. Another strategy to help you overcome scarcity mindset is through using affirmations. Someone with a scarcity mindset might say certain things to themselves such as:

“I’m not good enough”, “There’s never enough”, “Why can I never get ahead”, and so on.

This energy of struggle is further reinforced by these kinds of thought patterns. Notice these thoughts and replace them with affirmations:

“I am enough”, “The universe provides”, “I have everything I need”, “I can change”.

Or, you can alter the nature of the thoughts by asking better questions instead of making negative statements. Instead of saying things such as “Why can I never get ahead” which is phrased in the negative, ask instead “how can I get ahead?”.

Overcoming Scarcity Mindset – Growth Mindset

A scarcity mindset is trapped in the space of fear. A growth mindset is a mindset adaptable to change. To change from a negatively programmed space of fear to one of growth will take some time. But by using gratitude, affirmations and asking better questions of yourself, you can shift the tendency to focus only on lack and shift to a more positive vibration and thinking space.

By bringing awareness into your thinking space, you should notice some of the damaging ideas which you allow to remain in your conscious mind. You can start to pick out the weeds of the garden of your mind, only allowing encouraging thoughts and dismissing the negative ones which keep you in a state of panic and fear.

Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich:  “Recall what has been said about the subconscious mind resembling a fertile garden spot, in which weeds will grow in abundance, if the seeds of more desirable nature are not sewn therein” (access Think and Grow Rich Pdf here).

Abundance Mindset

An abundance mindset is one of growth and self empowerment. If you build an abundance mindset, you are not limited by feelings of inadequacy or lack. So despite your circumstances, you are not focused on limits but possibilities.

You believe in your ability to learn new skills and acquire new opportunities. Someone with a scarcity mindset will not believe they can attain new skills or adapt and change to meet their desires. They may be mistrusting of reaching out to others for help and assistance, believing they must do everything on their own.

Do you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, envious of others and unsure of how to make a change? This might be reflective of a scarcity mindset. Try reflecting, journaling, or talking to someone you trust.

Once you can identify some of these thinking habits as what they are, a mindset rather than the “only way”, you can shift them and create a different mindset which is more supportive and nurturing of your goals.

An abundance or growth mindset, does’t necessarily mean someone has more, but just sees more abundance because there’s a shift in focus. Rather than focusing on what’s missing, you focus on what can be done with an attitude of empowerment rather than a constant feeling of lack and uncertainty.

See also how to change your relationship with money.

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