Don’t Let a Scarcity Mindset Win

Aug 14, 2013Archive

joypledge

How many of you struggle with a scarcity mindset? I know I do.

I worry I won’t have enough. I let my mind automatically turn to sadness when one bad thing happens. I’m more apt to see the glass half empty than full. I jump to negative conclusions quicker than you can say Eeyore.

It makes me sad that I’m this way. It seems to be ingrained in me, a part of my DNA. I see others who are joyfully anticipatory, who seem to smile even when life hurls frustration their way. They acknowledge the pain, dust themselves off, and go on. They choose to believe in abundance even when the pantry is empty.

I’m not talking about a Pollyanna persona. I once knew a woman who drove me batty. She denied reality when bad things happened and said, “Just choose joy,” over and over again. It sounded rote, rehearsed, inauthentic.

There has to be a middle ground between a scarcity mindset and a denial of reality.

It’s about having true joy, effervescent abundance. Of saying the truth about your circumstance but choosing to find something beautiful from the ashes of your day.

But how do I get there? How do you get there?

For me, it involves a retraining of the way I think. And that takes conversation. I have to let out my weird thoughts with others. it’s in those times that I realize just how dark I’ve become.

And then I remember to re-view my day, to re-frame it so it’s not so scarce. You can do this too! Just print off the graphic at the top of this post. Saying this Joy Pledge every morning will help your mind snap away from deprivation and scarcity to a wide-eyed anticipation of what’s next, moving from depression to hope. I pray the words resonate with you.

{Would you dare to take the pledge right now? If so, DO IT, then tweet this: “I dared to say the joy pledge today. No more scarcity mindset for me! Click to tweet this.)

I’ll end with a quote from Stephen R. Covey. It’s a clarion call for all of us to move from a scarcity mindset to an abundant one.

People with a scarcity mentality tend to see everything in terms of win-lose. There is only so much; and if someone else has it, that means there will be less for me. The more principle-centered we become, the more we develop an abundance mentality, the more we are genuinely happy for the successes, well-being, achievements, recognition, and good fortune of other people. We believe their success adds to…rather than detracts from…our lives.” 

How about you? How have you been able to move from a scarcity mentality to an abundant one?

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