Do You Have an Abundance or Scarcity Mindset?
As a business owner, your mindset is one of your greatest assets. Your mindset is the lens with which you view the world and your opportunities to succeed. It informs how you pursue your goals and how you lead your employees. While your mindset was influenced in childhood by your family life, it’s something you can control and change.
Life feels like a constant struggle for those with a scarcity mindset. There’s never enough time or money or resources to do what needs to be done. Fear and worry wear them down and affect the morale of people around them.
On the other hand, those who have an abundance mindset always seem relaxed, even in the face of a challenge. They have confidence in themselves and a belief that things will work out. It’s not that they are naive or Pollyannna-ish; rather, they know that doing something moves them closer to their goal than worrying about how they might fail.
Not only is it easy to get stuck in a scarcity mindset, but it can also spread from your home life to your work life or vice versa. Taking a mindful approach to maintaining an abundance mindset will keep you from slipping into a self-defeating scarcity mindset. Here’s how:
Practice a beginner’s mind
Apply this Zen concept to approach each situation with fresh eyes, as if you are encountering it for the first time. A beginner’s mind allows you to see an abundance of possibilities because you won’t start with preconceptions based on negative experiences in the past. Thinking of yourself as a beginner also relieves you of the burden of having to know all the answers before you get started.
Tap into the power of words
Your words are a source of inspiration or negativity for yourself and for your employees. Words affect your thinking and actions, so try to always use language that reflects your aspirations, not your doubts. Taking a moment each day to articulate your gratitude also helps reinforce an abundance mindset.
Flip your perspective
If you find yourself facing seemingly insurmountable obstacles, look at the situation in a completely different way. Maybe you can’t build a bridge, but can you discover a different route to the same destination?
First think big, then narrow your options
To avoid getting bogged down by limitations, focus on finding all the opportunities in a situation before identifying obstacles. If your starting point is overwhelmingly negative, it takes more work and greater momentum to envision a positive outcome. Once you’ve identified possibilities, then you can begin to evaluate the pros and cons of your options.
Surround yourself with people who share your abundance mindset
It’s challenging to row against the flow. If everyone around you shares a scarcity mindset, it’s hard to remain positive. Your attitude also influences the people who work with you — abundance is contagious!
If you would like to learn more about how this might apply to your business, let’s talk: