Abundance Mindset vs Scarcity Mindset
The Scarcity Mindset
The scarcity mindset is where you see the world as a place with heavily limited resources, that you’ve got to fight for your piece of it. Victory in the scarcity mindset is success at the expense of others. Every situation is a competition where you can express your good qualities and make others feel inferior.If stuck in the scarcity mentality, you may find it difficult to cherish the success of others, like friends and family. You may see their success as beneath your level of success, or down to luck. It is challenging to share credit for achievements made with the help of others.
If you think that being at a healthy weight is something that you can’t achieve, then you’re living in a scarcity mindset in this case. You may envy others who lose weight successfully, and those who seem to have always been at a healthy weight. You believe that your failure in keeping your weight at a healthy level is not your fault, but that of circumstances.
In the context of relationships, you may put extra focus on trying to attract one specific person, which makes you seem needy. If you ask someone out and get rejected, you’ll feel terrible if you placed particular importance on that one person; rather than seeing them as one of the many fish in the sea. You may envy others who are in happy relationships themselves. If you’re in a relationship, you can put too much into it, seeing them as essential to you, thinking that nobody else may like you the way they do, so a potential breakup becomes much worse; possibly trapping you in the relationship.
The Abundance Mindset
Having an abundance mindset means seeing the world as a place where there is plenty out there for everyone. It sees victory as a success that is mutually beneficial to all those involved, being the mentality that sees Win/Win rather than Win/Lose, that life is not a zero-sum game.If you see the world with an abundance mindset, you’re more likely to share with other people, to seek solutions to problems that benefit all involved, and it opens your eyes to many more possibilities. You don’t see yourself as being above or below others. Life isn’t a competition; it is a place for sharing with others.
Adopting this mindset would remove ourselves from fear, be immune to criticism, and exist with greater freedom than experienced with a scarcity mindset.
If you adopt an abundance mindset, you can be happy for others losing weight while being overweight yourself. You can see weight loss as something you can do if you put in the effort, being at a healthy weight is something that you can achieve.
In relationships, you don’t put particular importance on to one person. Getting rejected when asking someone out on a date doesn’t feel as bad, as you know that there are plenty of other potential partners out there. There is little fear when in an abundance mindset. Choosing to have a relationship with an abundance or scarcity mindset is beyond the scope of this article, it depends on what’s important to you.
Money can also be seen with an abundance or scarcity mindset. With abundance, you see it as something that will come to you. As something that you can share with others who aren’t doing as well, letting you be more charitable and caring. With scarcity, you’re likely to see it as something to fight over; to be kept close to you rather than being generous with it. You may not want to spend money to fix a problem that is bothering you because you’ve attached yourself to the hard work put into earning that money.
Comparison
The scarcity mindset may appear as a better plan initially. It’s more focussed on oneself rather than others, it’s rooted in greed and power. Though you end up expending lots of energy in conflict with others, lots of time gets spent thinking negatively, and it stifles creativity. It seems like the best option in any situation is always the one that benefits you the most, rather than looking for options that benefit all parties involved.With an abundance mindset, you become free of selfishness, being able to share your value freely with others. It frees you from struggles with others and lets you appreciate the world in a better light. It is seeing cooperation over competition, unity over division. It allows oneself to live with their mind and heart working in alignment with each other.
You may think that if you’re poor, living with a scarcity mindset is more logical because everything seems much scarcer. Though living with an abundance mindset, where you still try to help others and be above your ego, you may experience more joy and happiness. Being seen helping others also invites others to assist you in return. If you’re seen as poor and selfish, others will be less willing to help you. If you’re seen as poor and giving, others will be much happier giving you a helping hand when you need it most. Just appearing as if you’re giving is not a good strategy either — you need to be living it through your heart, else others will see you as deceptive, and you’ll end up making enemies.
Living with an abundance mindset is not foolishly believing that you have an unlimited credit card but rather accepting that you shouldn’t be too scared to let go of money. Fear is associated with scarcity, freedom with abundance. If you lived with a mindset of abundance, you’d see more ways to help others, while also helping yourself. Seeing Win/Win opportunities becomes the default. With abundance, you continuously seek to find mutual benefits to all human interactions, aligning both your heart and mind, while making life more enjoyable for everyone around you.
So, are you going to choose to live courageously with the mindset of abundance? Or does staying with scarcity seem much easier? This article is only an introduction to the topic of abundance — there is much more to learn on living this path to its fullest extent, to where you can start attracting more abundance into your life. It can be difficult to adjust to, but a life-changing adjustment if you can make it happen, especially if you’re currently living in a state of scarcity.