Shift to an Abundance Mindset Using These Three Tips

• The scarcity mindset increases stress and poor decision-making.
• An abundance mindset can profoundly impact your future earnings and mental health.
• Gratitude is an unsung hero of mental health.

The scarcity mindset can be extremely detrimental to your health and financial well-being. If you are constantly anxious about your finances, you are probably experiencing a scarcity mindset. But that doesn’t mean you have to suffer. 

You have the power to change your mindset and start focusing on what will bring you joy. Below you will learn about the scarcity mindset and how you can shift your perspective and start to have an abundance mindset.

What is a Scarcity Mindset?

Scarcity is the idea that there isn’t enough, and we have to fight for limited resources. While in some instances that is true, viewing the world that way can be extremely unhealthy.

If you have a scarcity mindset, the world is a zero-sum game. This means that when others win, then you think that makes you a loser. Another way to look at it is if you are constantly trying to get enough to survive because you don’t believe you’ll ever have enough.

A scarcity mindset focuses on getting “enough,” which leads to little or no time to focus on anything else.

How Can a Scarcity Mindset Hurt Your Money?

Studies show that heightened stress can lead to poor decision-making, often worsening your problem. With a scarcity mindset, your obsession becomes “having enough.” This can hurt you in many ways, including you having increased stress and anxiety. 

Viewing the World as Hostile

When you have a scarcity mindset, you can view the world as hostile. When you believe there isn’t enough for you, the fight-flight instinct kicks in, and you start competing for survival. 

For example, if you have a scarcity mindset on your job, you may believe that because someone else succeeded and received a promotion, you can't succeed too. That can lead to a cut-throat environment at work, reduced social interaction, animosity, and poorer work performance.

Poor Self-Esteem

Another way a scarcity mindset affects you is your self-esteem. If you believe that you don’t have enough and that you’ll never have enough, it can be easy to believe this is your fault. Poor self-esteem can lead to depression and poor mental health. Living this way will keep you stuck in a downward financial spiral.

Shift to an Abundance Mindset Using These Five Tips

An abundance mindset is about knowing there is more than enough for everyone. You must put habits into place that will train your mind to start believing in an abundance mindset. 

Here are three actions you can take to shift your mindset from focusing on scarcity to abundance and how you can improve your financial situation in the process.

Focus on What You Have

Since the scarcity mindset is about not having enough, the first thing you can do to flip the script is to focus on what you already have. Perhaps you don’t make much money, but you have a lot of time to spend with your family. If you can spend quality time with your family, you should focus on making lasting memories and cherishing them. 

Don’t worry about anyone else's situation unless you are using it as a healthy motivator to change your lifestyle. 

Focusing on what you have will help put your values into perspective. When you notice how good you’ve got it, you will plant the seeds of an abundance mindset.

Change Your Surroundings

The entertainment you pursue, how you fill your leisure time, who you spend your time with—all of these are things you consume, and they can have a negative or positive effect on your life.

So, if you spend all your time with negative people, consider finding a more positive group instead. Or if the things you read on social media are complaints about not having enough money, or if social media makes it look like others have lots of money, and you don’t, then change what you consume. 

When you consume an overload of content, then you can start to feel pessimistic about where you are in life financially. 

Surround yourself around people that encourage you to be your best self. This applies to the content you consume (i.e., music you listen to, videos you watch, people you follow on social media). 

Changing the kind of content you consume or the people you hang around can profoundly impact your mindset.

Practice Gratitude

Gratitude is the unsung hero of mental health. It is hard to have negative emotions when you are grateful. The key to gratitude is taking the time to acknowledge it. That can be saying out loud things you are grateful for every day, like having a job or having a healthy amount in your savings account. 

Also, writing down what you are grateful for in a gratitude journal or even sharing something you’re grateful for with a friend can tremendously impact your mindset. Being grateful will help you see how much you’ve been given and help you overcome the scarcity mindset.

Gratitude can also help you be more content where you are. Instead of wanting more or thinking you don't have enough, gratitude will remind you that what you have is so much more than many people dream of. With the right perspective, the need to keep pushing higher on the ladder of what is "enough" might go away entirely. Gratitude is a powerful tool for improving your mental health and your finances.

The Money Wrap Up

A scarcity mindset is detrimental to your financial health and mental well-being. When you don’t believe there is enough for you, you make poor decisions and don’t take the steps necessary to prosper. 

To overcome this, you need to shift to an abundance mindset. The abundance mindset will allow you to take steps towards bigger and better financial goals.

A scarcity mindset hoards while an abundance mindset invests. Scarcity refuses to help others, but abundance gives and makes the world better. Scarcity is lonely, but abundance is connection. 

An abundance mindset is worth working hard for. If you keep trying, you can achieve it.