Last week I posed the question: what direction are your thoughts taking you in? Towards the best version of yourself, or away? And what if those thoughts were taking you deeper into a scarcity mindset?

How often over this past week have you found yourself grumbling about something and getting swept along on a thought roller coaster that takes you rapidly spiraling downwards into discontent with your life and lot? Jealousy of others and what they have?

Perhaps you have given yourself a mental slap and stopped that roller coaster as you identify that those thoughts are taking you away from who you really want to be. 

The trick here of course is to be AWARE. To step back far enough from our thoughts to identify what is actually going on and then – crucially – the impact of that on our mindset and behaviour. 

Triggers to a scarcity mindset include any sense that you don’t have enough, that you are operating from a place of lack: 

• discontent with what you have because others have more or better
• negative comparisons with others because of a need to keep up with them and their lives
• jealous of the success of others, as if there is only a finite amount of success to go around and they have the bigger share than you
• entitlement rather than gratitude
• struggling to celebrate or share the success of others
• seeing what isn’t rather than celebrating what is
• apportioning blame externally rather than accepting responsibility
• focusing on unfulfilled wants and needs 
• living within your comfort zone and operating from a place of fear
• reluctance to share
• default to suspicion rather than trust

Any of this sound familiar? Now I am not suggesting that you are a miserly mean person living in a suspicious state of fear and mistrust. 

Not at all. 

But the attitudes listed above can be very subtle and insidious, and can creep up on us. The key is paying attention to the direction our thoughts are taking us in:

Towards or away from a scarcity mindset?

When our lives are very full and very busy, and especially when there is not enough time for soul rest and for us to stop and notice what is going on, there can be a creeping attitude of holding on to what you have for fear of not having enough, or internal resentment of the success of others, or a pessimism about potential opportunities….

…and before we know it, we are going in a very different direction from the attitudes and behaviour of the person we know we are at our best. 

So what direction do we want to go in?

Towards a contentment or abundance mindset.

Practice gratitude for what you HAVE rather than seeing what you don’t have. An attitude of gratitude is a great mindset shifter.

Cultivate an “I GET TO...” attitude rather than an “I HAVE TO…”. More on this here. 

Celebrate the successes of others because you celebrate who they are and the skills and gifts they have.

Express appreciation often and specifically to people. 

See potential and opportunity rather than obstacles.

Share resources, ideas, energy because there is enough – especially in our western, first world of abundance. 

Live according to your values. When resources are limited – especially around time or money – rather than saying “I can’t afford that” take a more positive approach by saying “I’m choosing to prioritise […] instead.”

These choices all take you in a direction of the BEST version of yourself, and allow you to live in a win-win situation. This is one the the Seven Habits, a subject dear to my heart and on which you can read more here. 

I have enough, there is enough, and when I win, you win, we all win because there is enough to go round when we see who we are and what we collectively CAN do.

For some further thoughts on scarcity and abundance mindsets, and how to change from one to the other, this article links the idea to teamwork and leadership and this one shows us the power of choice to change the direction of our thinking. 

So this week, when you find your thoughts taking you towards a scarcity mindset, stop and change direction to the grateful, generous hearted, affirming and positive version of yourself that you want to be.