9 Ways an Abundance Mindset Can Supercharge Your Life

There are two types of people in this world. First type, which constitutes 99% of the population, are those who treat anything good coming into their way as a “scarce resource”. They make up their mind that the world has a scarce quantity of anything valuable, and so whenever they are lucky enough to stumble upon any of that, they will have to make the best use of it no matter what. Or they are doomed.

The second type, the rare, usually super confident and significantly more successful people, are those who carry what is known as the “abundance mindset”. For them, nothing in this world is a scarce resource. Whether it’s jobs, education, sports, business clients, investments, even relationships, they know that the world has ample opportunities to find the right fit. If a great prospect comes their way, they will give it their best shot; but it doesn’t work out, they will not lose sleep over it. They will keep doing what they are doing, because they know the next prospect is just around the corner.

If we look back at our lives with honesty, we should discover that life pretty much works as per the abundance mentality mindset. Everything we once agonized over, thinking there’s no hope left, not only have we long gotten over them, but in many cases we actually have found something better.

For example, so many of us may have had such a hard time breaking up with an ex, but now look back and wonder “What were we even thinking?”

Yet moving forward, we will still be stuck in the scarcity mindset. To get ahead in life, it is quite necessary to change that perspective sooner rather than later.

How can an abundance mindset help a person?

1. You negotiate better

When you know that if you search around, you will find another secondhand car you like, you will have the guts to negotiate hard with the owner. When you know that this one particular order will not make or break your business, and that will you find plenty more in in the future, you will have the confidence you need to stick to your ground and not give more discount to the client that he actually deserves.

Life is full of negotiations. In any negotiation, the person with a better second option is always in a stronger position. And no option is stronger than the courage to walk away if you feel you are being short-changed.

2. You appreciate others’ success

This one is critical. In today’s social media driven world of broadcasting of triumphs and achievements, it is easy to feel sore and resentful when someone gains something you long for. For example, a friend got accepted into a top university for an MBA. Or a colleague landed a high paying job at the best multinational in the country. Or an acquaintance just raised a million dollars in funding.

With a scarcity mindset, all of these accomplishments can become sources of grievances and jealously. Because it is almost instinctive to believe that success is a finite resource, and that if someone grabs a chunk of it, there is less left for us. That life is a zero-sum game, and if someone wins, we lose. However, this is entirely untrue. The world has an achievement pie big enough for everyone to have a slice. Someone earning something does not make it less likely at all for us to achieve the same. With an abundance mindset, we begin to feel much less insecure when someone is doing better in life, because we know we can do the same. So it helps us break off from the clutches of jealousy, and instead genuinely appreciate people for their achievements.

3. You can exit a toxic relationship

Many people do realize that they are in a toxic relationship, unhappy, unfulfilled. Yet they can’t get themselves to break off. Because their scarcity mindset fools them into believing that if they let go of this person, they will never find someone as good ever again. Or they will never find someone they will be able to connect with. Which is simply ridiculous and untrue.

An abundance mindset when it comes to relationships helps us not just escape relationships which aren’t right for us, but also helps us set healthy boundaries with the right partner. For example, your boyfriend has a habit of unloading his anger on you when he has a quarrel with his parents. You know you’re just being a scapegoat, but in a scarcity mindset, you will be scared to reproach him for it, fearing he might leave you. But with an abundance mindset, you will be motivated to make it clear to him that you don’t accept this habit of his. In fact, you can create as many boundaries as you need to ensure you are treated fairly. Because you know if this prompts him to break up with you, it’s his loss, and you will find someone else who will value you better.

4. Your mental health improves

So much of life is agonizing over our current predicaments, or things we have lost. For example, someone may be feeling very low because her startup has been affected negatively because of the pandemic, and she fears the good days of high revenue will never return. Someone else may be deeply dejected because he is not enjoying his current job, but fears he won’t possibly find a better opportunity anytime soon. Another person may be extremely depressed because his relationship of eight years just tanked, and he feels he won’t find another amazing person he can spend his life with.

All of these are bad predicaments, yes, but they are made infinitely worse by our own mindset of scarcity. There is a saying right, that in life it is 20% what happens to us and 80% how we react? We will be much better off in terms of our mental health, in this regard, if in the reacting part, we shrug off the idea that our current predicament is permanent. Rather, as our past has proved us again and again, we will find something or someone better soon enough.

This last line is extremely important. If your current situation makes you feel that you will never find something better, think again of all the times in your past where you felt the same way about something. It could be that your CGPA took a nosedive, and you felt you will never get it up, or will not land a good job because of it. It could be an investor with insane network and wealth that you wanted onboard, and it didn’t pan out. It could even be a divorce that made you feel there is no hope left for you, relationship wise, and that you can't co-exist with another person.

But you made it. And things DID turn out for the better, eventually. If life shows us something on a consistent basis, then it’s that all our fears regarding scarcity are overblown and unfounded.

But once we can internalize that without life having to prove it to us again and again, we are able to deal with the setbacks and heartaches better, and consequently, enjoy a happier, healthier state of mind.

5. You become more confident

Confidence is the holy grail. It is the single most attractive feature of a person. Confident people make better friendships, are valued and respected more, considered more desirable for relationships, fare better academically, get more promotions, earn higher and even perform better as entrepreneurs.

While confidence in itself is a deep subject, one of the foundations of developing it is by cultivating an abundance mindset. In a nutshell, what is confidence anyways, other than the guts to fail? When you have the courage to walk up to that girl for a chat despite the possibility of getting rejected, that’s confidence. When you have the courage to stand up on stage to give a speech to an audience of 500 despite the fear of coming across as “lame or boring”, that’s confidence. Abundance mindset aids here because you know that even if that girl turns you down, you will be okay, and you’ll find another one who wouldn’t. And even if some of the audience walks out because they didn’t like your speech (the worst case scenario), you will be okay, because you are honing your public speaking skills, and you will find another opportunity in the future to do better.

6. You become a positive individual

Negativity, pessimism, cynicism – all of these fester in a mind poisoned by the scarcity mindset. Such people are even unpleasant to hang out with. They will treat life like a version of the Hunger Games, always trying to grab all the good stuff for themselves, and generally speaking ill of those who have seen better days in life.

If you’re such a person, you desperately do need a mindset fixing. By thinking in terms of abundance, you can get out from the dark abyss of negativity and become a more optimistic human being. You will be fun to be around as well.

7. You become a better leader

A leader doesn’t earn his title by hogging all credits. Whether we are talking about a leader in the sports field, the head of a department, or the CEO of a startup, practicing abundance mindset means you will not shirk away from diverting praises to your team. You know it takes nothing away from you, and there will be plenty of opportunities in the future for you to get the spotlight. For now, you are perfectly happy letting your team bask in the glory of an achievement.

8. You achieve more

A scarcity mindset can perennially pull you away from exploring new areas in life. You don’t want to start that podcast because you’re worried there are already so many out there, and people won’t listen to yours. You don’t want to launch that startup because they seem to fail all the time, and you don’t believe yours will be any different. You don’t want to start working out because you think the best days in your life are behind you, so all the effort in getting in shape won’t be worth it.

In this way, a scarcity mindset unfortunately fools you into believing that the world is stacked up against you. But you know what? You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. If you never actually take the leap, you will never know if your misgivings were right or not. Perhaps your social insights are so interesting that your podcast will cut through the noise and eventually become popular. Perhaps your discipline and humble nature becomes huge competitive advantages and makes your startup a success. Perhaps getting in shape transforms your physical and mental health, makes you happier and more attractive, and opens new doors of opportunities in life.

Or maybe they don’t get you too far. So what? It is the essence of abundance mindset to understand that even if something doesn’t work the way you thought, that isn’t the end of the world. You learn, you move on, and you try something new the next day. That is the foundation of success. How many stories have you heard of a famous individual failing in life again and again, and then finally hitting it super big?

Cue Jack Ma being rejected by over 30 jobs before founding Alibaba and becoming one of the richest men in the world. Without an abundance mindset, it is literally impossible for someone to face that level of rejection in life and still dare to do something new and risky.

The beauty of abundance mindset is that it puts our “feelers” out for new opportunities. Instead of always playing safe and defensive, and thus missing out on crucial opportunities to go big in life, we learn to keep our eyes and ears open, and discover potential value in places no one is looking at. Because we know that even if we are wrong, we will be okay.

9. You give more

This may seem like a kumbaya sort of a final point, but it shouldn’t be. The world can definitely be a better place if we learnt to share things, and be more giving. An abundance mindset inspires us to help others, be kinder and more forgiving. It motivates us to go the distance for a person without expecting something from them in return. Because we know if they don't, someone else will return that favour one day.

Even if we went out of our ways to be a support to someone, only for that person to let us down and betray us, this mindset helps us understand that no two people are alike, and that we can continue to be a generous human being without fear of being taken advantage of.

Honestly, do you need any more reasons to begin cultivating an abundance mentality? Try it. It can be game changing.

About Me: I am a co-founder of a young food venture, Alpha Catering. My passions include digital marketing, personal development, reading, writing, and entrepreneurship. At Alpha, we are striving to change the perception of catering in Bangladesh through tech, innovation and awesome customer experiences.

Link to our FB page: https://www.facebook.com/alphacateringservices