The Abundance Mindset: One Thing that can Change it All

We were born and raised differently. Most of us moved throughout life from a simple system during childhood toward more sophisticated systems where more expectations were set, and rewards were designed. In schools, we have been trained to be incentivized against high achievements. Only a few prizes will be offered to a minimal number of students who outperform others, which is not necessarily the case in corporate settings. People start their careers where they are conditioned to school systems, which leads to situations with higher competition among team members, resulting in unnecessary emotional tension or even hostility in some extreme cases.?

?In his famous book "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," Stephen Covey laid down a simple principle that, if well acquired, can create massive transformation in the way we feel towards ourselves and others. Covey defined the below dichotomous laws:?

?1. The law of Scarcity, where resources like money and food are limited and insufficient.

?2. The law of Abundance, where the resources like money and food are unlimited and more than enough for everyone.?

?Consequently, a person can either acquire a scarcity mindset or an abundance mindset.?

?Most people are scripted in the scarcity mentality, where they see life as if there is one piece of a pie available, where if someone gets a big pie, it means less to them and everyone else. In other words, it is a zero-sum paradigm of life. As described by Covey: "People with a Scarcity Mentality have a very difficult time sharing recognition and credit, power or profit – even with those who help in the production.?They also have a very hard time being genuinely happy for?other people's successes?– even, and sometimes especially, members of their own family or close friends and associates.?It's almost as if something is being taken from them when someone else receives special recognition of or windfall gain or has remarkable success or achievement."

?On the other hand, people with an abundance mindset believe there are enough resources to spare for everyone. They look into resources as if they own a flowing river; they have plenty of water, and they don't mind if others have access to it because this resource is available and sustainable.

?As described by Covey: "The Abundance Mentality, flows out of a deep inner sense of personal worth and security… It results in sharing of prestige, of recognition, of profits, of decision making.?It opens possibilities, options, alternatives, and creativity… It recognizes the unlimited possibilities for positive interactive growth and development, creating new Third Alternatives"?

?Give yourself a few seconds to notice which of the mindsets describes you mostly through the below infographic (Katrina Baccetti, 2020):

??The best news is that we all have the capacity to rewire our brains and shift our perception to acquire the abundance mindset. I am sharing five ways to practice the shifting process:

1. ?Help others occasionally. It does not have to be always in the form of money. Helping and mentoring team members would be another excellent form of giving.
2. Focus on what you have and not what you lack. Practice gratitude and appreciate your skills, resources, and blessings.
3. Believe in the "unlimited" and explore possibilities. A selective attention experiment called the "Gorilla Test" conducted by Harvard University in 1999 proved that when people focus on one singular thing, other possibilities in front of them go entirely unnoticed (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo&feature=youtu.be)
4. Learn to observe your internal dialogues and capture the thoughts of scarcity.
5. Stay close with people who have an abundance mindset. Surrounding yourself with people will make their habits and perceptions contagious.