Hey Steemian friends,
Do you feel that you don't have enough of what you want to be happy? Do you have a void in your life and have you developed the scarcity attitude?
A scarcity mindset leads to self-defeating behavior. It sabotages your chances for future financial success. Even when a Depression-type scarcity mentality helps you accumulate piles of cash, you’re unable to enjoy it. You’re afraid to.
How much is enough? How much do you need to live on comfortably? Fear is always at the heart of scarcity: fear of failure, fear of the future, fear of missing out. Those with a scarcity mindset cling to the notion that there’s a limited amount of everything, and they’re afraid they won’t get their share. For now, you should recognize that in order to achieve financial freedom, you must adopt an abundance mentality.
If you’re worried about lack, you aren’t free. It's best to count your blessings, rather than focus on what you're lacking in.
To get what you want, give what you want.
What do I mean?
In an amazing article from the academic journal Psychological Science, researchers suggest that “giving time gives you time”. The authors found that spending time on others (instead of yourself) boosts how much time you think you have — in both the present and the future.
Many of us feel pressured by the modern world. We feel rushed, as if there’s never enough time to do what we want. We feel a lack, a scarcity, of minutes and hours and days. To cope with this, we tend to turn inward. We watch TV. We play videogames. We get a massage. But studies show that “wasting time” like this truly is a waste. When we spend time on ourselves, we feel like the time is lost.
On the other hand, when we give our time to others — helping friends or volunteering in the community, for instance — we experience feelings of “time affluence”. Plus our time seems “fuller”. We feel better about ourselves and what we’ve done. And as a bonus:
“Giving time to others not only increases the giver’s sense of subjective time but can also increase the recipient’s objective amount of time, such that giving time contributes to the well-being of both the self and others.”
That, my friends, is abundance in action.
The bottom line? “When individuals feel time constrained, they should become more generous with their time — despite their inclination to be less so.”
The same idea applies to other areas of your life in which you experience feelings of lack. When I started giving away and selling my Stuff several years ago, for example, I came to realize just how much I had. Before, when I was constantly in acquisition mode, I felt like I had very little. I was wrong. I had mountains of things!
Now I have the daunting task of getting rid of stuff. It's hard to do. I''m not the type to throw good stuff in the garbage, when I know someone could use what I'm trying to get rid of. I love Goodwill! I feel less guilty by donating to them, if I can't find someone personally to give my old stuff to. Of course, if my old things are useless and wore out, I will take them to the trash.
If you feel a lack of respect from others, give respect to others. If you feel a lack of compassion from others, be compassionate to others. If you feel like people don’t love you, love other people. If you feel broke, donate time and money to the poor. If you feel like you’ll never have enough wealth, systematically give away some of what you have.
In The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey writes:
The abundance mentality…is the paradigm that there is plenty out there and enough to spare for everybody. It results in sharing of prestige, of recognition, of profits, of decision making. It opens possibilities, options, alternatives, and creativity.
The abundance mindset comes from understanding there’s plenty in the world: plenty of money, plenty of love, plenty of time. There’s plenty for everyone — both for you and for others. There’s plenty now and there’ll be plenty tomorrow. If you enjoyed my post, I always appreciate your up vote, be sure to follow for more engaging posts and please leave a comment to let me know what you think.
