You may have heard about the abundance mentality. It’s the concept in which we believe there are more than enough resources to go around and success is available to all. With this mindset, we can be happy for a coworker when he gets a promotion or for a friend who makes headway on her side business.
photo by C. K. Hartman on flickr
The contrast of this concept is the scarcity mentality. This is a mindset where we believe there are a limited amount of resources and not everyone can succeed. We become unhappy and jealous when coworkers and friends succeed thinking this will somehow make it more difficult for us to succeed.
People with the abundance mentality are more generous, share recognition, and entrust others with responsibilities. Not only that, more is given to them in return.
Having a scarcity mentality, on the other hand, stifles creativity, halts synergy and collaboration with those around us, and ultimately hinders our own success.
Question: What’s an example of when you were genuinely happy for someone else’s success?
I’ve been genuinely happy for my friend Kimanzi. He’s pursuing his dream hard and seeing great results.
Joe,
Kimanzi is a great guy and I’ve enjoyed connecting with him lately. Heard more of is story on Justin Lukasavige’s Your Story. Have you heard that episode?
I did. He did a great job letting us know how he did it.
Yeah, loved hearing his story!
A tide raises all ships. A friend that went from spending several years in prison with nothing coming out and no hopes for a real job offer to making six figures within a year.
Wow, that’s amazing, Michael! Yeah, I could see it being easy to think that isn’t fair. Love the concept of a tide raises all ships!
Since my Source is God – I have no doubt that there is more than enough to go around and when someone I know is blessed I consider it this way – the “blessing line” just got that much shorter and I am that much closer to my blessing!
Haha! Ann, I love that! Thanks for sharing.
Great post. Sometimes I had allowed that jealousy aspect to creep in in the past because I had the wrong mentality. In fact there is so much more satisfaction from helping others succeed and supporting them on their efforts.
Chris, that’s wisdom there. You’ve challenged me with this approach. I keep remembering when you told me how helping the elderly couple move was a meaningful, impactful time for you.
Reminds me how Andy Andrews talks about serving others and how that leads to wisdom.
Honored that I could challenge you in this area. I’m still a work in progress myself, but every time I’ve helped someone else, I’ve gained much more than I’ve given. Of course we don’t give out of a desire to be blessed but out of a heart of service.
this seems to happen when I am working on my real estate. I have these thoughts that I am mingling with the competition and it will hurt my prospect opportunity, but I don’t think that is the case. I need to get over it soon. Networking is huge.
Mike,
I’ve heard Dan Miller talk about about how the scarcity mentality is usually pretty bad in sales, and I bet especially real estate.
Do you find that’s is the case with others in this industry?
I am fairly new to real estate investing so I don’t know how the others feel. I think being a newbie with anything you do you will have this feeling of, there is only so much business to go around. I have to always remind myself that everyone has their particular group that they will appeal too, and also it has to a lot to do with timing and just being in the right place at the right time. Always the key for me is to keep my head up and not let things bother me and impact my self esteem.
Hi Michael. One of my neighbors won a lottery drawing a few months ago, I believe it was around $300,000.00 or so. It was amazing how many neighbors were jealous of this guy. Interestingly, he used a good chunk of the proceeds to remodel and really fix up his home, which benefitted us all. I was very happy for him. Great post, the trick is to get others to see that abundance is not finite, but it can grow.
Rick,
That’s really interesting. I’ll bet jealously is especially strong in cases where there’s a sudden handout like with the lottery.
You’re right, there’s another way of looking at it. It does help all the neighbors through the value of the properties in the neighborhood.
Thanks for the input!
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This is a great post Mike! It is the most freeing and enabling feeling to live with an abundance mentality. This past year, living on my own and treating Lyme, I had to be super intentional about not having a scarcity mindset and become stingy. That only leads to letting money control me, instead of me controling it!
It is a wonderful thing to learn, so freeing to live with open hands!
You’ve mentioned things you’ve learned this past year living on your own more than once. Must have been an impactful year! Why do you think that was?
Great post! I’ve lived out both sides of this, and the abundance mentality makes one so much happier! It’s impossible to not be miserable when living out the scarcity mentality.