Do you have big dreams that give you butterflies in your stomach? Immediately after the sweetness of that excitement, do you sink into a paralyzing emotional hole made of confusion, disbelief, and impatience– generating arguments on how/why you can’t get there?

I certainly have. People I coach have. My friends have.

Scarcity is a destructive lie we created collectively as a society. It is the only thing in between us and our glorious dreams of prosperity and equality for everyone.

We’ve believed that there are a limited number of opportunities and resources, therefore we must compete. Competition creates a comparison which makes us feel “not good enough” because if there is only one winner, the other side must be the loser. This belief causes us to act small and leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If only we saw scarcity for what it is– a distorted view of reality… There are countless examples of people turning their life around after shifting their scarcity beliefs;

Lisa Nicols going from a single mother surviving on government assistance to multimillionaire status, Tony Robbins went from broke janitor to a chairman of 50 privately held businesses with combined sales exceeding $6 billion a year, Brené Brown went from researcher to world-renowned author (through the spiritual abundance of “I am enough”), Eckhart Tolle from being homeless to becoming a spiritual teacher to millions of people around the world.

No matter how many examples you see, your mind may still find excuses such as:

“It is luck”

“They have something special (talent, personality, etc.)”

“Their timing was right, I am too late to the game.”

If these thoughts are constantly brewing in your mind, they are preventing you from going after your dreams or simply recognizing the abundance that you already have in your life. Try these 7 mindsets to unroot scarcity beliefs from your life:

1. Abundance inside before outside

If we examine closely the people who created any type of external abundance, they all mention the same rule: abundance needs to come from within first. What that means is, they didn’t look for the physical evidence of abundance (skills, money, or any other resource).

Instead, they focused on creating well being inside by focusing on the connection within:

• self-worth and positive internal dialog
• spiritual richness through connection with God, higher self, community, or just our “wiser” side

The reason is simple. Our belief systems shape our actions. They create a mold in which we perceive the world; either we are able to see opportunities or have our blinders on. If there is nobody to receive it, abundance goes unnoticed.

Thus, abundance is a mindset. It is the ability to receive the goodness of the world.

If you wish to create financial success or impact with your work, start with the question “what scarcity belief systems do I have about myself and the world?”

Some examples:

“I don’t have money/time/skill/willpower/smarts/experience to do/be…”

“The world is a hostile/cutthroat place.”

“There are only so many opportunities available.”

“I am abandoned. I feel alone.”

“There is no meaning to life.”

After you identify these thoughts, notice how they might be temporary, changeable things or mere opinions, generalizations, and conditioning.

Photo by Drew Graham on Unsplash

2. Gratitude/ appreciation of all of this life

An important key to inner abundance is gratitude. It is the ability to recognize the generosity that already exists in life. To name a few extraordinary acts of abundance that come from life (which often goes unnoticed):

• The astonishingly complex body and mind you are born into- that has never been and never will be exactly like you
• The variety of life forms, colors, sensations, smells…
• The infinite combinations of decisions that bring two people together
• The intelligence that put a man on the Moon

Contrary to common belief, gratitude isn’t being happy for what you have in your own life compared to what others don’t have.
It is acknowledging all of this life and being thankful for the chance to witness the complexity and richness of it.
It is accepting where you are, with all the lessons, the revelations that made you YOU, and opening up for what else life has in store for you.

To practice this, challenge yourself to recognize the generosity in people’s actions, the flow of nature, or simple things you enjoy every day.

3. Small wins every day

It is intimidating and blinding to fixate your mind on “the big goal”. Doing this immediately cuts off the appreciation of the present moment and highlights what you don’t have yet.

It is like running a marathon. Imagine you are 30 mins in and already fretting about how many miles are left instead of acknowledging your 30 mins success and how good it feels to be capable of running. You will either torture yourself the entire marathon or give up before you finish. Not to mention, you won’t even enjoy yourself.

Achieving any goal works the same way. If you distract yourself by trying to pin the complete details of the big lofty goal (like exactly how, when, where), you will lose motivation and joy for today’s work.

Don’t get me wrong; have a blueprint, vision, as a north star but, let it guide you as a big picture, not pester you.

Abundance is in acknowledging the small gains. By paying attention to what’s working, we also reinforce the positive inner dialog (“I can do this”) which reduces stress and increases mental and emotional capacity.

To practice this, challenge yourself to divide your dream goal into daily actions. At the end of each day, acknowledge yourself and others who contribute to the daily win. If it wasn’t a win for some reason, acknowledge what you learned.

Photo by Jake Ingle on Unsplash

4. Welcoming failure

When we say yes to failure, we signal openness and resilience to our brain. In this case, abundance is in the openness to the experience and the faith in our ability to overcome any adversity. This mindset encourages us to open up to new ideas and venture out. Through trial and error, we find a good match and start growing that endeavor.

Think about it this way: if you want to fall in love but afraid of heartbreak, you are unlikely to open up to people, let alone initiate conversations.

As a result, you will perpetuate a lack of connection. Another example: let’s say you have a great idea and desire to become a millionaire, but you hesitate to launch due to fear of failure. As you may guess, that idea and dream will remain intangible as long as you are paralyzed by fear of failure.

Dissolving fear of failure is easier said than done. If this is a big obstacle for you, start with small steps. Challenge yourself to try something mildly risky at first and gradually warm up to higher risks.

5. Being genuinely happy for others having an abundance

Most of us are taught there are fewer slices available if someone gets a slice of a pie. What if the pie gets bigger each time someone gets a piece? The growth of tech demonstrates this clearly: as more people come up with new ideas, more and more businesses emerge. Abstract concepts such as love and knowledge work the same way — the more people are contributing, the more knowledge and love is out there.

When you see someone having what you yet don’t have, if the jealousy of resentment invades your mind, remember that it is a scarcity reaction. In this case, you are unknowingly labeling wealth as “bad” or “negative”. It is as if you are telling your subconscious you shouldn’t have wealth.

Instead, try recognizing their abundance as proof of what is possible. By doing so, you are associating abundance with positive impressions in your subconscious mind. This way you are conditioning your mind to be ready to recognize and welcome similar opportunities to create wealth in the future.

6. Getting inspired by the intelligence of life/ higher power

Whether you believe in God, Universe, Life, or just evolution, acknowledging a type of higher intelligence goes a long way to relax the mind. Even evolution tells us there is an incredibly intelligent life force shaping the world around us– which is much greater and smarter than any single individual.

If we paid attention, we would see the abundance all around us, especially in the seemingly mundane things. For example, a piece of rock that you may not even notice is an incredible act of creation; becoming itself after millions of years and a series of events we can never duplicate.

When we acknowledge that we are a vessel for life to express itself, it immediately provides humility as well as an endless amount of possibilities.

We realize we don’t have to figure it out all. We just need to recognize that if life is infinitely abundant and if we are a product of life, we must be abundant too by default. If we haven’t been abundant yet, it is because we got locked up in our beliefs and became blind to our nature. To practice this, pay attention to daily miracles of life.

7. Practicing giving

Abundance is like water; it needs to flow. When we try to capture and possess abundance, by definition it becomes limited. Look carefully into where we came from; Nature. There is an ever prevalent cycle of give and take — no hoarding. Nature is generous, but it requires us to be generous; to receive we must give.

Life works with the same principles. When you give, people generally want to return the favor. Generosity unlocks hearts and awakens the innate human need to support each other.

The best part is giving doesn’t have to be in material form. You can provide love, emotional support, or small gifts of kindness.

At a mental and energetic level, you also prime yourself with positive action; doing something good for someone else. You start perceiving yourself as someone supportive, caring, and “rich enough” to contribute. This, in turn, helps you stay more optimistic and energetic to pursue a myriad of opportunities to create more emotional and physical wealth.

Scarcity may be the default condition for many because we are conditioned to see the limitations. Throughout civilization, we got so removed from the truth of our nature and became hyper-focused on securing goods for only ourselves, which then created the illusion of “not enough for everybody” and unfortunately, greed. We aren’t doomed to perpetuate this false condition though.

By understanding the workings of abundance and undoing the scarcity mindset, we can create a whole new world for ourselves and others.

Dear abundant human, remember your nature. See the scarcity game that manipulates the world clearly, and do your best to quit playing it. Appreciate the present moment, ask for more, and give more.

Originally Published on medium.