Money Problems – Scarcity Mentality

Poverty, Scarcity, and Abundance Mentalities

A scarcity mindset hinders progress. This blog series is designed to help you break free from mindsets that hinder your ability to live a life of contribution, significance, and abundance. The past negative experiences you have had DON’T have to shape the future. Learn tools that hack the mental habits of the past and create a future you can fall in love with over and over again. Let’s GO!!

Scarcity Defined:

Dictionary.com defines scarcity as insufficiency or shortness of supply: dearth, rarity, in frequency.   A person with a scarcity mentality has a worldview of LACK. Their overwhelming thought patterns will always find the road to a shortage, lack, and restrictions. They continuously operate in a mindset that says, “I don’t have enough, and I can’t get more.”

 

“People with a scarcity mentality tend to see everything in terms of win-lose.  There is only so much; and if someone else has it, that means there will be less for me.” Stephen Covey

 

You know, as a business life coach, I always have questions.

  1. When you think about money, are you worried about how much of it you lack, or are you excited about how much of it you can produce?
  2. Do you make decisions on what the possible benefits may be, or are your choices based on avoiding adverse outcomes?

 

The Power of Focus:

Focus has a powerful way of manifesting its target. When a person is focused on lack or not having enough of something, then their focus will produce more of the same. 

 

 

  • If you are continually saying, “I just don’t have enough time in the day to complete everything I have to do.” Then guess what? You will never have enough time to complete your daily achievement list.

 

  • If you believe you are always broke, then your behavior will follow your belief and create a scenario where you are still broke, even if you aren’t. Remember the example from the blog on Money Problems – The Series.

 

Our focus is a self-fulfilling prophecy. When we fully understood the power of it, we would be cautious about what we focus on regularly. As you will read later, focus produces emotions. The beautiful thing is you have the power to change your focus. If you are feeling negative, then stop and think about what you are focusing on at that specific moment. You can change your mood from discouraged, sad, despair to encouraged, happy, and hopeful in a matter of minutes by utilizing your power of focus.

 

Changing Future Trajectory:

In my early teens until my late twenties, I suffered from depression, and controlling my focus was a game-changer for me. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that focus cures depression. IT DOES NOT! However, it is a tool in my toolbox to beat it back into the dungeon where it belongs. When I was suicidal and diagnosed with major depression, my psychiatrist put me on a host of drugs to control it. Walking around in a fog all the time not able to feel any emotions was not for Brenda Underwood!

 

I did the hard work of therapy, rededicated my life to Jesus, discovered my self-worth, and started loving the woman in the mirror.

 

Then one day, my doctor took me off the meds. That was 24 years ago. When my life circumstances are not what I want them to be, I focus on what I want, not on what I don’t. I focus on my happy place and do something I enjoy. Connect with people who make me laugh and value me just as I am (lumps, bumps, and all). I control how I feel, not my circumstances. I AM NOT A VICTIM!

 

Victim No More – Goodbye Scarcity:

A scarcity mentality is a close cousin to a victim mentality. Both are self-fulling prophecies that are rooted in hopelessness and a lack of self-confidence. Both mindsets function off the shared belief that people are not in control of what is happening in their lives. People who suffer from these mentalities believe they are not the cause of their life but merely the recipient of what life dishes out to them. Like their cousin “victim mentality,” they struggle with low self-esteem and insecurity.  

 

I love the way Joel Osteen puts it, “Whatever follows, I AM is going to come looking for you.”

I AM broke                                      (Flip to WEALTHY)
I AM neglected                               (Flip to CHERISHED)
I AM always tired                          (Flip to ENERGIZED)
I AM not accepted                         (Flip to FULLY ACCEPTED)
I AM not smart enough                (Flip to MORE THAN ENOUGH)
I AM not loved and cherished    (Flip to LAVISHED IN LOVE)

 

The Impact of Negative Self-Talk:

Negative I AM statements will never make matters better, they will always make them worse. A scarcity mindset will produce a host of negative emotions like jealousy, fear, bitterness, self-rejection, and dislike of the success of others. Often this mindset will cause you to compare yourself to others consistently. You will find the areas that are different in others and make the decision that you lack what is necessary to be successful in life. Comparing yourself to others will often cause individuals to shrink back, stay in the shadows, and never fully use their unique abilities.

 

When we live in a state of shrinking back, we struggle to find solutions to our problems and create more barriers.

 

Options and opportunities evade us, and we begin to fall into a state of despair. Negative emotions produce negative behavior with massive consequences.  

 

Consider Eve. She had the entire garden at her disposal, and she could have eaten from an abundance of trees. However, Eve decided to focus on the tree she was forbidden to eat from in a garden full of them. The enemy made her believe she lacked something good and that God was withholding a better life from her. She felt like she was missing out and made some poor choices that had severe consequences. Don’t be like Eve. Take your power back from the enemy of your soul and THRIVE!

 

Breakthrough Tip

Focus on Positive Outcomes:

We are going to make this breakthrough tip very practical.

  1. Right now, find a blank piece of paper
  2. Fold it in half
  3. On one half, write down everything that worries you. What is keeping you up at night?
  4. On the second half, write down the positive outcome you want to create in every situation.
  5. In the areas where someone else must change to reach your positive outcome, ask yourself this one question: “What action can I take to create the outcome I desire if this person NEVER changes?”
  6. Focus all your energy, effort, and actions on creating the desired result.
  7. When the problem comes to mind don’t dwell on it – CHANGE YOUR FOCUS to the positive outcome
  8. This last one goes without saying: BATH EVERYTHING IN PRAYER
  9. Pray about the problem once and then ask the Holy Spirit to direct your actions toward creating a positive outcome
  10. Pray about the positive outcome continuously until it comes to pass, sensitive to the guidance of the Holy Spirit
  11. Each time you want to complain about that problem SHIFT to a conversation of excitement about the positive outcome you desire

 

Next Blog

The next blog will be about an abundance mentality and provide another tip on how to break through money problems. If this blog has been an encouragement to you please do me a favor:

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Life Coach Brenda Underwood

Meet Breakthrough Strategist and Business Life Coach, Brenda Underwood (Coach BU). After 25+ years of corporate-level management for Unisource Worldwide, Mitchell Williams Law Firm, and Toshiba America, Brenda is reaching out to help others elevate their life to new heights and soar into monumental success.

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