The Abundance Mindset: 3 Reasons You Need to Adopt
Now that I look back on my days at Miami University, I remember how desperately I needed the abundance mindset in my life. My girlfriend had just broken up with me and in my mind, there was no one else on the planet that I would rather date. I would spend hours upon hours thinking of ways to get her back, where it went wrong, and how awesome my life would be if we got back together. My mental, physical, and emotional health all suffered. Countless hours I wasted all due to my lack of an abundance mindset. Those hours could’ve been spent working toward the future, but instead, I was dwelling on the past, trying to hold onto something that wasn’t coming back. Whether it be relationships, business, money, time, or sports, we could all afford to adopt an abundance mindset.
What is an Abundance Mindset?
The term ‘abundance mindset’ was first created by Stephen Covey in his best-selling book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (highly recommend). Covey defines an abundance mindset as, “a concept in which a person believes there are enough resources and successes to share with others”. He uses this idea in contrast with a scarcity mindset, which can be defined as, “when you are so obsessed with a lack of something — usually time or money — that you can’t seem to focus on anything else, no matter how hard you try”.
After my breakup, it was becoming very apparent that I had lost my sense of self. It had been nearly 2 years since I was single, and I had forgotten what it was like to depend on myself. Through all of the short-term fixes I tried with taking cold showers, ridding myself of social media, meditating every morning, and countless other self-help methods, nothing helped me overcome this state I was in quite like the abundance mindset. This mindset had a significant impact on helping me overcome a past relationship, but it’s helped out in every other area of my life as well. We should all strive to adopt an abundance mindset, and here’s why. 
1) Envy and Jealousy Disappear
When we live with a scarcity mindset, it can be easy to envy and feel jealous of those who appear to be more successful than us. I vividly remember how LinkedIn used to always stoke these feelings in me. I would open LinkedIn and posts that started with, “After a long job search, I’m finally excited to announce…” would come flying at me left and right. My thoughts would immediately race to, “What does he have that I don’t?”, or “What makes her so special to land that job?”. Life felt like a zero-sum game where, “If you win, that means I must lose”. However, once I adopted an abundance mindset, it was no longer, “Why do they get that opportunity?”, but now it was, “How can I get that same opportunity?”. That envy and jealousy we feel turns into motivation and encouragement.
2) Eliminates Self-Defeating Behavior
Self-defeating behavior can be defined as, “Behaviors that are distracting and self-sabotaging and cause us to feel exhausted and bad about ourselves”. Some examples of self-defeating behaviors include social isolation, procrastination, perfectionism, and comparing oneself to other people. Personally, I grappled with self-defeating behavior when starting this blog. My mind immediately went to, ” There are so many bloggers today that are way ahead of me and I’ll never be able to reach their level of success!”.
When I decided that I wanted to start a blog, my self-defeating behavior was procrastination through research. I felt like I needed to have all the answers. Once I came up with the perfect idea and the perfect website, THEN I would start writing. However, that’s not how it works. Since there is no such thing as the ‘perfect’ idea or the ‘perfect’ website, I continually delayed when I was going to start and what I was going to write about. Eventually, I sat myself down and told myself just to start and figure out the rest as I go. I’ll be honest, I’m still not sure what I’m doing, but that’s the beauty of it. I can wake up tomorrow knowing I have something new to learn in order to put out the best possible content!
3) You’re Inspired, Not Discouraged
With the advent of social media, it’s become nearly impossible to not compare ourselves to other people. We compare followers, likes, and lifestyle constantly when we scroll through Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. Without an abundance mindset, it can be easy to become discouraged when you see an 18-year-old on Tik-Tok with 3 million followers on Instagram (honestly how?). I used to constantly compare myself to other people on social media and it drove me crazy. It’s a never-ending cycle that does nothing but make us feel worse about our own situation. By incorporating an abundance mentality, this false reality can no longer affect us. We start to believe that we can attain that level of success we constantly see across our social media feeds.
A Life Full of Abundance
An abundance mindset is a shift that will take time but will be oh so rewarding. It frees us from our scarcity mindset and our glass half empty view of the world. It allows us to eliminate that envy and jealousy that drains our energy. We no longer defeat ourselves through procrastination, perfectionism, or social isolation. An abundance mindset is something we could all use, in every aspect of our lives. Let’s get out there and use it!
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