![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/image-asset-7.webp\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Because this post is going to border on spiritual, I want to make this fat, practical disclaimer first: I am arguing that it is more economically advantageous for you to embody an abundance mindset<\/strong>. Regardless of your belief system, this will get you farther ahead.<\/p>\n The best example I can think of for scarcity vs. abundance mindset are two of my friends \u2013 and after I describe their personalities, you\u2019ll probably be able to guess which friend is now more of an acquaintance. You\u2019ll also probably be able to guess which one has become<\/em> more abundant in her financial situation. <\/p>\n These friends started out in financially similar situations with comparable salaries.<\/p>\n But when I\u2019d go grab a few things at the store with one of them, we\u2019d no sooner have exited the threshold of Kroger\u2019s automatic doors than she\u2019d Venmo request me for half the amount. \u201cScarcity Mindset Friend requests $5.12.\u201d You know the type. Sometimes it\u2019s good to be on top of your Venmo requests so people don\u2019t forget, but there\u2019s usually some level of \u201cIt\u2019ll come out in the wash!\u201d that\u2019s mutually agreed upon in friendship. <\/p>\n The energy around the behavior was urgent and untrusting \u2013 if I\u2019m not in control of this $5.12, I\u2019ll never get it back because you\u2019ll forget or you won\u2019t want to pay me back and I need this $5.12 because my paycheck isn\u2019t for another week and and and and\u2014<\/em><\/p>\n This stream of consciousness leads nowhere positive, because the energy is negative. And at the risk of revealing my true status as an aspiring Woo-Woo McGee, the more you emit these radio waves of I don\u2019t have enough<\/em>, the more you create situations in which that becomes true (but more on that in a little bit).<\/p>\n Now let\u2019s take a peek behind Door #2, on the other end of the scarcity\/abundance spectrum. <\/p>\n This friend insists on treating you. Coffee after class? She\u2019ll physically block you from the cash register so she can cover your nitro cold brew. Insist you don\u2019t want anything? She\u2019ll come back with a venti version of whatever she got and hand it to you, smiling. You get the sense with this friend that she\u2019s absolutely not keeping score<\/em>. <\/p>\n While you could spin this case study a few different ways, it\u2019s my go-to example for scarcity vs. abundance because I became friends with the woman behind Door #2 after<\/em> being accustomed to the prior nickel-and-diming method of navigating the financial ebbs and flows of life. \u201cI brought wine to a party and you had two glasses? Well.. aren\u2019t you going to Venmo me for that?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n So one day (during a coffee date), I told her: \u201cYou are so generous.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s abundance mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know what that is, but it sounds made-up<\/em>, I thought.<\/p>\n Abundance mindset is the belief that you have enough<\/strong> \u2013 and not only do you have enough, but you will always have what you need. It is, in its truest essence, a trust and belief in yourself and your ability.<\/p>\n In the next few years, I observed different paths for these two individuals. One of them has stayed more or less stagnant in their financial standing and career trajectory, gripping the reins tightly \u2013 and the other has seen exponential growth in her income and potential. <\/p>\n You could (and probably will) argue that this anecdotal example is a shallow coincidence, but I\u2019d love to invite you to think of people in your life who fit these same archetypes. I would be willing to bet those who walk through life with an attitude of abundance are exposed to more opportunity than those who do not.<\/p>\n It\u2019s certainly not superstition \u2013 instead, it\u2019s the qualities of openness<\/strong> and generosity<\/strong> that predispose you to better opportunities<\/strong>, an expanded network<\/strong>, and a bias toward risk and action<\/strong>. <\/p>\n Think about the microcosm in the example above: Which friend would you be more inclined to treat for lunch? Which friend do you think you\u2019d rather travel with? If you were given the opportunity to attend a free event and could bring a plus-one, which one would you call?<\/p>\n To quote my Catholic elementary school education, when you give of yourself to others, they will give of themselves unto you<\/strong>. (Or something like that \u2013 it\u2019s like the golden rule meets ECON 101, with a grammatically dense twist.)<\/p>\n That same energy that dictates the small, person-to-person level interaction governs the way the rest of the world interacts with you, too. <\/p>\n Think about the way you\u2019d apply an abundance mindset or a scarcity mindset when it comes to investing: You notice you have a few hundred dollars left over at the end of every month that hasn\u2019t been accounted for in the Save & Invest tab of your budget yet. <\/p>\n The scarcity mindset looks at this and says, \u201cI might need that later. I\u2019m going to keep it in checking just in case something comes up.\u201d<\/p>\n The abundance mindset says, \u201cWonderful. I\u2019ll increase my automatic transfer to general investing \u2013 clearly I\u2019ve outgrown my old expectations for myself, and it\u2019s time to level up<\/em>. There will always be another paycheck.\u201d*<\/p>\n *The personal finance Mother Hen in me feels the need to disclaim here that, in this scenario, both examples already have emergency funds. This is truly leftover money that they could either hoard or invest.<\/p>\n The abundance mindset is quick to recognize when it\u2019s time to grow, take a risk, and pursue more \u2013 because the foundation is trust that there will always be enough<\/strong>.<\/p>\n You show up differently for life when you believe there\u2019s an abundance of wealth and opportunity waiting for you. Remember \u201cself-fulfilling prophecies\u201d from high school literature? Turns out it\u2019s a thing in life, too. You\u2019ll bounce back faster from disappointments, you\u2019ll become more psychologically resilient, and, as a result, put yourself out there faster and more frequently if you believe good things are in store for you.<\/p>\n Since so much of career growth and wealth-building is about having time<\/strong> and consistency<\/strong> on your side, it behooves you to adopt an aggressive strategy that allows you to pack more into each and every year of your life. You can\u2019t pack very much in if you\u2019re feeling bad for yourself and intermittently swearing off LinkedIn because you didn\u2019t hear back from a company.<\/p>\n The scarcity mindset says: \u201cI\u2019ll never get a job better than the one I have now, so I\u2019m not even going to try.\u201d<\/p>\n The abundance mindset says: \u201cI must not have gotten that job because something bigger and better is waiting for me \u2013 I better go start pursuing that bigger and better thing with even more tenacity,<\/em> because this rejection is proof that it\u2019s out there. Otherwise, I would\u2019ve gotten this job.\u201d<\/p>\n The irony of a scarcity mindset is that it\u2019s self-defeating \u2013 the counterintuitive goal of scarcity is to protect you from failure. And with the walls that you build around your checking account to keep everything sealed in water-tight, you inadvertently shut out more. <\/p>\n A scarcity mindset is the white-knuckle grip that tells you if you let go for even a second<\/em>, everything will disappear \u2013 that you\u2019ve built a precarious house of cards that you need to relentlessly guard.<\/p>\n Of course, most of us know that growth \u2013 and not incremental, inch-by-inch growth, but exponential<\/em> growth \u2013 requires taking calculated risks. Someone who believes there\u2019s a metaphoric safety net underneath them will almost certainly jump with more faith and confidence than someone who does not. <\/p>\n This shows up in our career paths, in our approaches to money (I can\u2019t even begin to tell you how often I hear, \u201cI would invest, but I don\u2019t want to lose money!\u201d to which I say, \u201cWell, you\u2019re certainly losing money allowing your cash to drop by 2% in value to inflation every year in your savings account!\u201d), and in our relationships. <\/p>\n I wish we could amend that saying, \u201cIt\u2019s not what you know, it\u2019s who you know,\u201d to say, \u201cWhat you know only matters if people want to be around you.\u201d <\/p>\n In other words, as much as we\u2019d all love to sink under the covers and bask in the blue glow of Hour 7 of an HBO Max binge and turn the iMessage notifications off forever, your success \u2013 to some degree \u2013 hinges on likability. <\/p>\n Think about your own work and life for a second, and think about some of the most magnetic people you know. I\u2019d surmise they\u2019re doing pretty well for themselves. That\u2019s because businesses are made up of human beings, and human beings like to be around people who are generous, charismatic, and cooperative.<\/p>\n Combining competence (read: a generally above average level of talent<\/em>) with a likable personality will almost certainly take you farther in life than JUST a lot of talent. You can point to anomalies; glitches in the matrix who people love to exalt as proof that this isn\u2019t true (Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg), but there\u2019s a reason there are only a handful of names that come to mind. <\/p>\n You know whose names probably aren\u2019t coming to mind? The names of the other 498 CEOs in the S&P 500 who aren\u2019t freakish super geniuses, but instead people who were good at their jobs and<\/em> generally likable.<\/p>\n This is good news<\/strong> for most of us who are going to have an easier time developing traits like \u201cgenerous\u201d than we would joining the ranks of 1%-level intellect.<\/p>\n This is also why the woman who insisted she treat me to coffee and would stop on our walk to Starbucks to pop into three different storefronts to say hello to someone she knew went from making $38,000\/year to $10,000\/month in four years \u2013 because her abundance mindset allowed her to trust her instincts when a different industry welcomed her in, and she nurtured the relationships within it enough to become her own self-employed brand.<\/p>\n \u2026and that\u2019s why this topic often has spiritual underpinnings \u2013 but I want you to know that it doesn\u2019t have to<\/strong>. Yes, you\u2019ll probably have an easier time believing that an abundance of opportunity awaits you if you believe there\u2019s something out there in the universe bigger than you that\u2019s leaving you breadcrumbs to guide you forward on your path, but you could forego that line of thinking entirely and still employ this methodology: Self-fulfilling prophecy is merely the principle that you create your own reality. Generosity begets generosity. Lack begets lack.<\/p>\n Of course, I think it\u2019s more fun<\/em> to believe in breadcrumbs from the universe. This is how I think of the \u201cgreat mystery\u201d \u2013 as a literal<\/em> mystery, or puzzle I have to solve for myself. What does it mean that some concept has come into my consciousness four times today through different avenues? Why do I have the urge to go this way to the studio instead of that way? Where\u2019s this instinctual pull to reach out to that one woman coming from, and am I going to listen to it? <\/p>\n You can take the idea of abundance magic as near or far as you\u2019d like to, but I ask you this: What do you have to lose? What would it hurt to trust, even if just for a little bit, that you\u2019re on a path to wealth and abundance, and behave accordingly? What jobs would you apply for? What opportunities would you pursue? Who would you talk to? <\/p>\n As you look back on the last few years, I\u2019ll bet you can see how each opportunity \u2013 and sometimes, how one, single choice \u2013 led you down a completely different path. There are probably some instances in which your life would be completely different<\/em> had you not done that one thing, for better or worse. If you let the energy that guides your decisions come from a place of abundance, I bet you\u2019ll identify more opportunity and choose differently.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not woo-woo if it makes you rich, right? <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Because this post is going to border on spiritual, I want to make this fat, practical disclaimer first: I am arguing that it is more economically advantageous for you to embody an abundance mindset. Regardless of your belief system, this will get you farther ahead. The best example I can think of for scarcity vs. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178814,"featured_media":2462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"si-template-single-post-income.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,36],"tags":[45,40,61],"class_list":["post-397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-financial-independence","category-spending-and-saving","tag-everyday-spending-and-budgeting","tag-income","tag-popular-income"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy does an abundance money mindset actually<\/em> create more abundance?<\/h4>\n
How can a scarcity mindset hold you back?<\/h4>\n
The direct correlation between our relationships and our success<\/h4>\n
It all starts with believing it\u2019s out there for you<\/h4>\n