173: How To Change Your Scarcity Mentality
SHOW DESCRIPTION
What is a scarcity mentality and how does it affect us? This line of questioning should help us understand why we do the things we do in times of need. As we have said many times in our podcast history, “understanding why we do the things we do will help us break out of our self-made patterns and grow.”
One example of a scarcity mentality is the person who just lost their job and is worried about having the “necessities” they have grown accustomed to having. This person focuses so much on not having (scarcity), that they are not able to spend the brain power necessary to completely plan for the future. All they are focused on is the lack of money for bills and food that they often miss other important details. Very quickly, a credit card gets maxed out buying the “necessities” so that they don’t run out while looking for a new job. At some point, the credit is gone, the last of the money is gone, and there is nothing left to pay bills, or even get a tank of gas. We call this tunnel vision.
Tunnel vision occurs when you focus too much on the one problem and not enough on your surroundings. You look at a problem like not having enough money and don’t spend enough time planning for future needs. When we fall into the pattern of tunnel vision due to a scarcity mentality, we make it more difficult four ourselves to get out of the pattern.
Rather than wait until times of scarcity, make plans to be prepared for the future if the worst should happen. One of the best decisions I ever made was to talk with a financial advisor. Financial advisors help us budget and plan for those times where we don’t have an income. They help you have a pre set plan that helps you during those bad times. That way, you don’t end up panicking about “not having enough.” Instead, your plan kicks in and you start making important decisions to get yourself out of the bad times.
I think the real important take away from this episode is that if you make simple good choices and plans for the future, you can be prepared for dealing with issues that come up in a growth-oriented manner. If not, you risk falling into that old path of tunnel vision and scarcity mentality.
