Overcoming poverty mindset can take some time and hard work. Most of us have at least some limiting beliefs about money and scarcity. A poverty mindset doesn’t necessarily only have to be about money either. If there’s never enough, and you’re constantly struggling in your finances and in life, there may be a deeper route cause to your problem other than simply money alone. Money is only the surface problem (symptom) many people are facing. But what causes this as a problem for so many?
Do you feel like you’re never enough?
Many of the deeper routes to a poverty mindset are set in the early years of development before we have a conscious reasoning facility in place. Before we are 10 years old, we have absorbed a huge amount of information. Most of this gets buried in the subconscious mind where we don’t see it. Only when some problem arises later in life are we made more consciously aware of the deep lying beliefs which hold us back from a more fulfilling life of abundance and joy.
Overcoming Poverty Mindset
“Until you make the unconscious conscious it will control your life and you will call it fate” – Carl Jung
Money doesn’t grow on trees, rich people are greedy, “it’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven”. These are just a small sample of beliefs which can arrest your financial progress. If you’re struggling with money, chances are good that you’ve picked up (and believed) at least one or two negative beliefs about money.
How do you view the rich and wealthy? If you secretly despise, (or openly despise them), how will you feel about yourself once you are wealthy? Of course the answer should be obvious but many people go through life hating that which they actually want for themselves. Holding feelings of anger, jealousy or hatred towards someone because they are better off than you will seldom attract you to a similar position.
Most people will collect most of their underlying beliefs about life and themselves from their early experiences. What did your parents believe about money? How much did they earn? How did they talk about money, lack and abundance? Revisiting your early years can give you some clue as to the extent of your underlying beliefs around money, abundance, lack and poverty. Look back (without judgement) and just have some curiosity around some of the ideas which you will have picked up.
Overcoming Poverty Mindset – Thoughts Become Things
Thoughts do indeed become things and whether you subscribe to Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret or not, or the law of attraction, most cannot argue with this quote from Henry Ford:
But it’s not just your conscious thinking process which may be repelling ideas of abundance and happiness. It’s also (and mostly) your unconscious reasoning process which is built upon by your constant inner thinking processes. If you’re serious about overcoming poverty mindset, you need to start paying attention to your thoughts and words. Are they sending money and abundance away?
If someone you knew was constantly berating you, talking badly of you and secretly hating you, would you enjoy time in their company? Most likely you would pick up on their anger and hatred (at some point) and stop spending time with them. If you have a poverty mindset, you are likely spending some time talking away money from your life. Start observing your behaviour both inwardly and outwardly as a first step towards uncovering your behaviour.
Your Story & Speech
The story you tell yourself is an obvious description of how you perceive yourself and view the world. Start paying attention to what this story is saying. It’s your “script” for your poverty mindset. It will likely have a “poor me” theme and some backlog of unhappiness in it, explaining your problems.
You may not be consciously aware yet that this script needs to flip if you are to escape the poverty mindset which is holding you from a happier life. Remember you’re still writing it and it can be changed.
Avoid talking about the bad in your life and start focusing on what is good already about your life. If you’ve been unhappy for sometime this can be a challenge. To help this you can start writing a gratitude journal.
Watch yourself and your speech and notice when you are talking against money, wealth, abundance and joy. Old habits die hard so it might take a few weeks of observation before you can start changing what you normally say regarding the things you want to change.
Law Of Attraction – Gratitude
All of the books on the Law Of Attraction talk about gratitude.
- Working with the law – Raymond Holliwell,
- Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill,
- The Science Of Getting Rich – Wallace Wattles,
- The Secret Ronda Byrne etc.
See motivational books pdf free download for these and more titles.
Gratitude changes your constant thinking process and by doing so alters your dominant state of mind. Since beliefs have taken years to develop, it will take some time and effort to shift your thinking, especially around your existing limiting ideas around money and lack. One way of practicing gratitude is to start a gratitude diary. Each day, spend some time writing down the things you are already grateful for in your life. Start with small things like clothes, health, food and shelter.
As you get better at journalling your gratitude, you will naturally change your dominant thinking processes and look for more things to be grateful for.
Poverty Mindset Vs Growth Mindset
A poverty mindset thinks things will always be like they are. You may assume you’ll never have enough money, or more money. A growth mindset sees the potential of a different future scenario. A growth mindset doesn’t disqualify potential opportunities. A poverty mindset will look at an opportunity and only assume the worst!
Choose a growth mindset and start learning something new. A poverty mindset will keep you stuck for years because you see the negative in everything. To change, start talking to yourself in a more nurturing way, rather than a “never good enough” manner.
If you consistently tell yourself “you’ll never amount to anything”, or “you’ll never be good enough”, your only outcome is to never try anything. Instead, start noticing this debilitating voice of descent and change it to something which is more growth orientated and supportive.
Who You Surround Yourself With
You’ll never spend so much time with anyone but yourself. Are you feeding your mind with positivity and encouragement? Or are you sowing seeds of decline and disappointment?
“Guard well your thoughts when alone and your words when accompanied.”
― Roy T. Bennett
Who are the people you spend most of your time with? Are they encouraging you to succeed and do better in life? Or is the opposite true?
“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”
Jim Rohn
“According to research by social psychologist Dr. David McClelland of Harvard, [the people you habitually associate with] determine as much as 95 percent of your success or failure in life.”
Your Self Image
Your self image is a great precursor to the outcomes in your life. If you have a negative self image and think badly of yourself, this can bring a whole host of problems including lack and limitation.
To change your self image takes a lot of work because it’s so well engrained in your mind. A good book on the subject is Maxwell Maltz’s Psycho Cybernetics. See how to align conscious and subconscious mind.