Have you ever found yourself thinking:
I wish I could be as lucky as other people, and not have to struggle so much in life.
I wish my life was as easy as other people’s, and that I didn’t have so many problems.
I wish I had the opportunities other people have, then I could be much better off.
Reading them here now, would you say that you agree or disagree with them?
We’ve all been there – in those moments where we’re not happy with the spot we’re at in life. It’s easy to let these thoughts creep into your mind and overrun it. But, if you agreed with any of the statements above, or find yourself thinking similar thoughts regularly, then you are not thinking like a successful person.
You’re not thinking with an abundance mindset. Instead, you’re thinking with – and living trapped in – a scarcity mindset.
To see how a successful person would think about life, let’s break down each of the above statements from their point of view.
1. Scarcity Mindset: I wish I could be as lucky as other people, and not have to struggle so much in life.
Abundance Mindset: My mindset creates my attitude, creates my behavior, creates my life.
Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with an extremely rare, slow-progressing form of ALS at the age of 21. He’s been bound to a wheelchair for most of his life. Since 1985, he’s had to speak through his computer system, and requires around-the-clock care. But, he didn’t let these setbacks stop him from becoming a world renowned theoretical physicist, and one of the brightest scientific minds of this century.
Helen Keller was born blind and deaf. She went on to become a teacher, author, and the first deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree. Clearly, she wasn’t going to let her struggles hold her back.
Hawking and Keller overcame their struggles, because like all successful people, they understand that everything starts with your mindset. Your mindset creates your attitude, creates your behavior, creates your results, creates your life. It’s that simple. That’s why you have to change your mindset, to start thinking about your daily choices as either inching you closer to success or failure. Then, you can master how successful people think.
2. Scarcity Mindset: I wish my life was as easy as other people’s, and that I didn’t have so many problems.
Abundance Mindset: View obstacles as opportunities for success, and a chance to better yourself.
When I was younger, I used to look at successful people and think that they just got lucky. They never had to struggle through all the hardships and obstacles that I did. Life and success just magically came easy to them.
Successful people understand that some of your best learned life lessons come from your struggles. Instead of wishing for things to be easier, learn how to view every obstacle you encounter as an opportunity for success. Learn how to view your struggles as opportunities to learn something, and become better.
It’s important to remember that whatever you’re focused on in life is what will grow. So, rather than focusing only on your problems, you have to focus on the solutions. The only way to do that is to face your problems head on. Successful people are willing to do this – they don’t spend their time letting problems defeat them. They don’t spend their time waiting for luck to come find them.
3. Scarcity Mindset: I wish I had the opportunities other people have, then I could be much better off.
Abundance Mindset: You can create your own environment rather than being a product of your environment.
We’re taught to believe that we are destined to be a product of our environment. What we’re not taught to believe – and what took a long time to learn through my own journey – is that you can create your own environment.
The truth is, there are only two ways to change your life, 1) You take action and create a new environment that fosters your most important goals, or 2) You spend your time waiting for something new to come to you without working at it.
Nothing in your life will change until you take action. Every journey starts with taking a step – not thinking about taking a step. Successful people don’t wait for new circumstances to come find them. They don’t let themselves become a product of their environment. Instead, successful people make their environment a product of them.
Why Does it Matter to You?
The way you think about life, and what you do as a result, matters. If you have an abundance mindset, you will live and behave accordingly. If you have a scarcity mindset, you will live and behave accordingly.
You’ll either live the life you want, or you’ll settle for less.
Successful people think differently about life. They do things that seem to make no difference at the time, but yield big results after they compound over time. They write their problems down on paper, and treat them like equations they must solve. They keep trying, until they succeed.
If there are no problems, struggles, or obstacles in your life, you’re not growing. And if you’re not growing, you’re dying. You can’t give in to defeat. You can’t spend your time wishing things were easier, that you were luckier. Instead, spend your time determined to make yourself better. Refuse to let a scarcity mindset defeat you, so that you can live the life you want.
