The abundance mindset is the practice of looking at the world around you as if it’s ripe with opportunity. This is the opposite of a scarcity mindset, which is when you believe that only a lucky few people ever find success. The truth is that there is enough to go around for everyone to feel rich, and live their best life. As long as you tap into the abundance mindset, it becomes much easier to get on an upward trajectory towards success. Once I started practicing living with an abundance mindset, my life completely changed. Here are some exercises you can use to practice getting yourself on that path, too.
Abundance Mindset Writing Exercises
If You Had a Million Dollars…
First and foremost, Ask yourself this question: If you had one million dollars, what would you be doing differently?
Depending on your current age, $1 million might not be enough to retire. However, it’s plenty of money for you to make significant changes in your life. This is a great exercise for you to figure out the steps you would take if money was no object.
If you had a million dollars, would you still be going to your 9-5 job every day? Would you stop working, or find a new job? How would your everyday life be different than it is today?
Let’s exclude some of the obvious answers, like “get out of debt” “go on vacation” or “pay off my student loans.”
I want you to think about the action steps you would take once you get that million dollars. You may be surprised to find that the things you want for yourself are possible with much less than $1 million. For example, here is my list:
- Spend more on healthy food so that I could lose weight.
- Help my parents fix up their old house and backyard.
- Start buying new clothes and take care of my appearance more.
- Travel more.
Guess what? All of those things are attainable right now. I don’t need a million dollars to buy myself new clothes, or get on a diet. House repairs were more of a mystery. But once I started taking action towards it, I realized it would cost $3,000 to get done everything we could schedule in 2021. For years, I used money as an excuse. Are you doing the same?
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Practice Gratitude By Writing a List
A mistake that most people make is that they are not grateful for the things they currently have. Yes, an abundance mindset is about attaining more. But it starts with being grateful for what you already have. This comes down to the fundamental truth that if you aren’t happy and satisfied with your current status in life, you are always going to crave more. Even if you start to make more money, you may hit a plateau and become unhappy again.
If you want to turn this into an abundance mindset exercise, you can start by simply creating a gratitude list. Sometimes, this can be difficult- especially if you are going through a really dark time in your life. So if you can’t think of anything, start with the basics- “I feel so grateful to have a roof over my head. I feel so grateful to have food to eat.” Usually, being thankful for the basics helps you realize how much more you truly have.
There is no minimum or maximum amount of things you should write on your list. Just keep going until you have run out of ideas.
Get In Touch With Your Inner Child
A lot of people assume that in order to make a lot of money, they need to do something that traditionally makes a lot…Like a doctor, stock broker, or accountant. But if you go into a field of work that you actually hate, you’re not likely to have the motivation to keep going. Remember that abundance isn’t just about making money. It’s about being happy and fulfilled.
The secret key to abundance is to get in touch with their inner child. Ask yourself- What did I want to be when I was 5? 10, then 15, and so on. Are you actually living your dream career? Was there something you wished you could grow up to be when you were a child?
From my observations, the people who are living the dream life they planned since they were a child are the happiest, most abundant people I have ever met. Personally, I always wanted to be a writer, and I’m doing it. This makes me very happy. I would never stop writing, even if I was rich enough to retire. I also have friends who followed their dreams from when they were a child, and it brought amazing results.
For a lot of people, following their childhood dream won’t pay the bills. If that’s the case, allow yourself to follow your passion as a hobby, and see where it leads. You may be surprised to learn that you actually can make money doing what you love.
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Stop Comparing Yourself to Others
Comparison is the thief of joy. It’s crucial for you to stop comparing yourself to others if you want to feel abundance. Most people today are always looking at others and making comparisons to their own lives. This is especially true in today’s world of Instagram and YouTube. When you compare yourself to others, it creates a sense of lack.
In this exercise, I recommend unfollow any accounts on Instagram that make you feel bad about yourself. If there is someone you know you makes you feel this way, you can also mute their posts so that you can remain friends, but you just can’t see them.
Once you live in an abundance mindset, it doesn’t matter if other people are succeeding, because you are happy about your own life, and no one can take that away from you. But in the beginning, you might feel pangs of jealousy, or feel like what you are doing isn’t enough.
Remember that you should always compare yourself to yourself. I often ask myself, “What would a 10-year old me think of my life?” And I think she would be thrilled. Ask yourself this same question. And if your younger self would approve, that’s all that should matter.
Write Out Your Goals in the Present Tense
If you’re into manifestation, you may have already heard the advice to write down your goals as if it’s already happening. For example, they might tell you to write: “I’m so grateful that I make a million dollars per year.”
However, there’s just one problem with this technique. It feels weird to pretend some fantasy scenario is happening right now. It sounds like you’re being delusional, and lying to yourself. So a lot of people brush off this advice completely, or they do it once and not every day. If this sounds like you, don’t give up just yet.
Over time, I found that it’s personally more effective for me to talk about my goals in the present tense, without lying to myself. Here’s an example about losing weight: “I am so happy to finally be living a healthy lifestyle.” “I’m so happy that I’m getting stronger every day.” And about money: “I’m so happy to be working on my websites, which will bring me success.”
Is this a lie? No. I really am living a healthier lifestyle compared to before. By telling myself this, I am reinforcing good behavior, and it will help me lose weight. Same goes with working on my website. If I keep congratulating myself for the positive behavior, I will achieve the goal.
Know Your “Why”
A very important part of abundance mindset and manifestation is that you need to know why you want this money. It’s a lot harder for you to feel motivated to work towards a goal if you don’t know why you are doing it in the first place. Start by writing down “I want X amount of money each month because of X.” (I recommend asking for more than what you need. )
Once you know your “why”, everything becomes clear. It will give you more motivation to figure out how to achieve that goal. But it also helps the Universe give you a road map to achieving those things. For example, you might say “I want X dollars so I can buy this new thing”. But then the Universe finds a way for you to get that for free. It all starts with acknowledging what you want, and simply asking for it.
Act “As If”
A very important thing to do with an abundance mindset is to always act as if you’re already rich. Or act as if you know that your success is guaranteed. A lot of you might be thinking- Hang on, this could get me in trouble. I’m not suggesting you go and max out your credit cards on the assumption that you’ll magically be rich. But if you start living your life as if you are already successful, your actions tend to manifest reality.
For example, right now I am trying to act as if I’m going to make a million dollars within one year from now. On top of that, I want to be in a serious relationship. In order to be “ready” for that, I need to lose weight and get in the best shape of my life. And if I know I’m getting a million dollars a year from now, I’ve got to take care of these things I’ve been putting on the back burner. These things are not expensive, but rather tasks I used money as an excuse for ignoring.
Now, I am exercising almost every day. This is giving me better mental clarity, which in turn is helping me be better at my job! By acting as if it’s guaranteed, it’s actually making it more likely to become a reality.
This post was all about abundance mindset exercises. We hope you found it helpful. If you want to see more articles like this, check out some of our other posts:
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