Recently, I’ve been contemplating a lot about the concept of an abundance mindset.
In every good coaching lecture, they talk about it. In every podcast that deals with consciousness and the soul, the topic comes up.
“Live with an abundance mindset,” say the coaches and therapists.
If you live with an abundance mindset, abundance will come to you – and who doesn’t want abundance to come through their gates?
There are even those who promise to teach people how to live with an abundance mindset.
And I, who love mindsets and am fascinated by shifts in consciousness, I’m just trying to understand – what does “an abundance mindset” actually mean?
They told me, “Just think big.” But how can I think big if reality isn’t syncing up?
It reminded me of the story about the man whose late father came to him in a dream and told him he needs to become a Rebbe. The dream wouldn’t leave him alone until he went to his own Rebbe and said: “Rebbe, my father, of blessed memory, won’t let me be. He comes to me in a dream and demands that I become a Rebbe.”
The Rebbe said to him: “Next time your father comes to you in a dream, tell him that instead of coming to you, he should appear in a dream to 300 chassidim and tell them they should be your followers.”
They told me, “Fly business class, buy expensive things, stop calculating every little expense, think abundance.” But how does that align with being a responsible person who knows how to manage his steps wisely?
Actually, I love thinking abundantly, so I thought. Abundantly.
And then I understood something brilliant – an abundance mindset is the opposite of a scarcity mindset. If I understand scarcity mindset, I can understand what abundance mindset is.
So, I thought abundantly about scarcity mindset, and I understood.
Scarcity mindset has nothing to do with one’s actual financial situation. Scarcity mindset doesn’t depend on a bank account. It’s a fixed mindset that says: If I’m not lacking now, I’ll be lacking tomorrow, and if not tomorrow then the next day; in the end, there will be lack. One day it will all run out and may God help. And that’s frightening.
Scarcity mindset can exist even among people with great wealth – if it was ingrained in their hearts sometime in childhood, or perhaps they inherited it entirely, it doesn’t disappear easily. Deep down they are convinced that someday the checks will bounce and everything will collapse.
A person living with a scarcity mindset carries inner fear and anxiety – sometimes hidden, but always accompanying him.
An abundance mindset, then, is the awareness that God is infinite and desires to give abundantly. An abundance mindset is a person who lives with a solid inner faith that everything will be okay. He acts, and works, and plans, but all with a firm belief that things are already good and will become even better.
He doesn’t tell himself, “Yes-yes, no-no,” but rather, “Yes-yes, yes-yes.” And if he encounters a “no,” he smiles and says, “Okay, let’s check where and what didn’t work, and move forward toward the next ‘yes.’”
One who lives with an abundance mindset does not live in fear of the future. He lives with deep knowledge that there is abundance, and abundance will come to him.
I was reminded of this this morning when I studied the daily Chumash with Rashi on the verse, “And the Canaanite, king of Arad, who dwelt in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the southern route” (Numbers 21:1).
On the words“by the southern route,” Rashi brings two interpretations:
1. The way of the Negev through which the spies went.
2. the southern route – referring to the great guide traveling ahead of them, which is essentially the Ark of the Covenant – God Himself leading the way.
I recalled a sicha in which the Rebbe explains that the path taken by the spies essentially symbolizes the calculated path of nature, while the path of the great guide symbolizes the path that is essentially walking with complete trust in God.
Is it possible that Rashi is referring here to scarcity mindset versus abundance mindset? That the path of the spies represents living with a scarcity mindset, and the path of the great guide represents living with an abundance mindset?
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Zalman Wishedski