Step 5: Change The Way You Think

“Whatever challenges you the most, decide now that you are going to set your mind for total victory.” – Joyce Meyer

Your mindset is your choice! Only you get to decide if you will live from a scarcity mindset or an abundant mindset. The question is, which type of mindset do you live from? One way to answer this question is by taking a look at symptoms. Some of the symptoms of a scarcity mindset are fear, anxiety, comparison and stress. Symptoms of an abundant mindset could be an overflowing of encouragement for others, willing to give generously, care, positivity and compassion.

With honest reflection we will probably come to the conclusion that we are never fully in one mindset or the other. More likely we live back and forth between the two, depending on the moment, how much sleep we are getting and who is around us. The goal for us to have constant movement away from scarcity in the direction of greater abundance.

When the negative symptoms appear, we have to ask ourselves ‘What is the root of the problem?’. Some days the root could be as simple as a lack of sleep. More often it will require deeper probing. Are we consumed with fear? Are we too proud to let go? Is there a negative dialogue running in our minds? Are there people we refuse to forgive? It’s shocking to realize how blind we become to the condition of our mindsets. It takes work to get to the bottom of these issues.

Habits of thought exist as neural pathways in our minds. We’ve cultivated little roads of thinking all over in our heads. It will take some effort to reform these paths, but it can be done!

First identifying negative symptoms is a major part of solving the problem. Once they’ve been identified we can make a conscious choice to turn our minds in a different direction – as long as we have an action plan! Reciting positive affirmations is a good place to start. The discipline of intentionally speaking positive truth to ourselves is a powerful way to reform paths of negative thought.

Maybe your negative dialogue begins like this “I could never…” As soon as you realize that sentence is beginning in your mind, replace it with a positive affirmation such as, “I am fully capable of achieving my goals.” Thoughts are powerful. Changing our thoughts will change our lives.