One sure way to boost your odds of becoming successful is to have a mindset geared toward wealth and prosperity. Why is this? Because the actions you take on a daily basis – right down to the amount of effort you put toward your goals – stem directly from your state of mind.
Believing you can accomplish something is the first step in actually doing it.
Unfortunately many of us pay little attention to our mindset, and end up creating a whole lot of struggle and difficulty for ourselves in the process! The good news is that creating a wealth and prosperity mindset can be achieved quickly and easily with a little know-how and determination.
This book will share some helpful insights on:
- Exactly what a wealth and prosperity mindset is
- Why it’s vital to have one if you want to succeed
- How to develop your mindset for wealth and prosperity
What Is a Wealth and Prosperity Mindset?
The common definition of “mindset” is: a mental attitude or inclination, or a fixed state of mind. So, a wealth and prosperity mindset would mean an attitude or inclination that causes us to focus on abundance.
It may surprise you to learn that most people focus on the opposite angle. They focus on wanting more prosperity, seeking greater wealth, and pursuing both at any cost.
In other words, they focus on the fact that they do not yet have wealth or prosperity, which means they actually have a scarcity or poverty mindset. They focus more on what they’re lacking, the things they can’t afford to buy, and even worse – feeling resentful toward people who are already wealthy.
Does this describe your general attitude too? If so, don’t let it get you down! It’s actually very common to have this mindset, and you can turn it around starting right now.
All you need is the willingness to start thinking in a different way and the courage to take actions based on this new way of thinking. Don’t worry; they don’t have to be groundbreaking actions; just one step at a time will move you in the direction you want to go.
Scarcity Consciousness vs. Abundance Consciousness
The very first step in building a wealth and prosperity mindset is to start expanding your awareness of wealth and prosperity.
Right now you may be in the habit of looking at the dark side of every situation, worrying about how little money you have, or feeling the heavy burden of too many bills.
In order to turn this perception around, make it a point to see the abundance that surrounds you:
- Be grateful for the money you do have.
- Feel optimistic that you will receive more soon.
- Believe you can improve your life and make more money.
It’s also important for your perception of wealth to be in line with attracting it. You can’t have a negative opinion of wealthy people and expect to get wealthy yourself!It just won’t happen because you block wealth from coming to you every time you speak or think negatively about wealth or wealthy people.
Instead, start paying more attention to wealthy people you can admire. Read about great philanthropists or celebrities who do important work with their money. Seek out success stories about people who started with nothing and became millionaires.
The more you do this, the more you’ll change your perception of what it means to be wealthy and begin drawing more tangible expressions of wealth into your life.
A Common Blockage against Feeling Prosperous
While you’re focusing more of your attention on success and wealth, it’s also important to deliberately turn your attention away from examples of scarcity – both in your own life and in the world in general.
What is it that makes us obsess over negativity and disasters? Like staring at a horrible car wreck when driving by, we sometimes can’t help ourselves and have to look!
Unfortunately, this habit carries over into all other areas of our lives and we find ourselves obsessing about problems and challenges too. The problem with this is that it keeps us focused on things that make us feel powerless and out of control.
In order to create a true prosperity mindset, you must train yourself to turn your attention away from anything that threatens your focus on wealth and well being.
That doesn’t mean hiding your overdue bills in a drawer or refusing to face reality. You don’t have to become a “Pollyanna” to focus on abundance, but you do have to stop obsessing over the challenges and problems in your life.
A good rule of thumb is: Do what you can to improve the situation and then immediately move on to more positive pursuits.
Refuse to wallow in setbacks; avoid spending hours a day worrying about money; don’t talk yourself out of taking action because you might possibly fail. Be proactive and precise in your actions and keep focused on where you want to be, not where you don’t want to be.
If you were taking a road trip, rather than looking back at where you started, you’d simply keep focused on your destination and the route you need to take to get there.
Perception is Everything
The way you view your life and experiences is extremely important. Why? Because most of us live in “reaction mode,” constantly interpreting the things we see and experience and taking action based on those interpretations.
If we perceive something to be dangerous, we take action to defend ourselves. If we perceive ourselves to be poor and lacking in opportunities, we see no point in working to improve our lives.
The problem with reactions like these is that they usually become self-fulfilling prophecies. Being overly-defensive can actually provoke attacks, and being overly-pessimistic can attract more and more issues that prevent us from improving our lives.
Rather than living from a re-active mindset, you can learn to start living from a pro-active mindset and change your life in ways you wouldn’t have believed possible before now.
Limits Only Exist in Your Own Mind
What are your perceived limits when it comes to being rich and successful?
- Do you really believe you can make more money than you do now?
- Do you think that a lack of opportunities prevents you from doing so?
- Does it seem like there are too many obstacles between you and your dreams?
Make a list of every possible limitation you can think of that prevents you from being wealthy, and be sure to include both inner and outer limits. Include information about your own fears and doubts, as well as any perceived shortage of opportunities in your life.
Then examine each one carefully and decide if it’s really true or not. You may be surprised at some of the things you’ve convinced yourself to believe!
For example, if one of the items on your list is, “I can’t make more money because I don’t have a college degree,” ask yourself if there are any millionaires in the world who didn’t graduate from college with a degree, or even go to college at all. Of course there are!
This process is incredibly eye-opening and will help you see where you’re placing limitations on your own success.
It’s also important to keep challenging these false perceptions on a regular basis, because some of them may be embedded pretty solidly into your subconscious mind.
Logically, you may know that there’s nothing holding you back, but then you still find yourself hesitating to take action or otherwise procrastinating.
If you keep challenging your limiting perceptions and taking action despite them, they’ll begin to fade away and eventually disappear. You’ll have convinced yourself that they’re not true after all.
Taking the Right Actions
Now that you’re starting to transform your perceptions of limits, you’re in a much better position to begin taking focused action. The question is: What kind of action should you take?
All of the richest and most successful people in the world have one thing in common: they found a way to contribute value to the world and were rewarded well for their efforts. Think about that for a minute.
Becoming wealthy is not about wishing for wealth until it falls out of the sky and lands on your doorstep. At least it doesn’t work out that way for most people. The majority of us will have to work for our wealth – but that’s not such a bad thing if we choose work we really enjoy.
The seeds of your wealth are tucked away in a surprising place: in your greatest interests and passions. Of course, simply following your passions isn’t enough. You also have to find a way to make your passions pay.
That means finding a way to use your interests and talents to contribute value to the world. This can be done in any number of ways.
Here are some ways you can follow your passion while contributing value:
- Write a book about a topic you love.
- Create a product in line with your interests.
- Offer a service doing something you enjoy.
The possibilities are endless! Give some thought to the things you truly enjoy and the skills and experience you already have. Then ask yourself, “How can I use these assets to contribute value and generate income?”
Changing the Way You Work
Once you have a clear idea of the right activities to begin drawing wealth into your life, it’s time to begin approaching these activities with a newfound sense of purpose and a “can do” attitude.
Most of us go about this in the wrong way and then get frustrated when it doesn’t seem to be working. The wrong way would be: taking small actions while hoping for big results right away and then concluding we failed because we didn’t progress quickly enough.
Instead, try this:
- Take bold, consistent actions every day.
- Step out of your comfort zone as far as you dare.
- Be confident about your abilities and expect positive results.
- Be patient while waiting for them; don’t expect overnight success.
- Focus most of your attention on enjoying the journey.
Can you see the difference between these two approaches? One leads to certain failure and the other virtually guarantees success. When you aren’t so focused on needing to see results, you relax and let them come naturally.
Ironically, such a relaxed attitude actually helps us make much faster progress than if we keep stopping to pull our hair out in frustration!
Happiness, Prosperity and Success
One of the most common misperceptions about wealth and success is that achieving them will make you happy. It’s true that having more money allows greater freedom and satisfaction in life, which can be seen as a facet of happiness – but true happiness doesn’t come from anything outside of you.
Happiness is a state of mind.
Can you recall any rich people who are unhappy with their lives? Just off the top of your head you could probably recite the names of half a dozen celebrities who are constantly struggling with addictions, relationship turmoil, legal problems, and worse.
Money didn’t make these people happy, and it cannot make you happy either.
If you want to be happy, then you must decide to be happy now – regardless of your problems and challenges. Just having a ton of money in the bank won’t make problems go away unless those problems are directly related to a lack of money.
No matter what you do, there will always be issues and events that threaten to detract from your satisfaction in life. How they affect you is your choice!
The greatest power you can ever develop is the ability to focus on the good stuff and be happy right now, no matter what else is happening around you. Stop the mental recording that loops over and over, “I’ll be happy when…I’ll be happy when…I’ll be happy when…”
Right now is all you have. Let tomorrow take care of itself and focus most of your energy on making this moment the best it can possibly be. Mastering this skill alone can make you the richest person on the planet!
Enjoy the Journey!
The biggest drawback to traditional goal-setting is that it encourages us to focus so strongly on an end result that we don’t recognize the gifts we receive along the way. Be sure to pause now and then and enjoy the scenery from where you stand, even if you haven’t reached your ultimate goal yet.
Doing this regularly can provide great encouragement and motivation to keep moving forward, but even better, it makes the entire journey seem as rewarding as the destination!