When thinking about getting your finances in order, it is important to move from a mindset of scarcity to one of abundance.

When you’re stuck in the scarcity mindset, you focus on limited resources. An example of scarcity thinking is when you’re on a diet and you just consider what you can’t eat. As a result you think that you have few options or opportunities. You’re conditioning yourself to think within very small parameters instead of recognizing more options may exist.

Martin B. Gilbert wrote in the Harvard Crimson that the scarcity mindset makes it harder to escape poverty. Research shows that scarcity mindset can change how your brain works. A 2013 Harvard research study found that low-income individuals had worse cognitive performance when simply thinking about an expensive car repair bill. Additionally, the link between poverty and poor health has been well established.

Limiting Beliefs

Author and motivational speaker Jack Canfield says that you must change your limiting beliefs about money that you’ve internalized. Limiting beliefs are thoughts that stop you from doing certain things.

You may think that increasing your income above a certain level is not possible because you remember your parents saying this when you were a kid. Or you may think you’re not good with money because you’ve always heard that people in your family have not handled money well.

“One you see money for what it really is – an accessible, unlimited supply of a resources you can use in any way you desire – it’s much easier to form the habits and mindset necessary to acquire wealth,” Canfield says on manifesting money.

How to Defeat Scarcity Mindset

So how to you move way from the scarcity mindset and limiting beliefs. It is possible but it takes work.

First. practice gratitude. Develop the habit of being grateful for what you have in this moment. Take a journal and write three things you are grateful for – no matter how minor – before you go to bed each night.

Second, be intentional about your thoughts. When you have a thought that is mired in scarcity, flip the script. When you think, “I only have $30 in my checking account right now. I’m broke” think instead, “I have $30 in my checking account right now. That’s enough to get dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow while saving $5 until I get paid on Friday.”

So identify your scarcity messaging. Stop. Reframe it.

And finally, identify the opportunity. In the case of the $30, there was an opportunity to save $5.

Making the shift in mindset is not easy. It takes practice and requires you to be thoughtful and intentional about how you speak to yourself.

Embrace Abundance

Moving to a mindset of abundance has nothing to do with material things, actually. It is being grateful what is already in your life. From that openness you can attract more into your life.

The concept of abundance or “abundance mentality” was first defined by Stephen Covey in 1989 in his book, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.” as believing you have enough resources to share with other people.

So how do you embrace an abundance mindset?

• Write in a gratitude journal daily. List three things each day that you are grateful for.
• Practice intention. When you begin to focus on what you don’t have, immediately focus on what you do have.
• Practice mindfulness. Focus on the present, acknowledge your feelings, shift your thoughts.
• Repeat positive affirmations. Self-talk is important. Embrace positive affirmations like, “I have enough right now,” “I am doing the best I can in this moment,” “Tomorrow will be better than today. Today is better than yesterday.”