How a Scarcity Mindset Prevents You from Living Your Purpose
When you think about finding or living your purpose, what thoughts come to mind?
Are you excited at the opportunity to find more joy and fulfillment in your life, or are you overcome with fear, hesitation, or overwhelm?
Do you know exactly the steps you need to take to live your purpose each day? Or, are you like most of us: you know you’re meant for more, but you have no idea what that is or how to get there?
When the future is unclear, fear of the unknown can cause us to think with a scarcity mindset.
A scarcity mindset is the belief that there will never be enough, resulting in feelings of fear, stress, and anxiety.
A scarcity mindset can cause you to limit yourself through your beliefs and actions, preventing you from finding or living your purpose.
You might feel that you don’t know enough, you don’t have the resources, or you’re not good enough to pursue your purpose.
You might think, “who am I to go after this dream?”
And if that sounds like you, know you’re not alone, and there’s nothing wrong with you. You just need a subtle shift in your mindset to think more abundantly about your purpose.
Here’s how a scarcity mindset prevents you from living your purpose:
Scarcity mindset increases FOD
When you think with a scarcity mindset, your natural thought process will be rooted in FOD – fear, overwhelm and doubt.
Because a scarcity mindset is the belief that you don’t have enough, you may fear that you won’t make enough money if you pursue your purpose. Or, you might have the belief that anyone who goes after a big dream has to suffer financially.
These beliefs might also lead you to a fear of failure – that if you pursue your purpose, you’ll end up failing or not making it. You might also fear rejection, that your friends and family will think you’re crazy for going after your purpose or shifting to a new career path.
Overwhelm can kick in when you have too many options, or when your options are unclear. Many women who join my free 30-Day Life Purpose Challenge tell me that they’re trying to decide between two or more options to define their purpose, and they’re unsure which is the best option. That’s also scarcity mindset! The belief that you can only have one thing or option.
When you first discover your life purpose, the road ahead will likely be unclear. You may not immediately know the next steps to take or what choices to make to help you align your career or life with your purpose.
There’s this vicious cycle that happens with fear and overwhelm. When you fear failure and rejection, you won’t take action toward your purpose. When you don’t take action, you’ll feel like a failure anyway, which reinforces your belief that you’re not good enough or worthy of finding and living your purpose.
The same goes with overwhelm. When you don’t know what to do, overwhelm prevents you from taking action. So, you’ll stay exactly where you are instead of taking even the smallest step toward your purpose. And you’ll start to believe that you don’t have what it takes to move forward.
Scarcity mindset leads to impostor syndrome
Those cycles of fear and overwhelm culminate with crushing self-doubt. Scarcity mindset takes self-doubt to a whole new level with limiting beliefs that you’ll never be enough.
Impostor syndrome is a psychological phenomenon involving the belief that you’re inadequate, incompetent, and a complete failure despite evidence that you actually are successful. It’s also the inability to believe that you deserve success or that you achieved success as a result of your own efforts, skills, or expertise.
As you start to take small steps toward living your purpose, impostor syndrome may step in to remind you of past failures, mistakes, or missteps.
It whispers thoughts that you’re not good enough or smart enough to fulfill your purpose. It will say you don’t know enough and you need more education, experience, or money to truly live your purpose. It will remind you that you’re not ready and you may never be ready because you don’t deserve to find happiness and meaning in your life.
Impostor syndrome prevents you from living your purpose because it leads you to believe that you need more in order to find fulfillment. You need another degree or certification. Or you need more money or more time to take the steps needed to live your purpose.
Sometimes, you do need more education, especially if you’re transitioning to a new career that requires a certain degree or certification. However, if you’re constantly buying more books, taking more classes, or enrolling in online programs without also taking consistent action toward your purpose, you’ll continue to believe that you’ll never know enough to do so.
Scarcity mindset keeps you in your comfort zone
Similarly, scarcity mindset keeps you from taking risks or bold steps toward your purpose.
Here’s the thing: your brain’s biggest job is to keep you safe. And what safer place for you than right in the middle of your comfort zone?
Taking risks or trying new things is scary for your brain. Your brain reminds you of all the bad things that might happen to you if you take even a single step outside your comfort zone.
Stepping outside your comfort zone to try something new (like finding your purpose) triggers scarcity-minded thoughts like:
“You’ll lose all your money!”
“You’ll fail!”
“You’ll be a laughingstock – your friends will think you’re crazy!”
“You’ll waste all your time and energy!”
“There are already so many people doing that – do we really need one more?”
Remember: a comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.
Scarcity mindset keeps you playing small
As you probably noticed by now, a scarcity mindset fills you with limiting beliefs. Beliefs that you’re not good enough, there’s not enough to go around, or you’ll fail and be left with nothing.
A scarcity mindset keeps you playing small because all of these beliefs prevent you from allowing yourself to be seen.
If you don’t step outside your comfort zone to try something new, you’re shrinking. If you let fear or overwhelm stop you from making a decision or taking a small step forward, you’ll stay stuck in a job you hate or a life of longing. If you allow impostor syndrome to take over your thoughts, you’ll never believe you’re deserving of a better life.
You were made for more. Playing small says, “there’s no room for you.” It keeps you in a scarcity mindset where you believe it’s better if you don’t show up to your purpose. Because if you do, you might make other people uncomfortable. You might ruffle a few feathers. You might lose friends or family in the process.
Playing small means you sacrifice your own happiness to uphold the comfort of others. This is especially true for women of color. White people have created a society and systems to keep women of color small, to prevent them from getting jobs, buying homes, or growing wealth. White people aren’t comfortable when women of color step into their power or speak up or take on leadership roles, so women of color are forced to play small. And it’s time to change that.
For women around the world, patriarchal systems keep each of us playing small. We’re conditioned to have a scarcity mindset in this regard because we don’t see power as available to us. It’s time to own our feminine power. As Marianne Williamson says, “your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.”
Here’s how an abundance mindset will help you confidently pursue your purpose:
Abundance mindset helps you focus on gratitude
An abundance mindset is simply always looking for gratitude. It’s about choosing to see the positive and focus on what you already have.
When you focus on the things you’re grateful for, you naturally pull yourself out of the fear and overwhelm cycle. You can’t be afraid and happy at the same time! Gratitude is all about having appreciation for the good things in your life, or the lessons you learned along the way.
The word appreciation means to increase in value. So, when you concentrate on the good feelings you get from practicing gratitude, those positive feelings will increase. And so will the good things in your life, because you’ll start to notice them more often.
And when you notice the good things in your life, you can’t help but feel more abundant.
You can start by writing down five things you’re grateful for each night before going to sleep, or as soon as you wake up in the morning. Or, go on a gratitude rampage and start listing (or taking mental note) of everything you can see, hear, or think of.
Abundance mindset helps you think creatively
When you focus on what you already have, you’re not worried about what might happen in the future or what went wrong in the past. You’re focused on the present.
Being present helps you think creatively to solve problems or work through challenging situations. Instead of thinking that you don’t have enough money to start a website or rent an office, an abundance mindset helps you think differently about your finances. You might reprioritize your spending, rearrange your budget, start a savings account, or look for unexpected sources of income.
Instead of believing that there are already too many bakery owners or life coaches or accountants out there, an abundance mindset will help you think creatively to set yourself apart. You’ll focus on what makes you unique, and you’ll use your strengths and experiences to carve your own path. This helps set you apart from other candidates in the job pool and can even open your eyes to different companies or roles.
Creativity helps you consider different possibilities instead of keeping your mindset stuck on what’s currently available to you.
Abundance mindset helps you find opportunities
When you think creatively with an abundance mindset, you’ll also notice more opportunities are available to you.
By staying grounded in gratitude and focusing on the present moment, you’ll be awakened to opportunities you never saw before. You’ll notice paths and options that you never considered.
Some people chalk this up to the Law of Attraction, believing that what you appreciate, you get more of. And while that may be true for some, I believe there’s more to it than that.
When you’re stuck in a scarcity mindset or limiting beliefs or impostor syndrome, it’s hard to pull yourself out of those fearful thoughts. Fear can stop you in your tracks and keep you in a fog of overwhelm. When you’re in that state, it’s impossible to consider different options or opportunities. In fact, your brain won’t let you.
When your brain senses fear, your “fight or flight” response is activated. Adrenaline beings pumping through your veins, your heart rate increases, and your emotions go haywire.
How can you expect to think creatively in that heightened emotional state?
An abundance mindset helps bring you out of the “fight or flight” mode by bringing you back to the present moment. When you focus on the positive things in your life, your brain feels good. You’re reminded of all the beauty and resources you already have.
And when you’re in that calm, peaceful state, it’s easy to notice things you haven’t seen before. You might notice a job posting that you previously overlooked, but that’s been there for weeks. It seems like it came out of nowhere, but in reality, you couldn’t notice it before.
Opportunities are always around you. An abundance mindset helps you notice them and take action to explore them.
Abundance mindset improves persistence
Living your purpose is hard work. It’s not something that will happen overnight, or even in a year. It takes a lifetime of work to truly live your purpose. And that requires persistence.
Luckily, an abundance mindset will help you in that regard. An abundance mindset helps you rewire your brain with positive thoughts, centered on gratitude. This is especially helpful in combatting impostor syndrome.
When you don’t believe you can do something, you won’t take action on it. This is what I often explain in my BE YOU Mental Model. Your Beliefs create Emotions, which create Behaviors, which create Effects, or the results you see in your life. And the effects you get reinforce your beliefs.
If you believe you’re not good enough or don’t know enough to live your purpose, you might feel hopeless, depressed, or frustrated. If you feel like that, you won’t take action, or do anything to change your situation. The effect? You’re stuck in a job you don’t love or you continue to yearn for a better life. And because you’re still in the same place, this reinforces the belief that you’re not good enough or don’t know enough to live your purpose.
By using the BE YOU Mental Model with an abundance mindset, you can shift your thought patterns over time, increasing your persistence in taking powerful action.
If you believe you are worthy of finding or living your purpose, you might feel excited, hopeful, optimistic, or brave. If you feel those emotions, you’ll be more likely to take an action like enrolling in a certification program or updating your resume or researching financing options for a storefront. The effect this time? You’re one step closer to living your purpose. And this effect reinforces your belief that you are worthy of finding your purpose.
This mental model is a powerful tool to help you shift your thought process, stay in an abundance mindset, and help you build willpower and persistence in achieving your goals.
The Takeaway
A scarcity mindset fosters fear and doubt and can prevent you from living your purpose. Shifting to an abundance mindset will help you focus on what you already have and think creatively to find new opportunities. As my husband Blake says, “find your abundance and use those resources wisely.”
Take action now: Start with an abundance ritual. Each night before you go to sleep, take 10 minutes to think about your day and write down everything you’re grateful for, especially as it pertains to your abundance and the good things you already have. Write about all the opportunities that came to you that day, like finding a penny on the ground or landing a job interview or signing up a new client. By focusing on abundance and noticing small ways that you’re abundant each day, you’ll start to form a new thought pattern that attracts even more abundance to your life.
You can keep those good-feeling emotions going with a morning ritual. Each morning, take 10 minutes to write down how it would feel to live your purpose or what you will do that day to take a small step toward your purpose. You can also sit quietly and visualize yourself living your purpose. Then, take those positive emotions with you throughout your day.
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Sign up for the free masterclass, Thrive Beyond the 9-5, where you’ll learn how to turn your strengths and passions into a thriving business. You’ll use the Ikigai to determine your life purpose and create a path to start a business you’ll love. Click here to sign up for instant access to the free training!
