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From Stephen Covey:
“Most people are deeply scripted in what I call the Scarcity Mentality. They see life as having only so much, as though there were only one pie out there. And if someone were to get a big piece of the pie, it would mean less for everybody else.
The Scarcity Mentality is the zero-sum paradigm of life. People with a Scarcity Mentality have a very difficult time-sharing recognition and credit, power or profit – even with those who help in the production. The also have a very hard time being genuinely happy for the success of other people.”
If you have a mindset of scarcity, you believe that money, friends, success, promotion are allscarce. You believe that there simply aren’t enough of these things for everyone to have a chance. It affects your thoughts, actions, outlook, as well as the perception you have of and by everyone else.
If you’re scarcity minded, your thoughts revolve around not having enough, not being enough, and usually that this isn’t your fault. There’s a strong sense of ‘victimhood’ in you if you’re of this mindset.
The scarcity mindset keeps you away from saving. You find it challenging to save both time and money, because both are scarce. If you have either, you spend it immediately before something happens to it!
With regards to real estate, it’s an interesting dichotomy. Because commissions seem tooscarce, you can tend towards the more aggressive side, which sometimes serves you well but often bites you in the business suit.
11 ways (there are more but these are the most obvious) to know if you’re scarcityminded in your real estate practice.
Note: If you can answer ‘yes’ to even half of these, you have a mindset challenge that must be corrected prior to being able to get to your next level!
. 1 You have no savings. Ever. If you do it’s maybe for a couple weeks, sometimes asscarce as a couple of hours.
. 2 You believe there’s only so much money to go around and often get into conflict over commissions…both with clients and other agents. you’re a fan of the ‘procuring cause’ argument.
. 3 You don’t use buyer’s agency because you’re scared of losing the commission to an agent who doesn’t use agency agreements.
. 4 You lose listings over ‘sticking to your guns’ on commission. You’d rather be ‘right’ or ‘righteous’ than give a little to make a deal happen.
. 5 You are immune to goal setting and feel you’re above it. Goal setting ‘isn’t for you’.
. 6 You often get outbid on competitive buyer offers because you feel for the buyers ‘not having enough’ to go high enough to win. Then you blame the buyer, the market, the other agent of the seller for your deal not happening. If you DO get something in contract, it’s always because of YOU, your expertise, experience and abilities. No one else is given credit or congratulations.
. 7 You are always doing ‘free training’ and 30 day free trials versus investing in actual education. You are virtually un-coachable. You believe online, free scripts are good enough.
. 8 You are skeptical; everyone is just out to make a buck versus trying to help you orsupport you or provide a legitimate service to you. You already know everything anyway.
. 9 You tend to be a grudge holder. It’s also never your fault, ever, for any reason.
. 10 You feel the world owes you and somehow you’re being cheated. You’re perceived as negative and even angry.
. 11 You hate doing what you don’t have to do when you don’t want to do it and rarely do that at a high level if you do it at all.
Wow, it’s exhausting just talking about being scarcity minded! Do these 11 points deplete you the way they deplete me? Imagine what it’s like to have a few coaching calls in a row like this! It’s our job to move you forward, so you’ll never catch our coaches getting into this kind of mud with you. Failure is not an option. It’s only a matter of how much success and how quickly we can get you out of scarcity.
Let’s get on to the good stuff. Abundance mindset! Let’s look at what Stephen Covey says about that…
“The Abundance Mentality, on the other hand, flows out of a deep inner sense of personal worth and security. It is the paradigm that there is plenty out their and enough to spare for everybody. It results in sharing of prestige, of recognition, of profits, of decision-making. It opens possibilities, options, alternatives, and creativity.”
When you have a mindset of Abundance, you believe and operate knowing that there IS enough for everyone. Your core belief centers on being of service to others. You know in your heart of hearts that when you help enough people at a high enough level that you will always have an abundance of income.
Action plan for Your Abundance Mindset
1 Have Appreciative Conversations
Rather than talking about the things you don’t have, try to engage in conversations with friends and family about the multitude of things that you do have, as well as what THEY have. Life is full of abundance.
2 Organize Your Home, your Life and your Finances.
The simple process of getting your possessions, your time, and your information better organized does a lot to create a mindset of abundance. By doing this, you begin to see how many things and how much time you actually already have in your life.
3 Follow a Media Free Morning or Life
Almost every form of media, in some way, revolves around cultivating desire for things you don’t have, which is a key element of the scarcity mindset. Media highlights loss, fear and anxiety. Why would you voluntarily sign up for that?
4 Cultivate your Generosity and Philanthropy
By sharing what you have with others, you begin to see several things. First, you often feel good about what you’ve shared – you’ve improved the other person’s life. This gives you an immediate adrenaline boost, keeping you in a positive and abundant mindset. Second, you often find you don’t really miss what you’ve shared. Third, when you share regularly, the law of reciprocity is on your side and people will give back to you.
5 Create “Win-Win” Situations instead of winner / loser situations.
One of the hallmarks of a scarcity mindset is that for every winner, there must be at least one loser. Not everyone can win because there simply isn’t enough to go around. Negotiations in real estate are the obvious application of this. Negotiation means bringing two parties together for a mutually beneficial outcome, not killing the other side.
6 Stating “It’s too soon to tell” will serve you well!
Sometimes bad stuff happens. When it does, the scarcity mindset will often be there haunting you about how unfair it is and how other people are somehow luckier than you are. Lose thatscarcity ghost and replace with ‘it’s too soon to tell’. The road to success is paved with many failures.
7 Stop Comparing Yourself to Others, especially on Social Media!
In the scarcity mindset, all that matters is how you compare to others. In the abundancemindset, what matters most is how you compare to yourself – how you live out your own ideals in your day-to-day life.
8 Keep a Gratitude Journal
Keep a simple journal where you note at least 3 positive things that happened that day. What are you grateful for? What surprised you? What went exceedingly well? Even tiny victories will accumulate to equal a healthier mindset, one of abundance and success.
9 Don’t do this alone. Get accountability partners, join a mastermind, and hire a coach. Surround yourself with those who charge your mindset versus those who drain it!
