Liquidity (capital available for investments) has become very scarce. As a result, stock markets everywhere are collapsing and a global recession is looming. How do you keep up an abundance mindset while world economies are feeling the pinch?

What is an abundance mindset?

An abundance mindset views the universe as an infinite source constantly supplying inspiration to create more life and wellbeing. It is also a belief that there is enough for everyone and that someone else’s gain is not your loss. Life is not a zero sum game.

Why is it crucial for growth?

When you believe that you have everything you need to prosper, you become more generous with your time, knowledge and material resources, instead of hoarding it out of fear of scarcity. Sharing makes a community stronger, smarter and enables it to grow faster. No resources are left latent. www.myggsa.co.za and www.angelmoola.co.za are examples of how resources are circulated online among total strangers.

People with this mindset focus on the potential and creatively moves towards it, rather than focus on their current material resources only. They know it is possible to create something from nothing (especially from very little capital).

When you believe that you will eventually be cared for by a higher power (yes, an abundance mindset requires faith), you tend to be more adventurous and take on more risks – essential for material and spiritual growth.

An abundance mindset combats jealousy, one of life’s most destructive emotions. So what if your friends or colleagues all live in massive houses/go overseas every year/won the lotto? Their good fortune does not take anything away from you. By not wishing them this prosperity, you are wishing life to be smaller, more restricted.

What an abundance mindset is not

Believing that there’s enough for everyone doesn’t mean you can sit back and be lazy, passive or uncompetitive. It means using healthy competition to raise the level of your game and with it the standard in your industry.

Seeing abundance everywhere does not mean you can afford to be wasteful or reckless with the resources you have. Natural resources are the first to jump to mind, but the same applies to capital. Irresponsible lending to borrowers unable to repay the debt from the start of the bond was the root of the international liquidity crisis. It’s a chilling example of how substantial capital resources can be reduced to almost nothing overnight.

How do you cultivate it?

Like any new habit, it takes regular practice and persistence to establish an abundance mindset.

• Practise seeing the abundance around you every day. Even if you live in a desert (maybe especially if you live in a desert) you’ll notice how the whole planet is geared towards growth and more life.
• Focus on growing your earnings by adding significant value to your clients; don’t fixate on cutting costs.
• Practise being generous with yourself. Don’t deny yourself time and material resources – you need them to grow. Also, don’t feel guilty if you want to spend a fortune on a dream holiday and you created more value to your client or employer than the cost of the holiday. As a bonus, your holiday also helps to pay the salaries in the hospitality industry.
• Practise being generous with other people. Give more to people than they expect. You won’t dry up if you are also being good to yourself.
• Don’t spend any time on jealousy – rather count your blessings every night.
• Find a creative outlet. It’s good to have something like a melody, a drawing, a sculpture or some creative writing reminding you that it is possible to create something from nearly nothing.

Acknowledgement: Much of my belief in the magical power of an abundance mindset was inspired by Wallace Wattles. Thanks, Nicky, for introducing me to his thoughts.

For the greatest part of my life I heard myself say, ‘I don’t want to be rich; I just want to be happy. Getting rich sounds like too much hard work. And you have to sell your soul. Most rich people are arseholes, anyway’. So, what happened? I ended up at 28 not having any money. I was renting a bachelor’s with just a futon and a fridge to my name. One night, listening to the soothing sounds of quarrelsome neighbours through a paper thin wall, I decided that maybe a little bit of money wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

A year later, I got a job in the UK, working 7-hour days, earning a good living and saving more money every month than the cheque that I used to take home in SA. But I also had more money to spend. For the first time, I could buy all those books that I used to have to borrow from friends. There was money to travel, to entertain, to fly family over for a visit. I was working shorter hours, feeding my soul and I felt like I had more to give. Money did not only make me richer, it actually enriched my life.

Still the prejudice against really wealthy people ran very deep. ‘Selfish’, ‘ignorant’ and ‘out of touch with reality’ were still my associations with wealth. My money attitude sucked.

Then a few friends with much healthier attitudes introduced me to the ideas of Robert Kiyosaki (author of the well-known ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ series) and Wallace Wattles (relatively unknown author of ‘The Science of Getting Rich’ – available online for free).

If you can look past the awful design of the book covers and the American, almost evangelical tone, Kiyosaki addresses a few important psychological barriers to wealth. His warning about the power of your words (both negative and positive) stuck with me. But it starts even sooner: what are you thinking? Can you SEE yourself living in abundance? Do you think you will still like yourself when you have more money than you could ever use in your own lifetime?

Wallace Wattles echoes the power of visualisation. His style is as old-fashioned as you would expect from a turn-of- the- previous-century writer, but the idea of positive thinking is timeless. Like Kiyosaki, he’s also faced opposition from human money repellents. Wattles believe people, like trees, cannot grow to their full potential and bear fruit if they don’t get enough water and nourishment. People need material, emotional and spiritual resources to realise their potential.

But money can also become addictive. Before you know it, you’re tilting to the other end of the scale and obsessed with making more money. And it never seems to be enough. Some of the best advice I ever got was from someone who told me to decide early in life how much I need. Three-bedroom house? One overseas holiday per year? One car and one boat or plane or bike? Then stick with those goals. Maybe someone taught this to Warren Buffet (the world’s richest man) as well – he’s been living in the same modest family home in Omaha for decades now. At some point you need to sit back, celebrate the personal material goals you’ve achieved and either channel the surplus money into investments or give it away to charity.

At the moment I’m just trying to keep the balance and keep my money goals secondary to my life dreams. I don’t want to find out I was right after all about rich people having to sell their souls.