Shifting Your Mindset from Scarcity to Abundance

Your mindset can alter the course of your life.  Adopt a scarcity mindset, or a fixed mindset and you view the world in a way where creativity and possibility is stifled.  Adopt an abundance, or growth, mindset and the universe will expand for you.  You will see opportunities for growth and doors of possibility opening.  Your energy will attract positive into your life and you will feel more joy, freedom and purpose.

Sounds pretty good, right? 

But how do you get out of your negative patterns of thinking and into a more positive mindset?

This episode has all you need to know about abundance mindset and some great mindset hacks to get you there.

Episode Bonuses:
Schedule a FREE 30-minute call with me to learn more about how you can improve your mindset. 

26 FREE journal prompts to help you with your mindset and to get clarity on what you want in life


Upcoming webinar on improving your mindset!  Be sure to follow me on social media AND join my email newsletter (you can do this by downloading the free journal prompts above)!

Visit me on the web at www.kortneyrivard.com
Social media:
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Pinterest
LinkedIn

(note: my Facebook and Instagram profiles are currently disabled due to some technical issues)

Transcript

Episode 9 - Shifting your Mindset from Scarcity to Abundance

[00:00:20] Well, hey there, this is episode number nine and I am floored that this is actually the ninth episode I'm recording. It doesn't sound like a lot, but I'm recording this in mid-July and it's amazing to me how fast the summer has flown.

[00:00:45] I started this podcast on June 1st of 2020, and I can't even believe I have nine episodes done. So it's really exciting that I'm here almost to episode number 10, a big milestone coming up there... but today we're going to talk about mindset.

[00:01:02]Mindset can totally alter the course of your life. The way you think about yourself or the world, it can drastically affect the way you learn, or you handle stress, how you create success or deal with failures in your life, or how resilient you are, even how well your immune system functions. And so it's a big part of the work I do with my clients... it's the undercurrent really, to living a happy and joy-filled life.

[00:01:33]In my coaching practice, some of the things that come up for my clients when it comes to mindset are that they've just kind of lost belief in themselves. They don't really believe they can and it's not necessarily a conscious, "Oh, I can't do that", but it's more of a fear of leaving what's comfortable. 

[00:01:51]There's a lot of, "Oh, I don't think I could do that". Or "I could never do that". "I don't know how", or in terms of going through a difficult time in your life, "life is hard" or "my life sucks" or "so-and-so has it easier... that's why they were able to do XYZ". You know, like they had an advantage or people don't feel like things will ever get better.

[00:02:14] They don't feel like they have the power to choose, or they don't have the power to make choices that affect their lives for the better. Another common thing that I get is, how do I actually stay positive at this time when things are so hard? And life can sometimes be really hard and we don't always believe in ourselves, so it can be really easy to fall into that negative thinking trap. 

[00:02:39] Your mindset is so important when it comes to getting where you want to be in life, whether it's mentally, just emotionally dealing with things, keeping a positive outlook or physically - running a race or just being healthy, or even something more concrete, like a job or a career you want, or a home that you want, or a certain lifestyle you want to live.

[00:03:01]And you're obviously always going to have hard times in your life. So you can choose to accept your circumstances as a negative, or you can adopt a more positive growth mindset or abundance mindset, which will help you so much in getting through any, anything you're faced with.

[00:03:19]So in today's episode, I am going to talk about different mindsets. The negative mindsets are like scarcity or fixed mindset. And then the more positive, optimistic mindsets, like abundance and growth mindsets.

[00:03:32] I'm going to talk about what they are, how and how you can develop and nurture a growth or abundance mindset to change the way that you live your life. And I also really want to impress upon you today that you are capable of improving your mindset no matter where you are right now. So keep that in mind as you listen to this podcast.

[00:03:51] So first we're going to talk about that difference between  a fixed mindset - or a scarcity mindset, and a growth - or abundance mindset.  Just to be super clear, I don't want to confuse all of you,   I'm kind of using interchangeably the fixed mindset and scarcity mindset and growth and abundance mindsets.

[00:04:11] So just to clarify, the fixed mindset and growth mindset kind of go hand in hand and they were introduced by Carol Dweck, who is a researcher at Stanford. She did a bunch of studies, mostly with children, and identified these two mindsets as what's typically seen in kids.  There's a lot of work that's done in the school systems these days on how to, help children reframe their mindsets that are a little more on the pessimistic, like I can't do this, side into something that's a little bit more optimistic and believing in themselves. 

[00:04:48] So that just gives you a little bit of like, kind of background information on when I refer to fixed and growth mindset, where that comes from.

[00:04:56]Okay. So mindset is a person's like usual attitude or mental state or a belief that orients us - how we handle certain situations. Mindset can help us spot opportunities, you know, by being open to things, but they can also keep us stuck in some pretty self-defeating cycles that involve some limiting beliefs or stories we have about ourselves or patterns in our behaviors and stuff like that.

[00:05:24]I, personally, used to have a pretty crappy mindset. I was always a very glass-half-empty person. And, growing up, I was so hard on myself and everything that felt negative to me was like the end of the world. I didn't know how to deal with hard feelings. I just labeled them as bad.  I didn't have a lot of resilience in that way.

[00:05:50]When I got divorced, I went from being a stay at home mom and part-time photographer to all of a sudden having to just rebuild my life and figure out a new career. And I felt like I would never get my life together. I was very stuck in this fixed scarcity mindset place.

[00:06:10] When I work with clients of mine who are stuck, they'll come to me, not feeling like they're capable of accomplishing new goals or having a hard time believing in themselves. They might feel like their lives suck or they aren't capable of getting out of the situation that they're in.

[00:06:28]Maybe they feel unlucky or they don't have better circumstances. Things are so hard for them.  They don't feel like they're capable of changing the situations or the circumstances that they're in. They might feel like they're failing or that making mistakes is like the end of the world.

[00:06:44] And as I said before, I promise you that no matter how much your mindset is holding you back right now, you are capable of adopting one that will keep you stepping forward no matter what. I promise you, you just have to do some work. 

[00:06:57] So we're going to talk about the difference between that fixed or scarcity mindset and the growth or abundance mindset.

[00:07:05]Someone with a fixed mindset is someone who might resent other people's successes a lot because it's built on the I win, you lose concept.  It doesn't take into account that, Hey, we all can win in some way.

[00:07:19]And this mindset sees resources as being limited. There's only one pie. And if I take half of it, there's only half the pie left for everyone else. There's no consideration that there's like more pie that can be baked. So, you know, we compete for these available resources because we don't think there is enough to go around. 

[00:07:38] So this creates this urgency to prove yourself over and over.

[00:07:42]So if you've ever been stuck in the perfectionist cycle or really needing outside validation from people, you know what I'm talking about!

[00:07:51]A fixed mindset also believes that the qualities that you have are set in stone, that there's no way to change those qualities or circumstances. What you've got is what you've got.

[00:08:03]So the point of view of a fixed mindset or a scarcity mindset is kind of "checked out" because it's, it's sort of like this hopeless feeling that, okay, well, here I am. I have what I have. I got shafted. I'm not going to be able to get anything different.  Between a fixed or scarcity mindset and the other side of the coin, the abundance or growth mindset, the energy is totally different.

[00:08:24] I mentioned already that concept of I win, you lose versus Hey, we can all win somehow, but even just physically someone with a fixed mindset is more likely to have, just signs of stress, like a tight chest, contracted body, the clenched jaw, you know, shallower breath. 

[00:08:45] Emotional energy is different that they tend to be very draining, and then just mentally, disorganization is big, feeling confused, very narrow thinking, focused on what isn't working and the key phrase I think is like this  I have no choice, mentality. Life is happening to me. I can't really change it. Here's what I've been given. 

[00:09:09]In contrast, the growth or abundance mindset is very, just optimistic. Instead of feeling like there's only so much to go around,  the abundance mindset believes there are enough resources and success to share with everyone. That the hand that you're dealt is just a starting point and you can develop and grow from there.

[00:09:29]These people tend to exude happiness despite their circumstances. They roll with the punches easier. It doesn't mean they're always happy, but the overall outlook is just that things are good. Life is pretty good.

[00:09:44] The growth mindset believes that basic qualities are things that you can cultivate through, like trying or strategies, to get better at something. 

[00:09:55] Growth mindset tends to be happy for other people, optimistic, genuinely happy for other people when they're successful because they don't believe that that's all there is to go around. They have this feeling that everyone can change and grow through the application of their skills and experience.

[00:10:14] And also that, you know, your true potential is really unknown. So why not go for it? It's impossible to foresee what you can accomplish with years of training and passion. So, they're always a lot more open to just giving stuff a shot. 

[00:10:31] And I mentioned that the fixed mindset is very stuck on proving. You know, they get very sucked into being competitive and proving themselves. Whereas the growth mindset really thinks more about how can I  improve myself over, proving myself to someone else.

[00:10:49]A really good example of the difference between fixed and growth mindset is perfectionism. A perfectionist would really want to hide anything that they would deem a flaw or a deficiency or something. The growth mindset is really more into overcoming the deficiencies or working on improving rather than just hiding them and putting on a perfect front.

[00:11:15]They're also more likely to try things that are going to stretch them test them over ones that are easy, tried, and true - the norm. They tend to have more of a passion for stretching themselves and sticking to it. Even if it's not going well, they're very resilient and they can see the value in making mistakes and just getting back up again.

[00:11:37]The overall feeling or point of view of someone with a growth or abundance mindset is just really being in the driver's seat, having a deep, inner sense of personal worth, and pretty good self-esteem. In terms of the energy, they just tend to be a little more relaxed, alert, more of an expansive posture, more rooted and balanced present, staying in the moment.

[00:12:01] Emotional energy tends to be very empowering, engaged, optimistic, and positive.  Mentally, there tends to be this feeling of clarity, ability to see multiple sides of things. Flexible, adaptable, and with a fixed mindset, I have no choice or life's happening to me. And in contrast, the growth or abundance mindset has this mentality of, I always have a choice.

[00:12:30]So when people come to me for coaching, one of the things that we work really hard on is mindset. When you have that fixed or scarcity mindset, it keeps you stuck in so many ways. It stifles your belief in yourself. It stifles creativity. It has an entirely different energy about it. And of all the points I made, comparing and contrasting the different mindsets, the one that to me, sums it all up is, I always have a choice versus I have no choice, life is just happening to me. 

[00:13:00] So many people do really live their lives as if it's just happening to them. Their mindset tells them that they don't really have the power to control that. But honestly, you do, you can't necessarily change the things that are happening to you, but you can control how you view them and how you react to them.

[00:13:21] So I want to talk a little bit about how the growth and abundance mindset, just some kind of different ways to look at that mindset, for those of us that like to have examples, this can kind of help you put it into perspective. 

[00:13:34] One way of looking at it is the "dreaming big" or "anything is possible" way of thinking. So I'm going to tell you a little story...when I was growing up I had this mentality that, Oh yeah, I can do anything I want. And then, you know, life kind of happens ... I got married, had kids, I was mostly a stay at home mom. I was a photographer too, but you know, I got into this little cocoon of a comfort zone and it felt easy and not exactly inspiring all the time, but, it was comfortable and somewhere along the way, I really lost my ability to dare, to do daring things in some ways.  I did do a lot of things that were difficult, and people would always be like, Oh my God, I could never do that. So there was that, but things like when I got divorced and I had to find a new career and I didn't really want to go back to engineering, but I didn't know what I was going to do. So when I hired my first life coach, I really hired her to help me figure that out.

[00:14:37] And I've told this story before on the show, but at one point I realized that I was really interested in being a coach. And so, my dream, I don't know if I've talked about this on the show before... I don't think I have, but my dream is to someday have these, small retreats that are transformational, like a transformational weekend, where it's a small group of women and, you know, we just have this safe place to really be authentic and real and figure out what we want. What's aligned with us, figure out how to be authentic and how to find our value and really just, shift that mindset to being fully there. And when I was talking with my coach about all of this, you know, it lit me up to talk about it and she could even tell it in my voice, but I would say to her:  I don't know if I could do that. Cause I don't know how to be a coach. And you know, I've told this story before, but she said to me, well, what if you can? And it shifted everything for me. Those four words shifted everything for me. I shifted to a what if I can mentality?

[00:15:51] So right now I have huge dreams, huge dreams, and I do really believe that anything is possible, but six years ago, I didn't. And so that's one piece of abundance mindset that I've done a lot of work on. And it was a shift that, you know, it took one shift and then some backup work.

[00:16:15] Another one is just passion. Putting your passion first, pursuing your authentic talents, your deepest interests. I use the example of, not wanting to go back to engineering, versus, you know, doing what I love. And that's one another mindset that I can use in that same story is that  some people would have the mindset that well, that's what I went to school for. So I have to go back to that. And believe me,  I've thought a lot of the time that I'm crazy for not going back to do that. It pays well, I mean, it would be hard to go back after so much time away from that industry, but, and that's kind of a different story I could if I wanted if I really wanted to, but I really don't.

[00:16:59] And so. I'm, you know, using those two mindsets,  dreaming big, anything is possible. And that I am putting my passion first. I want to do something that makes a difference that has an impact on the lives of others. And so I've had to shift my mindset to Yes! This is possible! I can do this! 

[00:17:18] Another one is just the concept that we're all connected, exploring the synergy in relationships and empowering each other rather than sucking the life out of each other, putting other people down. I think that it's about looking at the things that you don't like in someone versus finding the good in someone.

[00:17:41] My grandpa Swenson was my hero in this way. I mean, this man. I literally never heard him say anything mean about anyone. And I think he really - while he never used these words, I think that he really subscribed to this mindset is that we're all people, we're all human beings. We're all working together in some way. And we're all valuable. 

[00:18:04]Another one is just choosing to be responsible for your own happiness and success. Some people, as I mentioned, life is happening to me mentality don't really see that they actually can choose to be happy or they can choose to be successful, whatever their definition of success is.

[00:18:24]Gratitude is another one. I cannot sing the praises of gratitude enough. I've told this story before too, so if I'm being repetitive, I'm sorry. But my mom gave me a gratitude journal many years ago when I was in a very difficult place in my life. And I just kind of rolled my eyes at like, Oh, this is the most cliche thing I've ever seen... write down three things that I am thankful for every day and magically I will be happy? Well, it doesn't quite work that way, but when I finally got over myself and started to try it - and believe me, there were some days where finding three things or five things or whatever it was, was really difficult for me.

[00:19:05] And so I always had my kids. That was one. And eventually, I would write down, I'm thankful for sunshine. I'm thankful for flowers or whatever, but I kept doing this over and over and over again. And I swear to God it works. You can roll your eyes at me all you want, but I'm telling you if you commit to doing this every single day, even if you want to do it just on the weekdays three things - you start doing that, and over time you will have shifted your mindset to something that is primarily one of gratitude versus thinking about all the things that suck. I promise you. 

[00:19:46]Living to give is another one, like inspiring and serving others while maximizing your own potential. Instead of that, there is only so much to go around mentality.

[00:19:56] Like if you give of yourself and if you've ever heard that, I'm saying, I'm not exactly sure how it goes, but you know, the more you give, the more that you'll receive, give, and we'll come back to like tenfold or whatever that saying is, but it's absolutely true. 

[00:20:12] Another one is the power of the moment. The time is now - take action today. Don't wait. It's the difference between, Oh, maybe someday and, well, someday is a myth. I have to make time now.

[00:20:24]So the way you think about yourself in the world can drastically affect your experience in life. How do you do it? It can seem like a hard thing to shift. Because it's your mind and your mind is a very powerful thing. The good news is that you can change, you can rewire your brain, those connections, like if you shift how you think you can create these new pathways that become automatic. 

[00:20:56] Your brain is always looking for a way to be more efficient. And if you have adopted a negative mindset, your brain has gotten very good at being efficient at that. But the good news is that you can switch that. You can work on it and you can create these new paths that your brain will have an easier time thinking positively. And then, the negative, pathways will be the less automatic ones. So that's really good news. 

[00:21:22]So how to do that? So I'm going to just go over some ways and they're sort of little mindset hacks. some are really easy and some take a little more work. So the first one is kind of a broad overall one, and it's just that it all starts with awareness becoming aware of your thoughts and of yourself talk.

[00:21:40] This is so true with anything I  deal with in coaching. I'm always saying the first step is noticing and that's absolutely a hundred thousand million percent true. So notice your thoughts, notice your self-talk, or my thoughts rooted in abundance, or are they rooted in scarcity? Notice that first.

[00:22:02] Think about why you're having those negative thoughts. I'm going to use money as an example:  I will never be able to get out of debt. I have so much debt. I'm never going to be able to get out. 

[00:22:13] So think about why you're thinking that or why you're saying it. You might have, like, from your childhood, you might have a money story. Like, when you were a kid, maybe you learned that you're not good with money. You know, you, you have that story in your head. Or, in order to have extra money and be debt-free, you need to have these different circumstances.

[00:22:32] You have to have rich parents, or, you know, you need to have a different kind of job or you need to be a different kind of person, but you're not that person. Do you see where I'm going with this? If you can identify that and figure out where it comes from, it kind of takes the power away from it because then you know that, that you can question it. You're starting to question it. It doesn't have to be true. So you can then change those thoughts. You can decide what to think instead, which is awesome. You don't need to just accept them because they're not facts. They're just thoughts. 

[00:23:05] So if you have a thought that's rooted in scarcity, you can say, well, what do I need to do? Who do I need to be to shift to an abundance thought? Maybe it would be, I'm perfectly capable of getting out of debt. There are millions of people that have changed their money story, and I can too.

[00:23:26] So, you know, you can reframe it that way and start to tell yourself. One time is not going to fix it. But if you can create some kind of thought like that, and you can try to keep thinking it, keep telling yourself when you have the scarcity thought, replace it with the abundance thought, because your thoughts are going to drive how you feel about something, which, which then are going to affect what result you get.

[00:23:51]So recognizing that unhelpful thinking and, self-talk is the first huge step in shifting that mindset, practice, reframing that stuff. And you'll be halfway there.

[00:24:06]I mentioned gratitude. One quote I love by Oprah Winfrey is: "if you look at what you have in life, you'll always have more". So it's just, it's such a great thing to focus on. - what's there instead of what's not there.  I mentioned the gratitude journal. So do that. Gratitude journal every day. It doesn't have to be something fancy. You can grab a notebook and just date it and write three things. Or, or if you can do 10, that's even better. And if you get stuck, don't forget the super, super simple things. It's like, you can walk or you can breathe, or, you know, you like how the rain feels when you're walking outside or you love flowers, you love butterflies or whatever. The easy things are really something to be grateful for too.

[00:24:54]But like I said before, you'll be so surprised on how your mindset shifts when you do this over and over and over again. And there are studies on the power of gratitude. So I encourage you to Google that.  

[00:25:05] So I like to call this "possibility thinking" or recognizing unlimited possibilities. Think in terms of possibilities, not difficulties. The enemy of abundance is like what's called a contracted awareness. So it's like when people focus on one thing, the other possibilities that are right in front of them go completely unnoticed.

[00:25:30] So if you just try to be a little more expansive, loosen your mind up and expand your awareness. Maybe do some meditation or spend some time being quiet and peaceful, set an intention to really clear your mind. You can just open that up a little bit, be a little more expansive, you know, sort of that take time to smell, stop and smell the roses thing. You know, really stop to notice what's around you. Stop to really breathe it all in. Feel it.

[00:26:00]Another thing that's really important to shift your mindset to something more along the lines of abundance and growth is to really share what you're passionate about, share your purpose. If you're not sure what that is, the first step is to start to cultivate that. Just start to figure it out.

[00:26:21] What are you passionate about? What do you feel like your purpose is in life? Finding your purpose is kind of a whole separate episode, but, by doing this, by sharing those things that you are passionate about, you can really start to foster some belief in yourself and also create some confidence in the things that you do love to do, and you learn how to share that stuff with other people and, and those people we'll benefit from it. And it just feels really good.

[00:26:50] You always want to set yourself up for success when you're working on shifting your mindset to being more positive.

[00:26:56]The best way to believe in yourself that you can create whatever you want in life and live abundantly is to create little "mastery experiences". So think of it, like think of it as breaking up a really big goal into tiny steps and small actions. So you focus on those little small actions instead of just going after the big goal.

[00:27:17]if you've ever set a goal and struggled to reach it, and this happens to people all the time, it's where they don't break it up. They don't like reverse-engineer the goal. And so right off the bat, they're picking a goal that's really pretty big and lofty, and maybe they underestimate how long it will take to get there because they haven't really put a lot of thought into what needs to happen to get from point A to point B. 

[00:27:39] So if you set yourself up for success and you choose little tiny goals along the way and reward yourself for those things as you go, you are creating those mastery experiences and it's just building confidence along the way, which this is all kind of, you know, it's a feel-good thing.

[00:27:55] You also want to, when you're playing around with really planting these seeds of this positive mindset that you're developing, you want to choose situations carefully to play around with that, you know, start small. Don't just, if you're in a situation where, say you're going through a terrible divorce and you say to yourself, I'm going to shift my mindset and I'm going to believe this is all just awesome. Well, that's probably not going to work, so you probably need to step back, a bunch of steps and say, okay, so I'm going to take it one day at a time. And today I'm going to have a positive experience in this area.

[00:28:36] Then you're setting yourself up for success on that day. You're not saying, okay, I'm magically going to just be fine with this because it doesn't work that way. So, you know, be realistic.

[00:28:47]What you tell yourself and what you tell other people shapes reality for you. So think about, are you telling stories of scarcity or abundance or, are you being a fixed mindset or a growth mindset? This is very similar to the first point I brought up about just being aware, but this takes it a little bit further.

[00:29:07]So an exercise that you can do, which is kind of fun and sort of entertaining sometimes is when you find yourself talking or thinking of something that you can't have or be, or do, you can say something like, "thank you for listening to me, but I actually want to take that statement back because that's a scarcity mentality and I am, thank you very much, creating an abundance mentality" and then say something that's possible from an abundance mentality.

[00:29:38]So for my example of being really, really drawn to life coaching and then saying to myself, well, I can't do that. I don't know how to do it. So that's my scarcity or my limiting, my fixed mindset. So if I'm going to reframe that, I can say, well, thank you. Thank you brain. But I actually really want to take that away because that's totally not true.

[00:30:02] And I'm going to reframe that... I'm creating this abundance mentality and so really. If I want to be a life coach, nothing that can get in my way because I'm capable of doing anything that I really want to do. It might not happen tomorrow. I might need to spend some time working at it, but I am perfectly capable of doing this. It's totally doable. Well, because I can do anything I put my mind to, and I can handle any obstacles that get in my way, but I can do this. 

[00:30:31] So it's all about reframing those scarcity voices into something that says, Hey, no, I can do this. And a lot of it boils down to fear when you're afraid of something, that little scarcity voice is going to come in and tell you all kinds of stuff about what you can't do.

[00:30:50] So you just gotta watch it... if you jump on its bandwagon and start talking like it, you got to start to say, Hey, no, I thank you. I'm going to get off your bus. Let me get out of my own bus. This is what I believe because I can do this. 

[00:31:04] And along these same lines is always surround yourself with positivity, too minded people, people that believe in you, you know, share your positivity with others too.

[00:31:15] It's contagious. Treat yourself kindly, you know, like I said, transform that negative self talk. Reframe it into positive. Find positive friends, coworkers, mentors, always like act as positive as you can all the time. 

[00:31:30] Even if you're not feeling a hundred percent positive just try to look at the positive. It doesn't mean you always have to feel good. It doesn't mean you always have to act like nothing's wrong. It just means when you react to something, think about how you can look at the good things in it.

[00:31:50] It's okay to feel crappy. It's okay to have a day where you're like, shit, this sucks, you know, it's gonna happen, but just watch that overall mindset.

[00:32:01]In a growth mindset, people believe their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication, hard work - like your brains, your talent, that's just the starting point. So concentrate on that ability to grow. This view creates this love of learning of resilience. You can turn failures into lessons. Look at the good from the bad. Focus on finding solutions instead of focusing on the problems or what's hard.

[00:32:32]This mindset - people tend to understand that they don't know everything even about topics that you may have already "mastered". So the beginner's mindset is really about having the ability to maintain this attitude of openness and enthusiasm. Along with the willingness to override existing preconceptions, just like a true beginner would it's like, you're not jaded, you're not already set in your ways kind of thing. No matter how much you have learned or how experienced you may be in that area.

[00:33:06]This kind of goes without saying, and it's probably kind of obvious, but just focus on what's going, right. Humans have a tendency to notice what's going wrong more easily than what's good. I mean, just think about any time like restaurant reviews - there are so many more people that will leave a negative restaurant review than a good one.

[00:33:25]We're just wired that way,  we're wired to look at the things that are going worse than the things that are going well.

[00:33:34]Our ancestors,  who were quick to see threats actually were more likely to survive and pass along their DNA to those who weren't quick to see threats. So, it's not our fault. It's just how we're wired, but optimists rely on abundance mindset and lead better, longer lives.

[00:33:53] So the script has kind of flipped. So the next time you have a problem or something doesn't seem to be going, right. Look at the problem from a bigger perspective, like instead of focusing on what's going wrong and trying to fix the problem, focus instead, on what's actually going right as it relates to what you're doing, and then brainstorm ways to support that even further.

[00:34:14] The last mindset hack I want to leave you with, is just to create abundance affirmations, start your day with positive affirmations. These are so personal to each person, but you can create your own. You can just Google abundance affirmations, and you'll find a plethora of ideas, but  I think what is more helpful is if you just look at, at thoughts that you have that are more scarcity-rooted and try to reframe those. 

[00:34:45] I actually have a notebook that I keep, and I'm not as good about writing it at every day as I used to be, but I will write down my goals every day, but then also write positive words that I need to remember to tell myself, or that I need to kind of hammer into my brain.

[00:35:01] So that is a really helpful thing to do. Like, I am enough, I'm worthy. People need to hear my story. I'm capable of success. I mean, things like that, and you can tailor it to your own personal, circumstances and use words that really resonate with you, but it really does work. And there is research that has shown that.

[00:35:20]So, those are some great mindset hacks that I just talked about, and as I said, some of them are really easy. Some of them take a little more work, but it's, it's all part of the journey. It's not going to happen tomorrow, but it's like anything, as you work through the steps, as you,  try to do these things, it gets a little better every day.

[00:35:41] Tomorrow you might not see a difference. In a week you might see a little difference, but in like a month or two months or three months or a year, you're gonna see a huge difference. So stick with it. And if you have any questions about anything, please, please, please feel free to shoot me an email kortney@kortneyrivard.com.

[00:35:59] You can go to my website, or actually in the show notes if you want to schedule a free 30-minute call with me to chat about this stuff, I am totally open to doing that. I love that. There's no obligation. It's just a fun way to kind of, pick my brain about stuff. 

[00:36:13]But just to put these things into five steps I want to leave you with. The steps to a better mindset. 

[00:36:20] So first of all, just remember that your mindset is your voice, your mindset manifests itself as your voice. So pay attention to those thoughts that self-talk.

[00:36:30]Second, recognize that you are not stuck with the thoughts that are there already, like how you interpret your challenges, your setbacks, all that stuff. It's your choice. You have control of that. So you can either interpret your challenges as signs that your fixed abilities are lacking. That's the fixed mindset, or you can interpret it as signs that you need to ramp up your growth efforts, which is the growth or abundance mindset.

[00:36:55]Third, you talk back to that voice. Remember you are not stuck with your thoughts. You talk back to your thoughts, you reframe it into something more positive, more abundance oriented, more growth-oriented. 

[00:37:08]Four,  you're not going to just settle for these "upgraded thoughts".

[00:37:13] You're going to walk the talk. You're going to actually put these things into motion.  If you create an affirmation that says I am perfectly capable of success, you are going to take steps that day to actually act like you believe that you can't just say it next time.

[00:37:32] Okay. And fifth, and this is one thing that Carol Dweck, who I mentioned earlier, the person who wrote the book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success about the growth and fixed mindsets - she said, the words "not yet", or "yet" are huge. So remember if you are not able to do something, it doesn't mean you're not able to do something, it means you're not able to do it YET. 

[00:38:00] So let's just use mindset as an example. If you are feeling like you have a lot of negative thoughts and you're having a hard time really reframing those things into positive, it doesn't mean that you CAN'T do it, it just means that you aren't doing it YET. 

[00:38:14] Okay. So with that, that's what I want to leave you with. I want to leave you with that word YET. Not YET. So think about that. How can you apply NOT YET to your life?

[00:38:28]