Ignoring Lack to Create Abundance | Steve Pavlina

I’ve been enjoying an abundant year because I focus much more attention on abundance, appreciation, and gratitude than I do on lack, scarcity, and poverty. Some people would say that this mindset is the result of abundance; I recognize the mindset/heartset as the cause of it.

When I did the opposite and paid more attention to what was lacking in my life, I experienced a variety of scarcity-based experiences — sinking deeper into debt each year, being kicked out of my apartment due to lack of rent money, not being able to afford what I wanted, feeling stressed whenever my car broke down, always buying the cheapest items and having them break easily, etc. That place of being was compelling enough to capture my attention for a while, but after a number of years there, I got bored with it and decided to try out the abundance mindset to see what that’s like.

I would often read books or listen to audio programs that went on and on about the abundance mindset, but I figured that was easy for them to say because they were already living it. What if you’re not living it? Usually their recommendation was to start wherever you are, and some would insist that abundance is a mindset you can create regardless of your starting position. I didn’t really buy into that notion at the time, but mainly because I was desperate to try something new, I opted to give it an earnest effort for at least a few days to see if it made any difference. It’s not like what I was doing before that was working, so I figured it couldn’t hurt, and it might help lead me into new territory where a solution could be found.

I began by focusing on feeling grateful for what I did have, like being able to enjoy running along the beach or watching a sunset. I turned my attention away from lack as much as possible. I did my best to ignore my debt, my unpaid bills, and my creditors for a while. Obviously that created some consequences, and I further dealt with those consequences by largely ignoring them as well.

This is really a key point that I don’t want you to just overlook. It wasn’t just that I began to focus on abundance thinking. I also did my very best to ignore anything in my life that suggested lack or scarcity. I stopped looking at my bills. I stopped answering the phone since most of the calls were from creditors. I ignored my debt and stopped making credit card payments altogether. That sounds crazy, doesn’t it? But when I paid attention to those things, they would just bring me down and make me start thinking about what wasn’t working.

This shift of attention soon created external shifts in my reality. I became more creative, released a new product, and started making a lot more money. A year later I was debt free, partly from going bankrupt, which was a good thing because it wiped out most of my debt, and then I paid off the rest mostly in one fell swoop with an advance I received for a game I licensed to a publisher.

I continued to expand upon this mindset of abundance over time. I imagined enjoying time abundance too. I imagined being more generous, first with my money, but then I felt even better about being generous with my time and creativity. I donated thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours to non-profits. I wrote articles for free and hosted discussion forums for free. I didn’t do these things to get any particular result. I did them because I just felt motivated to do them. When I held onto that abundance vibe, I didn’t have to push myself to contribute anything. It just flowed out of me without really trying.

I’ve since created a massive body of creative work and gave it away to the public domain, and I continue to add to that collection each month. This month I started doing microloans as well and encouraged others to join our team, which has been making new loans every day.

I never would have done these things if I was focused on lack. The vibe of lack didn’t make me feel particularly generous; it merely made me project generosity as something other people should do more of, or something I should get around to “in the future” (which of course means never).

There is value in having experiences across the spectrum of scarcity to abundance. I’m glad for the experience of scarcity since it helps me understand and appreciate abundance more deeply. For example, I enjoyed my recent trip to Paris that much more because I know what it was like to not be able to afford such a trip and having it seem like an impossibility. Every day I spent in Paris, I felt grateful to be there. I didn’t take anything for granted.
Through personal testing I came to see that overall I prefer the abundance vibe to the scarcity vibe. Abundance is a better fit for who I am.

I neither require nor expect others to make the same choice I did. Lots of people find growth lessons in the scarcity vibe, and I have no doubt they’ll continue to explore it. I’ve tested that vibe and that mindset enough to know that it isn’t such a good fit for me. I’m happier and more fulfilled on the abundance side. But I wouldn’t be so sure of this if I hadn’t had those scarcity experiences first.

Many times when I write about abundance, there are people who will take issue with it. It’s interesting to see how they project a boatload of assumptions onto me and then argue with their own assumptions. Some seem to think that abundance is wrong. Others want me to pay more attention to poverty.

I pay little attention to poverty, scarcity, and lack, not just in myself but in others as well. My focus is on abundance, gratitude, generosity, appreciation, etc. If you believe that what I’m doing is not enough, it’s because you feel what you’re doing isn’t enough. If you’re in resonance with scarcity, then “not enough” is something you’ll see wherever you look.

When you view one side of the spectrum through the lens of the other, your perceptions are greatly distorted. Just as scarcity may look upon abundance as greedy, excessive, selfish, elitist, narcissistic, etc., so can abundance look upon scarcity as lazy, wimpy, foolish, childish, stupid, etc. But these perspectives aren’t helpful to us… again, because they’re distorted.

You can only understand the options available to you when you experience them from the inside. And yes, this does mean that you can’t really understand an option until you’ve experienced it to some degree. From the outside looking in, you can get curious, but you can’t really gain much insight.

You’re free to do as I’ve done and test different mindsets/vibes to learn which set of experiences you prefer. You have laid out before you a whole spectrum of possibilities to explore.

Try to avoid the mistake of judging or condemning someone else’s position on this spectrum. Don’t expect others to change their mindset just because you have issues. If you feel resistance towards what others are experiencing, look to your dissatisfaction with your own vibe. Then remember that you have the power to make the shifts you desire, if you’re willing to embrace those shifts fully and completely instead of resisting them.

I’m quite pleased with my choices thus far, even as I continue to explore new points along the spectrum of possibilities. I’m fully aware that some people object to my choices and would prefer to see me focus more attention on problems like poverty. From the perspective of scarcity, they want me to change what they’re unwilling to. They want me to join them in their feelings of being not enough. From within the lens of scarcity, this may seem like a reasonable request, but from the perspective of abundance, it’s a rather silly thing to do.

The response to such requests is predictable if you understand how both mindsets work. Scarcity criticizes abundance for being not enough. Abundance finds scarcity’s request silly and so enjoys amusement at the entertainment value of it; additionally abundance is appreciative of the reminder of the contrast between scarcity and abundance. Scarcity doesn’t get its request satisfied and hence validates its experience of not enoughness; it can continue to live in its world where abundance is greedy and unresponsive to its needs. Abundance ends the interaction feeling appreciative; scarcity leaves feeling frustrated. This is a perfectly congruent outcome from all perspectives. Each vibe creates the experience that harmonizes with it.

A few people have been amusing me lately, which I’m grateful for, and I in turn have been doing my part to frustrate them.

If you desire to shift from scarcity to abundance, how do you do that? There are many techniques that I’ve shared in the past, so I won’t rehash that same content here. A good place to start is to watch the Creating Abundance videos. I actually apply this to an even greater extent today than I did when I created those videos in 2009. Now I’m spending much more time each day doing this kind of vibrational work because I find it extremely powerful.

This morning I woke up at 3:30 and then spent a good 2 hours imagining different aspects of my life as I want them to be and getting a clear lock onto the vibes that are consistent with my desires — the thoughts, feelings, and attitudes I believe I’d be experiencing if all my desires were physically real right now.

Then throughout each day, I do my best to hold onto these new vibes as much as possible. When I catch myself slipping into a vibe I wouldn’t likely experience on the side of my new desires, such as frustration or worry, I stop whatever I’m doing, take a deep breath, and reload the vibe I desire. Or if I’m tired and can’t do this very well, I just take a break to distract myself.

I continue to practice this because I find it very effective. Not only do I attract and enjoy more of what I want, but my new vibes also become increasingly repulsive to those whose vibes are incompatible, while becoming more attractive to those with compatible vibes and desires — people with whom I can enjoy co-creating abundantly.

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Being an Achiever | Steve Pavlina

You become an achiever by achieving your goals. If you achieve your goals, you’re an achiever. If you don’t achieve your goals, you’re not an achiever.

This is a simple, binary way to think about achievement. To achieve means to reach, attain, or accomplish. What you choose to reach, attain, or accomplish is up to you.

The difference between an achiever and a non-achiever is largely a matter of attention. Non-achievers give their goals little attention, if they bother to set goals at all. Achievers give their goals sufficient attention so as to reach, attain, or accomplish those goals.

Non-achievers reach, attain, and accomplish something other than their goals. Quite often they will reach, attain, and accomplish someone else’s goals, without consciously making those goals their own.

To be an achiever, you must give your goals sufficient attention to reach, attain, or accomplish them. This means you must withdraw much of your attention from activities that are not directly leading to the accomplishment of your goals.

In a given week, where is your attention going? If you aren’t habitually obsessing over your goals, then what are you obsessing over instead?

What do you normally put ahead of your goals?

Do you manage to watch some TV or movies?

Do you keep up with email, social media, and text messages?

Do you attend to the social obligations that your family, friends, and co-workers expect from you?

What exactly are you reaching, attaining, or accomplishing in a typical week? Are you 
making progress on your goals by giving them many hours of attention, or are you putting your attention elsewhere?

Achievers accept that in order to achieve their goals, they must withdraw attention from non-goal activities. Achievers also accept that these competing interests may resist being put on the back burner. The cable company may try to talk you out of canceling. Starbucks may send you a reminder email if you don’t show up for too long. Your mother may nag you about something trivial. Achievers learn to decline these invitations for their attention by default. They keep putting their attention back upon their goals.

You must especially be on guard for new invitations and opportunities that come up while you’re working on your goals. These hidden distractions can easily sidetrack you. If an opportunity aligns solidly with your goals, wonderful… take full advantage of it. But if it seems off-course with respect to your current goals, then stick to your path, and say no to the diversion. Generally speaking, it’s wise to be less opportunistic, so you can be more of a conscious creator. You’ll often make faster progress by creating your own opportunities instead of haphazardly chasing the random opportunities that others bring you.

The Scarcity of Attention

Attention is a limited resource. The ability to consciously direct your attention with good energy and focus is even scarcer than the time you have available each day.

In any given week, there may be many interests competing for your attention: friends, family, co-workers, random strangers, corporations, organizations, government agencies, media, and more. And these days they have many different ways to reach you.

Internally you have some competition as well: your physiological needs, your emotional needs, your cravings, your habitual behaviors, etc. You need to eat, sleep, eliminate waste, bathe, and so on. These activities require some attention too.

Somewhere among those competing interests is another voice seeking your attention. This is your goal-oriented nature, your greater intelligence, your desire to live a life rich in meaning and purpose. This part of you craves achievement, and it won’t be satisfied by anything less. It wants you to set your own goals and to reach, attain, and accomplish them.

How much of your attention are you giving to your achievement-oriented self?

If you starve this part of yourself for attention, it will punish you with low motivation, low self-worth, and a general scarcity of resources. But if you give it the attention it craves, you’ll be rewarded with high energy, drive, passion, abundance, and a sense of purpose and contribution.

Directing Your Attention

Fortunately you have the power to consciously direct your attention. You can let your attention float around aimlessly. You can focus your attention on something other than your goals, such as the goals other people have for you. Or you can focus your attention on your own goals.

To really move your life forward requires a major commitment of attention. If you want to improve your finances, you must put your attention on creating value for people, sharing that value, and intelligently monetizing that value. If you want to positively transform your relationships, then give that part of your life some intense and prolonged attention.

Unfortunately we have the tendency to remove attention from those areas of our lives that aren’t doing so well. In the short term, it’s wise to shift focus when we feel overwhelmed because temporary diversions can help relieve stress. But for deeper transformation to occur, we need to put lots of attention squarely on those areas that scream for improvement.
Setting goals requires focused attention. Planning out the action steps to achieve our goals requires even more attention. Executing those action steps takes more attention still. Achievers make such activities a priority in their lives. Non-achievers don’t.

As you get older, keep raising your standards for what deserves your attention. Keep deleting and declining unnecessary fluff and obligations that might otherwise distract you from your magnificent goals. This will free up more attention to focus on your goals.

Have you noticed that when you put your full attention on a goal and obsess about it, you can really move it forward quickly, and you do eventually achieve it? But when you let your attention become diluted by too many competing interests, then progress on your goal slows to a crawl, and you eventually lose your connection to the goal altogether. Goals require significant and prolonged nurturing until they’re achieved; otherwise they die.

Say No to Almost Everything

The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything. – Warren Buffet

What does it mean to say no to almost everything?

For me this means being able to work full-time on my goals, without letting anything get in the way. It means keeping my schedule free of distracting entanglements. It means that even when I work on goals that seem to be put on my plate by someone else, I must either make those goals my own (and say yes to them), or I must reject them and not give them any attention. If I cannot make a goal my own in some way, it doesn’t deserve my attention.

Even a goal like doing your taxes, you can make your own. You can commit to keeping your finances up to date and in good order. You can choose to pay the tax contribution for whatever reasons appeal to you. But if you can’t make a goal your own, and you try to work on it anyway, then you’re fighting yourself, and your progress will be stunted and inconsistent, which is an enormous waste of precious attention.

Don’t dwell in the land of half-commitments. Put your full attention on your own goals, including goals you’ve made your own. If you have a job, then either make the commitment to do your very best at that job, or vacate the position and let someone else do it better.

Put Your Goals First

Many achievers have jobs. Many achievers have families. Many achievers have competing commitments of various kinds. But achievers don’t use their job, kids, and other commitments as excuses for not giving sufficient attention to their goals. For everyone who uses these to excuse their inability to set and achieve goals, there’s a real achiever who started from a more challenging position and used those same elements to help motivate them to achieve their goals. Where non-achievers see excuses, achievers find drive.

A good way to put your goals first is to set high-quality, holistic goals to begin with. Don’t squander your attention on shallow pursuits like making money for its own sake. Set goals that will help you grow, build your skills, create value for others, and do some good in the world. Ask yourself: Does the goal seem meaningful and intelligent when you imagine yourself 20 years past its achievement?

Deliberately put your attention on your goals. When you catch yourself standing in line, dwell upon your goals. Visualize yourself taking the action steps. Make this your default behavior instead of pulling out your phone to attend to something trivial.

Carefully plan out the action steps to achieve your goals. If you received my latest newsletter, you’ll find an extensive how-to article about planning the achievement of your goals.

Clear time to work on your goals, and make this time sacred and inviolable. If you can only clear a small slice out of each week to work on your goals, then consider setting a goal to reach the point where you have the freedom to devote as many hours to your goals as your energy allows. What specific goals would you need to set and achieve to make that a reality? 
Imagine being able to devote most of your time every week to working on your most important goals, without anything getting in the way. Many people live this way, and they love it. Why not you?

The Goal of Freedom

One of my past goals was to remove financial scarcity as a potential source of distraction, so I could spend most of my time each week working on my goals, whether they were income-generating or not. I want to center my life around personal growth pursuits and share what I learn as a legacy for others. I devoted a significant amount of attention to that goal over a period of years until it was achieved, and after that I could continue to maintain such a lifestyle with relative ease. I know that some people think it’s unusual to have the freedom to immerse oneself in setting and achieving goals that may have nothing to do with making money or having a job, like traveling around Europe for a month or going vegan or exploring open relationships, but this kind of freedom is important enough to me that I made achieving this goal my top priority for years, sticking with it until it was achieved. It was challenging but definitely worthwhile.

I know many people who’ve achieved similar goals. Generally speaking, they tend to be the happiest people I know. Instead of taking orders from someone else as their daily routine, they put their attention on their goals, desires, and interests. They make it a priority to maintain this freedom. They don’t use a job, kids, or the lack of money as excuses — just the opposite in fact. From these people I commonly hear stories of setbacks recalled with laughter and good cheer, not with fear or regret… like the time a couple of friends had to sleep in a park because they had no money for a place to stay. What non-achievers fear as roadblocks are merely stepping stones (and entertaining future stories!) for achievers.

If lifestyle freedom is important to you, then make that your primary aim. Put the attainment of this goal first in your life. Working to achieve this goal must become more important to you than keeping up with social media, pleasing your parents, watching your favorite TV shows, and other distractions. If anything else is truly getting in the way, then either drop it from your life, or find a way to turn it into an advantage that increases your drive and motivation.

It’s easy for me to tell the difference between people who are committed to achieving lifestyle freedom vs. those who aren’t committed. The ones who are committed are obsessed with the goal; they think of little else. I can’t get them to shut up about it! They’re constantly trying to figure out how to make it a reality. They work hard at it. They stumble and keep right on going. Usually the goal takes longer than they’d like. They often want it to take less than a year. It usually takes 2-5 years to reach the point of financial sustainability. The achievers make it obvious that they’ll get there no matter how long it takes. For them the goal is mandatory, not optional.

The non-achievers talk about the goal as a distant fantasy. It’s a wish, a dream, a possibility… something that would be nice to have if and when the planets align properly. Their action plan consists mainly of reading books about the Law of Attraction and listening to Abraham-Hicks recordings. They treat the goal as a casual desire but not a serious commitment. They disrespect the tremendous force of will that’s required to achieve it. They virtually never get there.

If the goal of lifestyle freedom matters to you, then drop, cut, and burn whatever distracts you from it. Put your attention squarely on that goal, and obsess about it until you achieve it. If you need more time, cancel cable TV, close your social media accounts, and keep your phone powered off during daylight hours. Take breaks as you need them, but keep putting your attention back on this goal. If you do that, it’s a safe bet that you’ll achieve it.
You’ll set yourself on the path to achieving lifestyle freedom when you stop putting other distractions ahead of that commitment.

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How to Tip From Scarcity to Abundance | Steve Pavlina

You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water, my friend. ― Bruce Lee

Many people struggle to shift from a scarcity-based lifestyle to an abundance-based lifestyle. In this article I’ll share some of the shifts that people have experienced shortly before they reach their abundance tipping point, with the intention of helping you reach your own abundance tipping point sooner. I’ve also included some quotes from Bruce Lee for an extra dose of inspiration.

Reclaim Your Dignity

Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them. ― Bruce Lee

When people are in scarcity, they often do things that make them feel undignified. They may take actions and subject themselves to experiences they aren’t proud of.

When a person is about to shift into abundance, this sense of human dignity (if it was ever lost) is reclaimed. In fact, one’s personal dignity becomes an important part of the vision of abundance.

Being in scarcity doesn’t mean you’re incompetent. It doesn’t mean you’re unprofessional. It doesn’t make you a second class human being. Scarcity does not dictate a lowering of your self-esteem.

The same year I shifted was the year I decided to stop tolerating the indignities of scarcity. Just because I was broke and in debt didn’t mean that I should tolerate the abuse of creditors calling me 10 times a day and trying to trick or manipulate me. Just because I was behind on rent didn’t mean I had to tolerate a rude landlord. Just because I needed income didn’t mean I had to subject myself to working with unethical or incompetent people.

I couldn’t immediately control my financial situation. It was a mess, and I knew that. But my desperation and the willingness to accept abuse were optional.

Are you currently tolerating any indignities in your life? Do your friends, family, and co-workers treat you with respect, regardless of your income or employment? If you owe people money, do your creditors treat you as a mature and responsible adult? Or are you treated with shame, guilt, and derision for your situation?

Realize that regardless of your current situation, you still deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. That is your right as a human being, but you must be willing to enforce that right if people try to violate it.

Reclaiming your dignity also means refusing to beat yourself up, even when you’ve made mistakes. You do not have to stoop over just because some aspects of your life haven’t been working so well. Forgive yourself for any perceived failures. Stand tall once again.

Do not seek shame in scarcity nor pride in abundance. Both are part of the human experience, so allow yourself to retain your humanity across the board.

Reframe the Scarce Times

Don’t fear failure. Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail. ― Bruce Lee

Another aspect of reclaiming your dignity is to recognize that you’re accumulating memories as you go through life, and those memories will be with you for a long time.

You may not be able to control all the pictures that become part of your memories, but you do have control over how you frame them. If you frame your memories with resistance, you’ll accumulate a stockpile of stress, which may cause you to look back on those years with regret. If you frame your memories with appreciation, you’ll accumulate stockpiles of appreciation that you’ll later cherish.

Before people shift into abundance, they often begin to reframe their years of scarcity. They realize that framing those years with stress, frustration, and resistance wasn’t such a good idea because they’re filling their mind with painful memories, which can’t possibly do much good. So they decide to stop accumulating so much emotional baggage and to look for better ways to frame the past and present.

Even if the external scarcity is to continue for a while, it makes no sense to wrap it in stress. The experiences may be necessary, but the added suffering is optional.

When I look back on my scarcest years, I regret that I wrapped so much stress into them. In hindsight it will be obvious to you as well that the stress wasn’t necessary.

After you’ve been living on the abundance side for many years, how will you look back on your scarcest years? Will they still stress you out? That would be silly if those years are in your past. You’ll probably look back on those years with compassion, understanding, and maybe some nostalgia as well. You may also reflect on some of the lessons you learned during those years.

If you can begin to feel such feelings now, even if you’re still experiencing scarce times, it will help you tip to abundance.

Expand Your Definition of Abundance

If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. ― Bruce Lee

When people are stuck in scarcity, they often equate abundance with financial or material wealth. Abundance is money in the bank, being debt-free, having a nice home, and enjoying some quality possessions.

This is the socially conditioned version of abundance we learn from childhood. The problem with this vision is that we’re also conditioned to have mixed feelings about it. Do we really want the life of Ebenezer Scrooge? What’s the point if we end up with lots of money and possessions, but we’re sad and lonely?

When people get closer to their abundance tipping point, they typically go through a process of redefining, expanding, and personalizing their definition of abundance. This process is different for each person, but most of the time it involves replacing an overly narrow definition of abundance with a more holistic version. Instead of abundance being just about wealth, the vision expands to include good health and energy, positive feelings, happy relationships, new growth experiences, fulfillment, spiritual alignment, etc.

Even after you tip into abundance, you’ll continue to revise your definition of abundance. The way you define aspects like quality of life or happy relationships will change as you learn and grow. But most likely your biggest shifts will happen shortly before your initial tipping point.

One reason many people don’t reach their tipping point is because this shift is counter-intuitive. It’s easy to fall into the trap of assuming that a narrower and more limited version of abundance should be easier to achieve. Then we can add more to it after we pass that first hump. But the limited vision kills our motivation and inspiration. It’s only when we ask for the total package that we start summoning the inspired ideas and motivated actions to make it real.

Define a New Relationship with Life

Relationship is understanding. It is a process of self-revelation. Relationship is the mirror in which you discover yourself – to be is to be related. ― Bruce Lee

As you approach your abundance tipping point, it may feel like going through a relationship breakup. You surrender to the fact that the old relationship isn’t working and that it has to change.

This relationship is a mirror though, so you’re the one who has to change. When you change, life will change because life is the reflection.

You can’t just break up with life, but you can renegotiate the relationship. You can choose to stop resisting what life has been doling out, and you can begin to work with life more cooperatively.

For me this shift involved deciding to always give life the benefit of the doubt. I realized that I could believe that life (or the universe) was always on my side, or I could believe it was sometimes against me or indifferent. I thought long and hard about what it would be like to adopt one lens or the other.

This isn’t a question of truth. You can’t objectively know whether the universe cares about you or not. You can always find evidence on both sides. So this is purely a subjective decision, albeit one that will have objective consequences for you.

I concluded that I would likely enjoy a better quality of life if I did my best to give the universe the benefit of the doubt, regardless of what situations and events happened to me. This meant trying to view every setback as a lesson, perhaps even a gift. Instead of being frustrated and disappointed when I didn’t get what I wanted, I’d try to be curious. I’d live my life as a perpetual student – in wonder, open, and flexible, and never sour or bitter towards life’s apparent transgressions. I could always find a way to interpret life’s attitude towards me as being helpful, playful, or educational.

I decided that the universe wants me to be happy and to enjoy an abundant existence. The only thing that might get in my way is my own stubbornness and inflexibility.

Your renegotiation process will probably be different than mine. The pattern I’ve seen in others is that they admit that the old relationship with life has been broken and that it has to change. They realize that it makes no sense to go another one year, five years, or ten years with the relationship the way it is. Something has to change.

To tip into abundance, you need to find some way to make the universe your ally. In your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, you must stop resisting what the universe is bringing you. Learn to welcome whatever arises with as little resistance as possible. See all experience as a gift.

Bruce Lee did not have to cultivate a positive relationship with life. He could have succumbed to a dysfunctional relationship if he didn’t do his part to stay conscious. He had his share of potential disappointments. For instance, he helped develop the TV series Kung Fu but was not allowed to star in it. Warner Brothers was concerned that American audiences wouldn’t accept a Chinese actor in that role, so they hired David Carradine for the role instead, and Carradine wasn’t even a martial artist. Bruce responded with incredible understanding: “They think that business-wise it is a risk. I don’t blame them. If the situation were reversed, and an American star were to come to Hong Kong, and I was the man with the money, I would have my own concerns as to whether the acceptance would be there.”

When people approach their abundance tipping point, they see that they can never hope to experience abundance without the commitment to give the universe the benefit of the doubt. How can you possibly fight with life and expect to win?

This kind of surrender is not passive. It is not giving up. It is kung fu in the true meaning of the term.

Be Humble

It is not a shame to be knocked down by other people. The important thing is to ask when you’re being knocked down, “Why am I being knocked down?” If a person can reflect in this way, then there is hope for this person. ― Bruce Lee

As an extension of the previous item, there’s a newfound feeling of humility that often arises before tipping to abundance. You admit that maybe — just maybe — you don’t know everything there is to know about abundance yet. You admit that there must be more to learn, despite how much you may have read, studied, and worked towards abundance already.

It can take a long time to reach this point. You may go through many cycles of pushing, pushing, pushing, then feeling disappointed with the results, and then taking a break for a while. This pattern is especially common if you read a lot of books about wealth building.

When you recognize that you’ve been running through repetitive cycles, you may feel inclined to step off the treadmill for a while. And that’s when you know you’re getting closer to tipping. The treadmill stops when you relax your mind and allow yourself to become a true student of life once again.

When your mind is filled to the brim with ideas about what should work (but hasn’t), it’s hard to release scarcity because that constant churning drains you and keep you from feeling strong and centered. When you shift to humble curiosity instead of frantic scrambling, you’re getting close to a powerful transition.

Be Patient

You can never invite the wind, but you must leave the window open. ― Bruce Lee

Impatience is like yelling at the wind to blow. It creates more tension, but it only perpetuates scarcity. The wind will blow when it’s ready.

If you exhaust yourself trying to force the wind to blow, then when the wind finally does blow, you won’t be ready for it. You’ll be watching for a tornado, and you’ll miss the gentle breeze of opportunity.

When people shift from scarcity to abundance, they stop trying to stir up tornados. Even if you manage to catch a tornado, it actually just blows you in circles at high speeds and deposits you (somewhat bruised and battered) roughly where you began. You race ahead like a maniac, time passes, and later on you realize that you’ve dragged your scarcity mindset with you the whole way.

When you’re in a state of abundance, it will feel more like a gentle breeze that carries you along. When abundance is your normal, everyday reality, you won’t be flailing your arms and screaming. You’ll just relax and coast.

If you want to tip more easily, relax into long-term patience. Free yourself of demands and expectations. Align yourself with the breeze, not the tornado. Feel the subtle energies of abundance, and seek to release the perpetual thrashing of scarcity.

Channel Your Creative Power

As long as I can remember, I feel I have had this great creative and spiritual force within me that is greater than faith, greater than ambition, greater than confidence, greater than determination, greater than vision. It is all these combined. My brain becomes magnetized with this dominating force which I hold in my hand. ― Bruce Lee

A final sign that a person is ready to shift is that they begin to reclaim their creative power. They stop using scarcity to disempower themselves, and they see that they are stronger than scarcity.

To leave scarcity behind, tune into that great creator spirit that’s been lying dormant inside of you. Let it out to play, without trying to put a leash on it. Stop trying to force your creative spirit to solve your petty financial problems, and let it soar in the direction it wants to go.

Allow the scarcity to be there, and turn your attention to that which is incompatible with scarcity. A scarcity-minded person cannot create, cannot express, cannot shine. So shine in the face of scarcity, and scarcity will no longer have power over you.

As Bruce Lee shared, “It is not, ‘I am doing this,’ but rather, an inner realization that ‘this is happening through me,’ or ‘it is doing this for me.'”

Are you ready to let this creative spirit flow through you – without trying to harness it to your oxcart of scarcity woes? If you’re ready to let this energy run freely through you, you’re ready for abundance.

* * *

In 2010 I visited Bruce Lee’s grave in Seattle, which was a moving experience. He only lived for 32 years. His son Brandon is buried next to him, and Brandon only lived for 28 years.

On Brandon’s grave the following words are inscribed:

Because we don’t know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that’s so deeply a part of your being that you can’t even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even that. How many times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.

We don’t know what the universe has in store for us. We don’t know when our time here will end. We only know that this human life is temporary. Can you appreciate the preciousness of a temporary experience?

If you’d like some help on your journey to abundance, I encourage you to join us at the Conscious Abundance Workshop July 29-31. This workshop has a simple purpose: to help you tip your life from scarcity to abundance.

Enjoy your journey, my friend.

Source: http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2016/07/how-to-tip-scarcity-abundance/

I hope you found this useful.  Do please let me know below.