The Abundance Mentality is a mindset that is often discussed in online personal development circles. Depending on who you ask, the Abundance Mindset can mean a variety of things. One of the most common definitions is akin to “finding the silver lining,” or the good that can come of bad situations.
Positively reframing negative events prevents us from dwelling on self-defeating thoughts. Even if nothing positive can come directly from a scenario, we can at least learn from them and use these lessons to gain success moving forward.
Positive thinking is a useful tool in our arsenal. Being able to reframe incidents in our lives in order to make them work for us can give us power, at least more power than fretting would. Being able to recognize opportunity in situations that look bleak can get us out of the doldrums of negativity.
Abundance in a World of Limited Resources
There is another definition of the Abundance Mentality, however. This definition is the belief that there is a limitless amount of opportunities for everyone. Perhaps I am a skeptic, but I just do not see how this can be possible.
We live in a world of limited resources. There is not a limitless supply of money. Some resources that are used will never be be replenished. More and more people are born each day, and these people accelerate the consumption of resources. Even with all of these people, not everyone will find a partner to live their lives with or even bust a nut. Looking at the real world and how it works, how can there be abundance?
Without doing some mental gymnastics, there cannot be abundance for everyone. For instance, as a Black man with Yellow Fever living in America, there just isn’t an abundance of decent-looking Northeast Asian women willing to give me play. The population of such women is low, and realistically, Black men are not at the top of their lists usually.
All of the Law of Attraction mumbo-jumbo and positive thinking in the world is going to change that. I believe that it was Dave Chappelle that said “Fly to Africa and tell starving children about positive thinking.”
Yet, There is Abundance Out There
Although anyone with experience in real life knows that resources are limited, abundance still exists. Abundance can be discovered when one opens their minds to exploring other options.
Back to my favorite example of Northeast Asian women. It could be possible for me to find a mate in America if I changed my preferences to ugly-ass White, Black, and Latin women like most nig-nogs do. Fuck that, I decided to move to China where there is a literal abundance of what I want.
Opening one’s mind to the world beyond their doorstep is one way to finding abundance in one’s life. If you cannot get what you want where you are, then don’t be afraid to venture to other places. The Internet also provides a wealth of opportunities. When you look hard enough, there are often multiple ways to accomplish an objective.
The problem with the Scarcity Mentality that most people have is not an “unrealistic” belief that scarcity exists, but rather that there are not multiple paths to an objective. This can lead to negative thinking and constant inaction that wastes time that could be used finding other paths or blazing new ones.
Conclusion
The conclusion that I have reached is that the Abundance Mentality is a useful tool, but only when used within reason. The belief that positive thinking alone will make opportunity rain from the sky does more harm than good. Believing that opportunity exists and seeking actionable ways to achieve our goals, however, is advantageous over constant negative thought.