Scarcity vs Abundance

I grew up in an upper middle class family. My father was a dentist and he earned an income that enabled my family to live very comfortably. Unfortunately, he mismanaged funds and overspent. By the time I was ready to go to college, my father had declared bankruptcy and our family lost everything. Although I moved away from home and put myself through college many miles away, from afar I could sense my parents' shift from working with an abundance mentality to one of scarcity.

I have also observed the behavior of some people who grew up poor and are now wealthy. For some, the habits and mindset of poverty are not easily erased once one is living the life of luxury. Even though they now live a more abundant life than most, those living with a scarcity mentality may hesitate to pick up a check or leave a generous tip for great service. They continue to live life from a place of scarcity because denial is so deeply embedded in their DNA.

One's mindset has nothing to do with how much or how little material possessions or money they have.

My most powerful spiritual practice is to begin each day by expressing gratitude. Gratitude opens the heart so that life-expanding thoughts and ideas can easily enter your consciousness. Regardless of your present life circumstances, there's always something to be grateful for. What you focus on expands. When you focus on your inner voice, there are no limitations. Limitations only exist through the outer voices and opinions of others, which are typically based on scarcity and limiting beliefs.

How often do you say to yourself, "I can't afford it"? That may be a motif in your life. In Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, T. Harv Eker notes that each person possesses a "money blueprint"-an internal script for dealing with money-that comprises the lessons we learned in childhood. Most of us have carried those blueprints into adulthood. This is what keeps some people stuck at a certain income level—the money blueprint is set low. This is also what enables Donald Trump to lose millions of dollars and then earn it right back-his money blueprint is set very high.

Will Smith--famous actor, producer, and multimillionaire--was once asked by Oprah, "How does it feel to be rich?" His answer may surprise you! He confided that at the end of the day, he doesn't feel rich. He still feels poor! Will Smith cannot shake the way he felt growing up-poor and always struggling for money. He routinely gets anxious and fearful that he's going to lose everything. Will's dad taught him to always work hard. As a result, he has a tremendous work ethic, but he never learned how to feel abundance in his life. Even with all his success and wealth, his mind perpetuates an internal state of "not enough." His money blueprint is set to "poor and struggling."

I am so grateful to have my own business that I have built up over the last 19 years. I am even more grateful that nine years ago I made some business decisions which enabled me to generate leveraged income...also known as residual income. Because I have found a way to generate residual income-money I receive every month, whether I worked last month or not--this has given me the ability to tend to family needs with the death of a sibling and an ailing parent, without having to worry about loss of income.

Leverage

"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on
which to place it, and I shall move the world."
-Archimedes, Greek Philosopher, Engineer of Ancient Greece

We only have two things we can leverage: time and money. Many people don't have much money to leverage these days, but we all get 168 hours a week and we can leverage our time if we choose.

Most people trade time for money when they go to work for someone else or when they work in a service-related business (like I did as a coach and consultant). They have to show up to get paid. The heads of corporations leverage by hiring employees to do the work and carry out the mission of the company. But their employees trade time for dollars and have a limit on the number of hours in a week that they can trade.

Whether you like what you are doing or not, if you are trading time for dollars, you have set a cap on how much money you can earn, unless you have lots of money invested wisely that is generating residual income for you. Your schedule (what hours you work, when you vacation and for how many days) is also determined by someone else.  As an employee, you have 168 hours in your week, and some of that time is needed for sleep and other necessities.

Some people have been told that if they go to college and get a degree, that will secure them a good-paying job. How many of us bought into that way of thinking?  I have a college degree, and I am grateful to have it.  However, my degree has never guaranteed that I could secure a good paying job.

I know plenty of people today who have advanced degrees and are unemployed, underemployed, or working hard and barely scraping by.  Many who have jobs live in fear of losing them, regardless of how many years of loyalty they've shown to their employer or how high up they have climbed on the corporate ladder.  The loyalty no longer works both ways in most cases!

What if you could find a way to build something once that generated monthly income for life? That's what leveraged or residual income is. Perhaps $100 or $200 or even $500 a month doesn't seem like a lot...but it represents a lot if it keeps arriving month after month, year after year, without you having to earn it again.

How would you like to invest one hour of your time and produce 100 or 1000 hours of results? If I invest an hour of my consulting time working with one client, the result is that I have provided one hour of expertise to one person. I am trading time for dollars. Now, let's say that I take that same hour and I teach a teleclass or webinar to 100 participants, thus producing 100 hours of results with that same one hour of time I've invested. I ask each person on the call to teach what they've learned to one other person, and that doubles my results and produces even greater leverage. I record the class and make it available to those who cannot be on my live call, thus leveraging my time even more over the coming months and years. That's leveraging time!

Nine years ago I chose to leverage my time by getting involved in a network marketing company that was a great fit for me. This has provided me the ability to generate residual income. I still love the coaching and consulting I have done since 1995, so I choose to continue doing this work with people in my organization. Within two years of starting my new venture, I was able to replace the income it took 10 years to generate with my coaching and consulting business (trading time for dollars). Now I receive residual income on a monthly basis. My income is no longer based on trading time for dollars.

Wealth isn't just about money. Wealth is about discretionary time and lifestyle freedom. I can always earn another dollar but I cannot manufacture another minute. My intention is to invest in my life, not to save until it's over.

I invite you to explore what makes your heart sing. Perhaps there are business opportunities that excite you, that you could put your time and energy behind, to build something on the side so you can eventually leave a day job that does not make your heart sing!

Having one's own business is not for everyone. If having a home-based business is something you have an interest in building on the side, I invite you to begin exploring the possibilities that await you. I've written a book, The Music of Your Heart, and the first chapter asks powerful questions that will help you make informed decisions about which business opportunity is right for you. Click here to access Chapter 1 of my book...my gift to you.