Cultivating a Mindset of Abundance

The key to abundance is meeting limited circumstances with unlimited thoughts.

– Marianne Williamson

Do you ever get jealous of other people’s success? Do you wish you had their job? Their title? Their car? Their purse?

You don’t have to.  There is enough for everyone.  And, if there isn’t enough right now, we simply need to build a bigger economy.  Just a decade ago, there was no Spanx.  There was no Tesla.  There was no Uber.  These three companies alone revolutionized their industries and created BILLIONS of dollars in wealth.

The creative life force provides for us in so many ways.  I mean, a quick look at the number of stars in the night sky or the diversity of life on this planet shows an ABSOLUTE abundance that cannot be denied.  We would never say, there are plenty of bigger, brighter stars in the universe, so the sun really isn’t all that important.

We know that the universe is a complicated interconnected web where everything has its place.

So, why don’t I trust that I too have a place?

I don’t need to compare myself against other people or compete against them. Like the sun, I might not be the brightest star, but the world needs the unique set of talents and skills that ONLY I have.

The past few years, our family has been working to cultivate a mindset of abundance as a faith practice.  We are actively working to combat the consumerist message that we will never be enough or have enough or earn enough.  We do this in three main ways – gratitude for + delight in the world around us, trust that what we have is enough, and personal responsibility for our actions and their impact on those around us.

And, we have seen this play out time and time again in our lives.  Fostering the twins nearly took everything out of us.

People were always worried that there wouldn’t be enough love to go around. If we poured all the love and attention that the twins needed into them, would there be anything left for our kids?

I didn’t know. And, some days, fear of an unknown future GRIPPED me and kept me up all night. And, in those moments of insecurity, I vowed to give of myself MORE generously the next day.

And, as a result, there has always been enough love + attention to go around. As our family grows, we don’t love our bio kids any less as we add more children to the family. Our capacity to love ONLY grows.

And, because we loved the twins so abundantly, now they are thriving in an adoptive home – giving and receiving love. That selfless love forever changed the trajectory of their lives.

Fostering gave me practice in trusting in a power beyond myself and laid the foundation to start my own business.  Without that experience, I don’t know whether I’d have had the courage to launch Wayfinders.

When I decided to start my own business about a year ago, I was TERRIFIED.  I am the primary breadwinner in our family and I was walking away from the prestige of being a partner at a large firm and the security of a large paycheck.  But, when I felt like I was CRAZY for taking this gamble and risking my family’s stability, Al put his hands on either side of my face so I was looking straight at him and said, “I bet on you.  You have been successful at everything you’ve ever done and I am SURE you’ll be successful at this.  I bet on you.  Every.Single.Time.”  With tears streaming down my face, I resolved to trust myself the way that Al trusted me.  Unequivocally.

I am sharing my unique gift with the world through Wayfinders. And, just like the universe made room for Spanx, Tesla, and Uber to grow and succeed, it has also made room for Wayfinders to grow and succeed.

So, why don’t I trust this experience? Why don’t I trust that 🎶 every little thing is going to be alright 🎶?  Why do I fear that my success is fleeting?  Why do I expect the floor to drop out from under me at any minute?

I seriously don’t know.

But, what I do know is that I now have a surefire strategy to combat it.  When the fear gremlins pop up <which they always do> and I worry that we won’t be able to pay our mortgage or that we’ll never have enough for retirement, I push them back by practicing generosity.

Generosity is my antidote to fear.  It is a demonstrable way to SHOW my faith in a power beyond myself.

Being generous with our time, our skills, our talents, and our financial resources is a way that we live out our belief that we ARE enough and we HAVE enough.

Remember, anything or anyone who doesn’t light you up is too small for you,

Sarah-Nell

Business Coach + Growth Strategist