Three Warning Signs of Poverty Mentality

by Randy Gage

When was the last time you gave any serious thought to your priorities, and where you expend your energy? Can you say with certainty that you are completely focused on ‘abundance’ and not on ‘lack’?

I don’t think people are born with an abundance mentality or a lack mentality. I think for many of us our priorities are the result of subtle, subconscious ‘programming’ that determines our approach to just about everything in life. Instead of being programmed for success, most people are programmed to avoid failure.

This programming controls how you react to hundreds of situations, each and every day. And the way you react reveals what your programming really is.

There are many different warning signs all around us that we are suffering from lack programming or a poverty mentality, but none of these red flags will be of any use until we open our eyes and start looking for them.

Like posted traffic signs and speed limits, these warning signs are there for our benefit, helping us raise awareness of our programming. Three of the most common warning signs I see are the following:

Warning sign #1: Constant Money Fixation What do you think about money? When you do think about it, are you concerned about how much of it you lack, or how much you can manifest? Have you ever thought about why you want to manifest money in the first place?

Most poor people spend all their time thinking about money (or more specifically, their lack of it). When I was younger and broke, that’s what I did. I was fixated on money. I thought about all the things I didn’t have and couldn’t get. And I was very jealous of the people who had them.

Warning sign #2: "I Hate Rich People!" Being jealous of all the things other people had that I didn’t help matters. Know where it led? Jealousy soon turned to hate. Soon I hated all rich people because they had what I wanted -- nice homes, exotic cars, expensive clothes. That’s when the real problems started, because as much as I hated rich people, I was working hard every day trying to become one! That set the stage for a whole bunch of internal conflict that I had no idea was going on.

I ended up surging forward to success, only to sabotage myself every time I got close. I snatched defeat from the jaws of victory more times than I can count.

I thought I was programmed for success, but was actually programmed for poverty.

Warning sign #3: Fear-Based Decision-Making Making decisions based on fear of loss or failure never leads toward prosperity.
In fact, fear-based decision-making can rob you of any sense of happiness or joy of success, and distort your behavior.

Have you ever seen someone experience more anguish at losing $10 than earning $100? Ever seen someone drive around a parking lot for 10 minutes to avoid a one-minute walk to the store?

These scenarios are fear-based, not prosperity driven. The decisions are not made on what the possible benefits are, but made in order to avoid a possible negative outcome.

How do you know what kind of programming you have? If you really want to know if you have prosperity programming or a poverty mentality, look for your answer in the previous scenarios. Do they sound familiar?

If you make decisions--particularly money and career ones--based on the "moving away from fear" model, you’ve got poverty programming. If your decisions are made based on a positive "move toward prosperity" model, then you have success programming.

What do you do if you test poverty programming?

You’re already doing it. Raise your awareness of your programming and recognize it for what it is. Of particular importance is regulating the influences you’re getting from the TV shows and movies you watch, books you read, etc.

I applied the principles of a prosperity mentality, and you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who has had a greater degree of turnaround. This only happened because I was willing to confront my weaknesses, discover and eliminate the insidious poverty mentality I had, and replace it with positive programming. To this day, I am ever vigilant, mindful of what I allow myself to watch and listen to, and the people I associate with.

The more you experience success and prosperity, the more you’ll start to realize how little they have to do with opportunity, chance, luck--or even training, education, or skill. It has everything to do with consciousness, beliefs, and even subconscious programming that you aren’t aware of.

You see, poverty is not an absence of money and things -- it is a mindset.

Prosperity is not an abundance of money and things -- it’s also a mindset.

When I began studying the laws that govern prosperity, I had to get out of my comfort zone, face fears, and really examine my belief system. It was hard work, and sometimes still is, but the results are well worth the temporary discomfort. I share all of this with you in the hope you too will benefit from its truth. I want you to be healthy, happy, and rich!

--RG

Take Action!

How many of you set some “resolutions” for the New Year? Let us call them what they are “goals”, resolutions for many is a way to say you are going to do something but if the action is not given to it then it is forgotten with little or no consequences to ourselves because after all it is just a resolution, right? You see if you call it a goal it is meaningful, I am not saying resolutions are not meaningful just the thought behind it is different. It is a subtle difference but for many it is the difference between success and failure. Last Christmas I made the decision to create the lifestyle we wanted, to start a home business and become an active & involved parent and to travel with our children. Wow, I look back at the year and we have accomplished just about everything we set as our goals for 2007!

So what do you want? What do you want to change compared to what you did in 2007. Really get clear on this, what do you want, are you willing to trade your life for it? Also, what has held you back from making this change in the past? Be clear on what limiting belief that you hold that has held you back from making these changes. Most of us want to change our work, fitness, health, and relationships but we do not take ACTION. We are paralyzed by FEAR (False Evidence Appearing Real). We have to recognize that and face the fears we hold in our hearts that hold us back from what we want.

How do you make these resolutions into goals? One, write it down this is really important as it will set the sub-conscious mind into motion. Two, read it every day to remind yourself what it is you set your intention on doing, and then take ACTION. This is vitally important; many of us know of the Law of Attraction and we use it in our daily lives. However, it only works if you also integrate ACTION in the steps of using the LOA. What does action really mean? If you break it down it is really about making a decision and then following through with that decision. Make a goal or goals for 2008, write it down and read it every day as many times as you can, and then take ACTION. Make the decisions you need to make to move you towards what it is you want.

Here are 4 great steps to making decisions. Many people have trouble with this part of applying the LOA into their lives. Follow these steps and you will see things changing in the direction of your dreams so fast you will be amazed.

1. DO I WANT TO be, do or have this?
2. Will being, doing or having this Move me in the direction of my goal?
3. Is being, doing or having this In Harmony with God’s Laws or the Laws of the Universe?
4. Will being, doing or having this violate the Rights of Others?

If the answer to the first 3 questions is YES, and the answer to the last question NO, then take action and move forward.

I am so grateful for what I have been able to accomplish this year. With that I am so grateful for what I am already creating in 2008 because I can build on our success and also what I have learned in that process over the past year and I know achieving what I am setting as my goals for 2008. What about you? I will ask the question again, what do you want? Really what do you want in your life that for some reason or circumstance you have not accomplished yet. What is holding you back? Your success is assured if get clear on what you want and take ACTION!

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