Dave Lu has written this amazing post on how the immigrant’s mindset of scarcity, especially passed on to their children, can really hold someone back in all areas of their life. While his post focuses on the Asian American experience, it applies to anyone who comes from an immigrant family, and can be extended to anyone who views life with scarcity versus abundance.
Many of my clients are children of immigrant parents. I see this mindset more often than not either fully exposed, or as an undercurrent to all their current issues. No matter where it is, we usually end up addressing it at some point, especially when we begin coaching towards desired futures and their inability to get there.
Do you hoard? Never feel you have enough? Always fearful for providing for yourself, and working overtime to save towards a non-fearful future?
There are of course many shades to this aspect. Certainly there is the real need to take a look at what your life needs are. How much money do you need to pay for food, water, and shelter? And so on.
However, if your needs are being met, then what has you hoarding everything over and above that? That not only includes your cash, but your time, attention, your relationships, EVERYTHING – even your joy and fulfillment.
What if you had the mindset of abundance instead? Of hope and optimism towards a future if you “spent” a little (or a lot!) of your extra resources towards? Of a positive attitude towards risk versus one of dread and doom?
Shifting one’s mindset from that of scarcity to one of abundance can be a difficult task for many. It’s been burned into our nervous system by our parents.
Remember that the lives they lived to get here were VERY DIFFERENT than the one you experience now. Are you running from armies invading your land, trying to kill or starve you? Did you just pick up and leave your country to settle with nearly nothing but what you carry to start a new life?
If not, then what has you holding onto behaviors that your parents needed back then? Are you instead living in a world with opportunity that is open to you, and one that only requires that you see it that way to start?
Have a read of the post. You don’t need to be Asian American to understand.
After you take a look, what is your awareness of yourself now? What might you be missing due to a scarcity mindset?
Image credit: Dave Lu, How the Immigrant Scarcity Mindset Holds Us Back
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