The first time I went skiing, I wore a pair of orange goggles all day.

The moment I took them off, the entire world became 100 times more bright blue than it was before.

I had forgotten that I had been seeing the world through a filter all day. I thought I was just seeing the world as it was.

Through my private practice as a life coach, I’ve discovered that many of us put on a different set of goggles a long, long time ago: scarcity goggles.

We put on our scarcity goggles at some point in our past when we experienced lack. We decided that there is limited abundance in the world, so we would have to fight to get a piece of it.

We decided that it would be a struggle to get our share of abundance.

The moment that we decided that it would be a hard fight, we strapped our scarcity goggles on tight. We began to see the whole world through that lens.

We have long since forgotten that we are wearing scarcity goggles. We just think that the way we see the world is the way it is.

But it isn’t.

There is truly no scarcity of anything in the world.

Scarcity comes from the mentality that we need things in order to be who we want to be. We need money in order to be generous. We need thinness in order to be confident. We need nice things in order to be proud. We need validation in order to be creative.

It is an illusion that we need these things in order to be these ways.

We have wrongly identified ourselves with things rather than seeing ourselves as the possibility to be anything.

“You can be anything” really just means that you can choose to be any way in any moment, regardless of circumstances.

You can choose to be generous while broke. You can choose to be compassionate while angry.

Ways of being are self-generative. They are not dependent on any outside circumstance.

We think that we need results before we can be who we want to be. But really, it’s the other way around.

We choose the way we want to be. That way of being is like a filter through which we see life. It shows us which actions to take. Then we take the actions that align with that way of being, and those actions produce the results we desire.

Most people think that abundance and scarcity are defined by what we do or don’t have. But really, each is a set of ways of being that are not conditional upon any circumstance.

The ways of being that comprise a scarcity mentality are: fearful, distrustful, attached, resistant, resigned, frantic, controlling, chaotic, negative, uncertain, and inauthentic.

The ways of being that comprise abundance mentality are: trusting, receptive, grateful, unattached, allowing, accepting, expecting, optimistic, confident, creative, and loving.

The only way to have abundance is to be abundant first. The only way to be abundant is to choose to be abundant.

Ask yourself, “What actions would I take to express more gratitude?” “How can I be more generous with the resources I have?” “How can I be more receptive of other’s love and appreciation?” and so on.

Stop waiting for abundance to manifest and go take those actions!

We do not need more money before we can be abundant. In fact, being abundant and having money have nothing to do with each other.

Money is nothing but a symbol for value. Value does not exist in things themselves, but in our gratefulness of them.

Grateful is a way of being. You can be grateful now.

Being grateful is being abundant. Being abundant attracts abundance.

Circumstances never stop us from being abundant. The belief that we need circumstances to change is what stops us from being abundant.

Resisting how things are keeps us in scarcity mode. Keeps us focused on lack.

Once we stop trying to change circumstances and start being abundant, then from that place of non-resistance, optimism, and allowance, we will become aware of the actions we can take in order to produce the abundant results we want.

Paradoxically, once we are being abundant, we no longer even care about the results we are producing. All we really ever wanted was to get to be abundant. We become unattached to circumstances because we realize that we are free to be who we want to be regardless. We are abundance itself, not the evidence of it.

We realize that whatever results we have in any given moment are irrelevant because they are just a product of how we were being in the past.

So if your ways of being have come from scarcity, then of course the results you have are that of scarcity. Focusing on what is scarce will just create more scarcity.

We can’t wait until we have more and better things before shifting into abundance. The shift is a prerequisite.

And that shift in perspective requires giving up our belief in the reality of scarcity.

Scarcity doesn’t exist in objective reality. A scarcity mindset comes from the illusion of separateness. In reality, everything is connected and arising simultaneously. There is no true separateness.

The only thing that is scarce is our awareness. Our limited perspective.

Scarcity only exists in comparison. Without abundance, there would be no scarcity; without scarcity, no abundance.

A pair of opposites provide necessary contrast for each other to exist.

So everywhere that there is scarcity, there is simultaneously abundance. It is only a matter of where we focus our attention.

Look at the words on this page. Is there a scarcity of black or an abundance of white?

Your perspective is a matter of choice, not how life actually is.

Coming from a scarcity perspective, no matter how much we have, it will never be enough. Scarcity is a matter of comparison, and there is always more somewhere else. So as soon we get more of the thing we think we need, we will just start comparing that to something bigger that we don’t have.

We will always be focused on the absence rather than the presence.

Everyone always has an abundance of something.

If you don’t have money—what do you have an abundance of? Maybe you have an abundance of friendships or an abundance of ideas or an abundance of talent or an abundance of time. Focus on what is abundant and the actions you can take to create more abundance will become clear to you.

Think back to the first moment you experienced scarcity and decided that there isn’t enough to go around. Re-examine that memory. Was it really true that there wasn’t enough?

While you may have been focused on not having enough money or support or friends, there was simultaneously an abundance of opportunity. You had the potential to be abundantly loving, creative, connected, supportive, and compassionate. There really was no scarcity. Only your limited perspective.

Focus on what is abundant.

You will never see how bright blue the world is until you take off the dang goggles.

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Author: Brandilyn Tebo
Image: Flickr/Hartwig HKD
Editor: Travis May