We live in a world that is full of dichotomy. Hot and cold, wet and dry, us or them, rich or poor, and most importantly, more or less. Your mindset creates the viewpoint from which you choose to see things.

We choose whether we see the glass as half full or half empty. They are the same, in reality. Steven Covey wrote “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” many years ago and it has been used as a road-map for people to become successful in both their personal and professional lives. One of the focal points of his lessons is built around the idea of our personal viewpoint.  He notes that we choose to live from a viewpoint of either Abundance or of Scarcity. Those that live from a point of Abundance tent to thrive and prosper and those that live from the point of view of scarcity tend to shrivel.

I’m not going to go over Dr. Covey’s book, he does a great job of explaining things, but I do want to relate this belief of abundance to the real estate market.

I hear from other investors that the inventory is scarce here in Los Angeles. I ask them how many properties would they need to hit their goal for the year. Most are in the neighborhood of 5-10 houses. I look at them and ask, quite bluntly, “Why it is so hard for you to get 0.1% of the market?” They are looking at the few that they encounter instead of the huge market that is out there. I know that every one of the 5,000 houses that are on the MLS are not perfect for rehab, but I know that there are enough that if we hustle, we can find the 5 – 10 houses a year that we “need” to be successful.

So, let’s look at 4 steps that we can take to change our mindset from scarcity to abundance and move our business in the direction that it needs to go.

First, realize that the only difference between abundance and scarcity lies in your own perception. Is the glass half full or half empty? They are both the same. You choose which way to look at the world. So, start by focusing on the positive aspects of the situation and not the negative. We don’t to need ignore the negative in every situation… we can learn from it. But, we need to accept the positive and learn to look for it. Did you not get a house that you were bidding on? You can either choose to live in the negative (that you didn’t get the house) or you can look at the positive. You can choose to see that there may be something better just around the corner or you can go back and analyze why you didn’t get it and choose to create a better system to win the bids. It’s your choice, so choose the positive mindset and it will help you create the abundance.

Second, change your language. I used to use the word “if” a lot. “IF I get my next house”, “IF I make as much as I want”, or “IF I find the right partner”. Words are power.  Napoleon Hill tells us that we should repeat our goals out loud every night so that they are burned into our brains. There is a very legitimate reason for that. When we speak, we use more senses than when we just think. We not only speak, we hear. We engage different parts of our brain when we hear and speak than we do when we just think. We should be saying, “When I get my next house” instead of “if.” It turns the idea of getting the next house a reality instead of a possibility. It effectively changes your course of action.

Third, reevaluate the people you hang out with. I’m sure that your friends are wonderful. However, if they are not supportive of what you are doing, they are not a positive influence on your professional life. Every time someone tells you that you are not going to succeed or that you are wasting your time and money, you hear it and, unfortunately, sometimes you listen. When you listen, it becomes part of what you believe. Think of it as a form of brainwashing… you start being conditioned to think a certain way. So, if your friends believe in abundance and promote that, you will move towards those goals. If your friends believe in scarcity and fear, you will start moving in the wrong direction. Make sure that you are with positive people. Successful entrepreneurs are, by nature, positive and abundance seeking people.

Fourth, believe that you can succeed. Napoleon Hill said, “What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” There are thousands of motivational quotes I could cite, but the bottom line is that we need to have faith in ourselves. We can create an abundant lifestyle only when we believe that we can. It is all in the way we think about things.

Russell Redenbaugh gave an awesome TedTalk on moving from scarcity to abundance. It is 18 minutes that can change your belief about what you can accomplish. His declaration that he would be successful created a world that he would have never have otherwise accomplished. And it happened simply because he learned to move from scarcity (being blinded at age 16) to abundance (Partner and Chief Investment Officer for a $6 billion investment firm, being a Commissioner on the US Civil Rights Commission, and becoming a Jujitsu world champion).

If anyone has more questions or wants more one-on-one coaching, don’t hesitate to contact me. This is a passion for me and I truly enjoy sharing what I know with others. Thanks for coming by and getting a bit of the education. Until then, remember that you, too, have that inner warrior that it takes to achieve greatness and success. Feel free to drop me a line at Coaching[at] BaileProperties.com.

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