When you hear the word “abundance”, what comes to mind? Is it synonymous with wealth, riches, a feast? For many of us, we think of abundance as plenty of anything and everything. Today we are going to dive into the practice of self care through a shift to an abundance mindset.

Most times, when we research or focus on creating more via a mindset shift, we are aiming to gain more money and increase our financial holdings. This is a great and worthy goal. However, today, I want to challenge you to think of adopting an abundance mindset in the realm of personal interaction and self care. Let’s focus on creating limitless potential in all areas of interest, both personally and professionally.

Abundance vs. Failure

Let’s start by taking a moment to do a check-in with ourselves to see where we currently stand on the concept of failure. Do you immediately think of flunking a test or a course while in school? Does it bring to mind a specific time when you really missed the mark on a project or goal causing you to abandon it completely? How are you feeling right now while reading this paragraph? Does the thought of failing bring negative connotations and emotions? It’s common to think of failure as a negative experience and desire to avoid it through hard work and calculated risks. Still, I challenge you to think of failure as an opportunity for growth. Many wonderful lessons can come from not succeeding.

I remember being offered the ability to learn to play the trombone in my school band when I was in middle school. The band leader wanted to create interest in having others, especially girls, play large horns since there were none in the band. I played piano and read music, but I never played a horn. It was a totally different set of skills. At first, I was awful and my parents asked me to practice in the garage because the instrument was loud and the sounds coming from it weren’t pleasant. So, I’d trudge to the garage to practice my lessons, refining the technical aspects of the instrument. It was boring. I was getting better at making a bunch of sounds, but there was nothing exciting, nothing creative happening. The way our band was orchestrated, the trombone played harmony to accompany the melody. Alone, it sounded strange, but with the other instruments, it added depth and warmth to the piece. To make my practice sessions more interesting, I was taking turns playing both the melody and the harmony. I played each piece over and over again until I felt confident it sounded like actual music. My first clue something positive was happening was when my parents told me I could start practicing in my room instead of the garage. Then, at band rehearsal, I shared with the instructor how I was using the melody of the music he gave us to practice because I wanted to play more than just the harmony. He asked me to share one song in front of the entire band. This was a big chance to fail in front of a whole group of my peers. I was the only trombone player in the band and I’d been playing the instrument for just a few weeks. Talk about pressure! I accepted the opportunity and launched into a song. I must have done well because I remember my teacher seemed pretty impressed and congratulated me on how much I’d learned in a short period of time. My peers really didn’t express any reactions. Maybe they didn’t care, were bored, or thought I was showing off. It didn’t matter to me and still doesn’t. I stared failure in the face and came out better for it. In the end, no one played the trombone the next year and no interest was cultivated regarding the large horns, so the experiment of generating interest through my example was a flop. Plus, I haven’t played the trombone since that school year ended and probably never will again. The plus side in all this is I used the experience to foster an abundance mindset when it comes to the prospect of failing. I learned it’s more than okay to make mistakes, stumble, and fall while trying something outside your comfort zone. It’s necessary to stretch ourselves beyond what we think we can do to see where possibility can lead us.

While it may sound amazing to be an expert at everything we set out to accomplish and reap great rewards from all of our ventures, it would be pretty boring and we would be missing out on so many chances to take ourselves to the next level. Trying something new, even if we don’t have a lot of knowledge or experience, is a vital part of growing. Start to be conscious of how you approach new experiences and open up to the thrill of a new adventure instead of the fear of making mistakes and looking foolish. When I started to care less about what others thought and more about what I could achieve, I started to be more than I originally thought I could. This is truly powerful.

More Abundance Mindset Shifts

In addition to transitioning to an abundance mindset when confronting failure, try these other shifts:

1. Collaborate with others instead of competing against them. There will be someone with greater skill or talent than you. Take the time to learn from them instead of trying to best them. Appreciating their contributions and your ability to add to your toolkit just by working with them creates a thriving dynamic instead of a potentially hostile environment.

2. Don’t fall for the comparison trap. In a scarcity mindset, we believe there is a finite amount of everything in the world. If someone else has a great role on a project, there’s no way we can participate similarly because there is not enough to go around. Comparisons lead to envy and feelings of inferiority. Instead stop comparing yourself to everyone else. We all have something special to share and there is more than enough opportunity for everyone to attain their dreams. The only comparison you should make is to see if you are a better version of yourself today than you were yesterday. Keep striving for that mindset.

An abundance mindset shift is next level self care. It eliminates jealousy and inferiority replacing them with positivity, appreciation, and success.

Have you adopted an abundance mindset? Share your results in the comments. I love to learn the success stories of our readers. Let’s encourage each other to reach our full potential and embrace our limitless possibilities by removing the negative connotation of failure, collaborating instead of competing, and celebrating instead of comparing.