Poverty Consciousness

Image by jonrawlinson via Flickr

Poverty consciousness. You hear that a lot these days. So what does it mean?

Do you live your life with the idea that you will never have enough money? With the ‘if only’ and ‘I can’t’ and ‘I wish’? If only I could have that. I can’t do that. I wish I had the money for that. How do you see yourself?

Have you built an image in your head of a successful person? What does that image look like?

Here’s what mine used to look like:
I am making $100,000 a year. I drive a new car. I wear nice clothes. I work from home. My house has 4 bedrooms and I live on the ocean.

Here’s what it looks like now:
I work from my 4 bedroom, ocean front home most days. In the morning I sit on my veranda and make phone calls to new possible clients. I eat a healthy lunch and do a little reading. In the afternoon I give presentations on my laptop, usually at the beach in the back of my house. I drive a smart car and trade it in every 2 years – I love the smell of a new car! I have a Ford150 truck as well – brand new. I shop online through my Melaleuca marketplace at Kohls, Sears, JC Penneys and the Gap. I love to go shopping on my year European vacations as well. I also visit my teams abroad and stay in five star hotels. I don’t have a job – I have a lifestyle that generates an income beyond my wildest dreams.

Do you see the difference? The first one limited my belief system to $100,000 income and was pretty generic. In poverty consciousness you are run by the thoughts of lack and poverty. People tend to make as much money as those around them – those that they hang out with. If you make more than that, you feel guilty. There’s nothing to feel guilty about – that’s poverty consciousness trying to hold you down. Start hanging out with the people who motivate you, who earn the kind of income you want to earn.

In the end, what you think you receive. Think bigger, be bigger.

What are your poverty consciousness thoughts? What can you think instead?