S01E32 – How YOU Can Become An Abundance Thinker
Date:
Channel: Muslim Life Hackers
Series: Muslim Life Hackers - Season 1
File Size: 9.33MB
Episode Notes
There are two types of thinkers in the world. Which one are you?
We have all heard about having an abundance mentality and scarcity mentality. We may have even met people who have these characteristics, but what does it really mean to have an abundance mentality, and how does it impact you?
In this episode I talk about what makes the character or both abundance thinkers and scarcity thinkers, what Islam says about our character and I give some tips on how to nurture more of an abundance mentality.
Episode Transcript ©
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Episode 32 Welcome to the Muslim life hackers podcast, the weekly podcast providing you with tips and tricks on how to hack your life and maximize its potential. And now for your hosts Mithra maroof and Mahima lake.
As we said, the crisis see
Assalamu alaikum This is mahane Malik here, and I'm pleased to be your host for today's podcast. This is Episode 32. And as usual, you can find all the links and resources mentioned in this episode in our show notes at Muslim life hackers.com forward slash 32. And that's the number 32. Okay, so in today's episode, we're going to be talking about abundance mentality, what it is, what it's not, and tips on how you can become more of an abundant thinker. Now, before I begin, I just want to introduce a new segment to the show called reflection time. Okay, so don't roll your eyes and be like, Oh, my God, what is this like, reflection time nonsense recently, my curse me for my roof. And
I would be just discussing, you know, things that we'd like to add to the podcast. And we decided that a short segment on reflection would be great. It really aligns with one of my practice goals, which is to be inspiring a nation of thinkers and Omar that ponders and reflects and takes a moment to apply thought and an idea within the busy world that we live in. And of course, reflection breeds a further appreciation for the blessings that Allah Subhana Allah has bestowed upon us. Without further ado, reflection time Today's reflection was inspired by me just skimming through my Twitter feed, would you believe it? For those not too familiar with Twitter, it's more of a conversational
social media. I think that's the best way to describe it. I'm not on there too much, but I'm trying to become a bit more active and, and I said, Go through my feed once in a while and see what people are saying and sharing today. When I was going through my feed. I just like, I just kept coming across comments that were just really annoying and dumb. And those silly tweets, people just tweeting about nonsense, they just keep kept popping up again, and again, this panel. And it really got me thinking and I'm Why are people tweeting this, like, nonsense, you know, doesn't have anything better to say, after a while I kind of like, got to thinking, you know, like, what do I
tweet about? Sometimes I tweet about monsters as well. And I just this really long chain of thought and I thought, you know, human beings, we crave companionship, we love to talk and have the attention of someone else, and express our thoughts and ideas and war nonsense. And I guess that's like, one of the reasons I enjoy podcasting so much. And I was like, what other ways can we fulfill this need of like, having conversation, and I kind of had this aha moment? And I thought, you know, why don't we ever have a conversation with Allah like this? You know, like he was our closest companions? Yeah, we do turn to Him hardship, and when, when hardship strikes when we have an
important meeting or an exam? Or maybe we're feeling ill. But what about just a regular conversation? I mean, do we not always have his complete attention? Is he not available all the time? And yes, of course, I mean, so I've kind of made this promise to myself that I will start having more conversations with the last panel to Allah. And I actually actually tried it in my car while I drive, and I decided to vent my frustrations out and literally talk to him out loud. And I was like, you know, get up. I'm so happy. traffic's not bad this morning. But I'm really nervous. So my interview with so and so. And I'm sure people were looking to my car and thinking that she's gone
crazy. She's talking to herself, but a humble I felt a much stronger connection. So that's my reflection for today. Let's get into today's podcast. The reason I wanted to do a podcast on abundance mentality, it was because of a conversation that I witnessed at a party. And the story goes something like this. A while ago, I was attending our wedding party, it was a couple was soon to be married. And it was kind of like an, like a pre wedding celebration, you know. And it was a really big party, lots of people, family, friends, coworkers thought, as usual as being a recluse or splitting up on oranges and overheard and very interesting conversation between two guests. It was
about money. And I was just fascinated by the conversation. It was a husband and wife and they were they were debating about how much money they should give to the couple that was getting married as a gift. I mean, and the husband was he was just there you shaking his head. You know, he was asking his wife, how much money the bride and groom two B's parents had given their own daughter on their wedding day. And the wife was like, Oh, you know, look, it doesn't matter. Just give them like 100 and the husband was like, No, no, no, I won't give them a cent more than what they gave our daughter. It needs to be equal. I was just like, I was so amused by this.
And after walking away, I was like, well, I need to do a podcast.
On abundance mentality. We've all met people like this. And I can give numerous other examples of people and sometimes even ourselves who might be guilty of behaving behaving like this, where it seems like
we feel stingy, we don't give, we don't give away, we feel like there's not enough in the world. Like if we give, like if we give away our money or knowledge, we never get get it back. But alternatively, I also know people who are the opposite of the guy from the party, that generous in every sense. They have this open, warm, kind, sharing character, they're not stingy with the knowledge that they have, or anything else for that matter. It's like Alyssa Pena with Allah shells them with more and more and more. And they completely aware that the more they give, the more they get back. They are abundance thinkers. And right now I just want to go through some characteristics
of each kind of thinking, so that we can better acquire an understanding of what it is to be either an abundance thinker or a scarcity thinker, some characteristics of a scarcity thinker is, number one, they believe that there's not enough in the world to go around. They think that Allah subhana wa tells bounty in the world is limited. Like, if they, if they give Flexi their money away, or they give their knowledge away, they'll never get it back. And it's really like a really small mindset to have about the world, especially when Allah subhanho wa Taala. He, he's the source of all resources and bounty within the world. And to think that the thing that you'll never get something that you
giveaways, it's really limiting spamela. And so characteristic, number two, is they fee competition, thinking that it makes the pie smaller. Now, scarcity think is, for example, they have this view that of for example, like a new competitor comes into the marketplace, like for example, you might be running a business. And if you're a scarcity thinker, and say, like another like business opens up that's similar to yours. You could they're gonna be like, Oh, my God, what are we gonna do, we're doomed, our business is gonna fail or something like that. And it's really this thinking of like, the more people there is that makes the pie smaller, there's not enough to go around for everyone
kind of thing. So that's characteristic. Number two, characteristic. Number three is scarcity. Think is us stingy. They don't give the knowledge away. Like for example, if you ask like a scarcity thing, go, can you help me on this project? Or can you help me figure out this problem, they will be reluctant to give you tips and advice and knowledge because they feel like you know that this kind of thing, they kind of hoard what they have, like their money, their wealth, their knowledge, or whatever it is the characteristic number four, they lacked the ability to build trusting relationships. Now, it's, it's very intuitive to make the connection between scarcity thinkers and
lack of trust. So if they are like fearful of the world and giving, giving back, like their wealth of knowledge, they're obviously going to be fearful in giving their trust away as well. And as a result of this, they don't build strong relationships with people. And they tend to always be complaining and no one really wants to be friends with a scarcity thinker. characteristic. Number five, the pessimistic scarcity thinkers have this doom and gloom outlook on the world. They always believe that there's like tough times ahead, you know, the worst is yet to come kind of thing. After they get out of like, some kind of troubling situation or like on or like something else is going to
come, Kumbaya kind of thing. And when you talk to a scarcity thinker, or they always seem to be speaking as a complaints, and the soup is a mistake, and they're like so gloomy, and they're not someone that is enjoyable to be around. Okay? So their characteristics are scarcely think of the characteristics of an abundance thinker alternatively, okay, so characteristic number one of an abundance thinker. These are pretty much the opposite of the characteristics of the scarcity thinker. But anyway, characteristic number one, they believe that there's plenty to go around, they know that the bounty of Allah subhanaw taala is limitless, they will have enough time, they'll have
enough money inshallah, like, for example, if they lose money, they know that there's plenty more that came from insha Allah, or, for example, they didn't feel the stress of like, Oh, my God, I'm running out of time. You know, there's not enough knowledge out there or something like that characteristic. Number two, they love competition. They think that it makes the pie bigger. For example, with the scarcity think I gave the example of another similar business opening up that might be like yours. For an abundance thinker. When they have competition in their field. They know that this is a good thing it makes it's going to challenge them to be better, it's going to
challenge them to produce better things. Or you can learn more from your competition, courtesy number three, they are giving the generous, they know that if they give that if they give away Allah subhanaw taala will give them back more, more than they gave. They're not afraid to be generous care.
Stick number for abundance think is build relationships well and trusting of others, and naturally, someone who's giving is going to be more trusting that they're going to be more enjoyable to be around because, you know, they build rapport easily with other people. They're not afraid to share their stories and insight and knowledge with you. And they genuinely want to see you be successful as well. Characteristic number five, abundant thinkers that are optimistic, they know that after a hardship comes ease, and they look forward to the future, they have an optimistic outlook on what's to come. They can't wait for the future kind of thing. And they know that, you know, after trials
and things, they they're going to be successful. And they're generally people who, you know, they pump you up kind of thing and you want to be around them more because they just have this fantastic outlook on life. Michelle. So what does Islam say about these type of mentalities? Our religion definitely favors abundance thinking, we only have to look briefly at the example of our Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him to see that he was a man of giving, he would give out his knowledge, he was always optimistic about the future despite the trials and hardships he faced, and because he knew and Allah subhanho wa Taala sets within the Quran, Chapter 94. In surah, Al insurer, verse
number five, the translation is severely with hardship there is relief. And this was something that was deeply instilled within our Prophet peace and blessings be upon him. We can also reflect upon that on the Hadith related by Bukhari and Muslim on the authority of Abu Hamza and spin Malik, may Allah be pleased with him, he realized that the Prophet said, Peace of blessings be upon him. None of you will believe until you love for your brother, what you love for yourself. So what the Saudis tells us that it doesn't really align with the ideal characteristic of a Muslim, to have a scarcity outlook on on life, in fact, is the point of belief that we should want for our brothers and
sisters, to succeed in the world as much as we want to. So the view that the pie gets smaller, as there's more competition doesn't really fit in with what it means to be Muslim. We need to want for others what we want for ourselves. Part of the blame for people adopting the scarcity mentality is our society. Unfortunately, we live in a culture that cultivates this scarcity mentality with what that, you know, there's limited resources within the world, you know, he's a hoard as much as he can kind of thing. Constantly we're bombarded with these negative images by the media and advertising and marketers, you know, they take every chance to like, tell you, oh, you know, you need to buy
this now, because it's gonna run out or there's not, there's not enough of this go around. And so and so this many have been sold. So you need it as well kind of thing. And it's just really not helping, but obviously, we can pinpoint which type of thinking is better? And yes, you're right, it is abundance, thinking, the question is, which one are you? Now you probably won't be just one type of thinker, and most of us are a bit of both. But that's sort of times we tend to lean towards one, one side or the other. And right now, I'm going to be giving you four tips on how you can further nurture in abundance thinking habit. So when the situation arises, where you're challenged, you can
have a level headed think with a mind of plenty, and abundance, of course, inshallah, tip number one, become aware of yourself and start to make changes. What I mean by this is that we need to become more observant of how we interact with the world, and how we interact with our own selves. We all have this internal dialogue, for example, we all have compensations within our mind, and our thinking, and what goes on inside our heads is very visceral, is really powerful. For example, you need to become aware of, if you're saying things like, Oh, I'm never going to find a job, there's just too much competition out there, or I don't have enough time, or I don't see a happy outlet for
myself, I always do things. I always I was failing, or I don't have enough money, such as pay attention to this kind of internal thinking and make a change. For example, instead of being like, there's no jobs out there start to say things like, yeah, I'm having a bit of trouble right now. But there are jobs out there, I will get the right job in Sharla, with some more persistence and perseverance. And what will happen is that lexicon that our internal thinking and thoughts have a really, really big impact on how we behave and interact with the world. So once you start to change your thought process, your internal dialogue, your behaviors will start to mimic that as well. So if
you start to think more positively about the world, about the world, your behaviors will also mirror that you start to interact with the world with a more positive outlook inshallah. And the same goes for for example, if you're having like, Nick, negative kind of conversations with people like if you always like, Oh, so weather is so bad, I feel so down and I don't have enough money, man.
So you need to really stop this kind of like speaking with people, because you're just going to internet like vice versa. You're just going to internalize those bills.
Okay, so tip number two, surround yourself with the right people, I'm pretty sure we've all come in touch with a scarcity thinker. And they're just so doom and gloomy and stingy and negative that you start to feel a bit negative yourself. Like, they're all like, Oh my god, the economy's like so bad or all the weather is so bad, or I've don't have enough money, I don't have any time. And then you start to feel like that yourself, you start to start to think things like, Oh, my God, I don't have any time, I'm never going to succeed. There's so much competition out there, I can't get the right job. And it just really does not help you with your own abundance thinking. So if you find yourself
constantly surrounded by these negative, you know, scarcity, thinkers start to be more intentional with who you hang out with, like, for example, if all of your friends tend to be this negative, have this kind of negative outlook on life, it may be time for you to change these friends, or maybe start defending people who are more optimistic and more abundant in their thinking and speaking and paving. Tip number three, be grateful. What I mean by this point is that oftentimes, when we have a scarcity mindset, we're not being grateful enough. And therefore, all we see is lack in our lives overseas, like a life is lacking kind of thing. And I read this article, and I forget where it was.
But anyway, they're talking about the Lake of lack. And what happens is, and what happens when we don't have enough gratefulness is that we start to see everything that we don't have in life. But for example, we might go out and we might see how everyone else has things that we don't have, oh my god, they've got such a nice car, oh, my God, they've got like, the best looks, or they've got the best education, I wish I had that kind of thing or all this rich. And, you know, they're so like, happy and things like that. And I wish I was happy. And we sad to not appreciate the things that we already have in our life. If you want to nurture more of an abundance mentality, you need to
practice gratefulness, more sit down and schedule some time for you to actually be and practice gratefulness. Because this will help you naturally be more grateful. For example, yes, other people might have things that you don't have, but you have things that you don't even know about. And this comes down to recognize the blessings of Allah subhanho wa Taala, we can never count the blessings that we have, or the blessings that he's bestowed upon us. So to look at what you do have in life, and this will this will in turn breed gratefulness within you, and then you start to look at things with a more of an abundant outlook instead of a scarcity outlook. And you won't be the Lake of lack
anymore. For example, I am so lacking kind of thing. rather say to yourself, you know, I'm enriched, I have so much in my life, 100 Allah I have more than other people could ever dream of. And that's tip number three. Tip number four is be generous. This makes a lot of sense to be generous. abundant thinkers are very generous, whether it comes to their time or money, knowledge, if they risk their wealth, anything, for example, they knew that if they give away, it doesn't mean that they have less, it means that they gain more we're taught within our religion to give to give away a firm belief that I know what Allah will give us back even more 10 times more than what we gave kind of
thing. A start to give more, for example, you might have knowledge about something gives that knowledge away, it will come back to you in ways that you couldn't imagine, if you have money that you that you could give away in charity, give it away. Again, your risk will increase the more that you give, of course, I'm not talking about you know, you dedicate 24 hours, seven days a week to some charity organization thinking realistically with the excess that you have, do give that away, because this will breed more of an abundance mentality. And it will breed more optimism within your life. So there were four tips that I had on how to become more of an abundant thinker. And just to
recap, they were tip number one, become more aware of yourself and start to make changes. Tip number two, surround yourself with the right people. Tip number three, be grateful. Tip number four, be generous. All right, so that's love got on abundance mentality for today. And before we end off, just a shout out to our listeners from silver and gold, Malaysia. Thanks for tuning in guys. Did you guys know that Southern gorge is one of the 13 states of Malaysia and has according to Wikipedia, the largest economy in terms of gross domestic products and then goes also home to the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah mosque. That is a mouthful, which is thought to be one of the most
stunning architectures in the country. Awesome. All right. That's all for today, folks. Until next time, aim high take action and be awesome.