Abundance and Attitude! The Choice Is Yours!

I am joining my friend Dee in a blogging challenge. We are blogging for 30 days and using the letters of the alphabet as our prompts. So, today the letter is A.

I have been vacillating between two A words... attitude and abundance. So, in the spirit of the ‘mash up,’ I am will cover both because they are both tied together in my opinion.

Many quotes come to mind as I think of these two words. How many have you seen before?

“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.” Zig Ziglar said. 

“The world is full of abundance and opportunity, but far too many people come to the fountain of life with a sieve instead of a tank car; a teaspoon instead of a steam shovel. They expect little and as a result they get little.” Ben Sweetland

And Brian Tracy reminded us that “You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.” 

Powerful words by very smart people. 

Our attitude is our tendency to respond positively or negatively to our world. It’s a way we have settled into thinking about things and our behavior reflects that way of thinking. 

It has been said that there are two kinds of people in the world, people who see the glass as half empty and those who see the glass as half full. We could rephrase that as people who see scarcity and people who see abundance. 

When you look at the glass, do you see that there are many ways that glass could be full again or do we see that we’d better conserve because who knows when that glass will be refilled?  Imagine you are at a restaurant and you have an attentive wait staff that makes you feel taken care of, you feel free to drink your beverage knowing they will be by any minute to top you off.  But, you’ve also been to places where you know you had better not drink too quickly because if you do, you are going to be waiting and thirsty for a while. 

So, what do we believe about the world, about the Universe about God?  Is the Universe abundant?  Is God the waiter who is ready and willing to refill our cup when it has run dry?  Or is God off on a cigarette break out back, not even paying attention to our needs?  

Here is something that might blow your mind. The thing is, whatever we believe is the world we get. When we see the world as abundant and flowing we have our arms open to give and to receive.  Let me repeat that our arms are open to give, as well as receive because if we believe our needs will be met, we do not feel the need to cling to things, so we give freely.  This keeps the energy flowing and going. The movement is circular for the most part. We can feel the flow and it carries us along.

But, when we see things as scarce, we grab...we clench...we hold and we withhold from others. We can’t seem to give because we are afraid this is all there will be for a while. Our waiter is off checking Facebook and we are left to wonder when our next refill will be. So, we stop the flow, we create a blockage and things do not flow the way they should. We have just clogged the energy by not allowing it to do what it does...flow.

Having an attitude of abundance can change your life and it really is as easy as making a decision on how you will view things. I am reminded of a story I heard a long time ago about an elderly woman who was going to be living in a nursing home since her husband passed away. As she waited patiently to be admitted to her room, one of the staff began to describe her new room to her. “I love it!” She exclaimed with great enthusiasm. The staff member chuckled, “But, Mrs. Jones, you haven’t even seen the room yet.”  Mrs. Jones smiled and sat back in her wheelchair, “I don’t have to. I already decided to love it!”   Happy really is something you decide to be.

We are living this in a very real way right now. My husband lost his job this year and we exhausted our savings while he was unemployed. As we rebuild slowly, I am given a choice daily to focus on scarcity or abundance. And man... some days it’s so hard.  Some days that glass, much like our bank account, looks SO very empty and I have to remind myself of what is true. 

I look around me and I see abundance everywhere. I see that there really is truly enough for everyone. I see abundance in the lives of others and instead of being jealous or begrudging them their success, I claim that success for myself as well, knowing if they can have it, so can I.  It would be so easy for me to focus on all I don’t have... on all I can’t afford, on the penny pinching I have to do daily. 

But, I know that energy flows where my attention goes, so I choose to focus my attention on all that I have and how grateful I am for all of that, so I attract more of the good stuff.   I trust that the Universe works in the way I believe and that God is good all the time.  And the best part is that I am a whole lot happier in the process.

We all have that same decision to make day by day, or moment by moment really.  Do we decide to focus on all the good around us? Do we see the abundance? Or do we see the scarcity and lack?  

The truth is: It’s there if you look for it. Just know you’ll get more of whatever it is you are looking for, so why not make the decision to look for love, goodness and abundance? I know I could use more of those things in my life, how about you?