Latest / Your Money, Your Rules | Financial Mastery, Wealth Mindset, Leadership Principles, Intuitive Decision-Making, Human Design / 99 | Stuck in a Scarcity Mindset? Shift Your Finances with These Budgeting Tips
Transcript
- 0:00Erin Gray: Today we're diving into scarcity mindset, what it is, how it shows up in your financial decisions and, most importantly, how to shift out of it.
- 0:09Erin Gray: If you're like most of my clients, if someone were to actually look at your finances, look at your investments, look at your bank account, they would think that you have plenty of money and that you're perfectly okay.
- 0:20Erin Gray: And yet, when they come to me, they don't feel that way in their bodies.
- 0:25Erin Gray: If you've ever felt like, no matter how much money you make, how much you accumulate, that it is never enough, or if you've struggled with fear around spending, saving or investing, this episode is for you.
- 0:39Erin Gray: Do you want to create a system to stop avoiding your money?
- 0:41Erin Gray: Maybe you're feeling guilt and shame when it comes to finances.
- 0:45Erin Gray: Welcome to your Money, your Rules.
- 0:47Erin Gray: I'm Erin, a former certified financial planner and CFO, and yet I used to avoid my money and had fear, no matter how much we had.
- 0:56Erin Gray: I can't wait to teach you how I overcame my money avoidance and started consistently managing my finances in a really simple way.
- 1:03Erin Gray: It's time to get comfortable with money.
- 1:05Erin Gray: Before we dive into this week's episode, I want to invite you to join me for a one-on-one master your money coaching session During this hour, we'll work together to create a tailored plan that helps you align your finances with your unique goals, energy and mindset.
- 1:21Erin Gray: If you're ready to transform your relationship with money and create the freedom and abundance you deserve, head over to my website, generatealifewelllivedcom and schedule your session.
- 1:31Erin Gray: So, as I've shared on numerous podcasts, I used to have such a scarcity mindset and, if I'm being completely honest which I always am I noticed sometimes, when I still go back into that place and I want to say that this I think that this is normal.
- 1:48Erin Gray: I think we might have this idea that at some point we're never going to deal with this ever again, and I don't know if that's actually a really helpful thought, instead of thinking, okay, your refractory period, the amount of time for when those thoughts and what you feel in your body when you're in that scarcity mentality or that scarcity feeling in your body, how quickly you can get back to sufficiency or abundance.
- 2:16Erin Gray: You know, I remember it was probably around, maybe when our assets were around like 500,000.
- 2:21Erin Gray: And I remember thinking that it wasn't good enough.
- 2:22Erin Gray: You know it needed to be a million.
- 2:23Erin Gray: And I remember thinking that it wasn't good enough.
- 2:25Erin Gray: You know it needed to be a million and I always felt like in my body that it was never enough.
- 2:31Erin Gray: No matter what number we reached, I would just move the goalpost and I was constantly worrying about whether we would have enough saved and invested.
- 2:40Erin Gray: You know, I was really, really focused on retirement and invested.
- 2:49Erin Gray: You know, I was really, really focused on retirement and I would hesitate to invest in myself, spend any money on myself.
- 2:52Erin Gray: You know we would take vacations but it was always like what's the cheapest, where's the you know least in at the time, least expensive?
- 3:01Erin Gray: You know way to do it.
- 3:03Erin Gray: And because there was this, this thread, that of you know what if we run out, what if we don't have enough saved and that is scarcity mindset in action.
- 3:17Erin Gray: You know, I think a lot of times when I share, you know, kind of the work that I do with other people, when I'm on their podcasts or people that I'm talking to, you know they, I think a lot of times people associate scarcity mindset with someone who may not have money.
- 3:35Erin Gray: And from my experience with myself, clients that I've helped and other people that I've talked to, it definitely is prevalent in people that have money to.
- 3:44Erin Gray: It definitely is prevalent in people that have money and it's not.
- 3:46Erin Gray: You know, scarcity isn't just about how much money you have.
- 3:50Erin Gray: It's about how you actually feel in your body.
- 3:54Erin Gray: How does your body react when you think about the numbers?
- 3:58Erin Gray: And when you're operating from that place of scarcity, you will most typically always feel like you're on the edge, right, even when you're financially stable, right.
- 4:10Erin Gray: So let's dive into, like, what actually is scarcity mindset.
- 4:15Erin Gray: It's the belief that there is never enough, right.
- 4:19Erin Gray: It's rooted in fear and lack and the idea that money is either hard to come by like you have to work hard for money, or you have to work a lot of hours to make a lot of money, and or it could even be like how quickly it could be and I'm air quoting lost right.
- 4:36Erin Gray: And how does it, you know?
- 4:39Erin Gray: Like, let's dive into, actually, how does it affect your finances?
- 4:42Erin Gray: So, for one, it keeps us stuck in those fear-based decisions.
- 4:48Erin Gray: Right, I have said before, you can't put scarcity in and expect to get sufficiency out, right.
- 4:54Erin Gray: If you're making decisions from a fear-based, scarce place, the end result is not going to feel abundant and sufficient.
- 5:04Erin Gray: So, instead of making empowered financial choices, what we do is we make decisions out of fear.
- 5:13Erin Gray: Like lack it creates us hoarding money, maybe possibly talking to our financial planner and avoid avoiding certain types of investments because we're afraid what happens if we might lose it.
- 5:27Erin Gray: Or for some of us, you know, not charging what your work, right?
- 5:32Erin Gray: Well, if I charge this, then they may not want to work with me.
- 5:35Erin Gray: So it's all based around fear and I want you to think about how does that actually feel in your body.
- 5:43Erin Gray: You know, even though we're talking about words of like fear and scarcity and lack, I want you to really get connected of how does that feel in your body, you know.
- 5:53Erin Gray: Number two it limits our ability to receive more right.
- 5:57Erin Gray: When we believe that there's not enough, that there's never enough, subconsciously we block ourself from earning, growing, expanding.
- 6:08Erin Gray: And three, it creates a cycle of overworking and I think, actually under living.
- 6:14Erin Gray: You know, when you are in this space of hustling and no matter how much you make, you feel like it's never enough or you don't feel secure because once again, we're putting our security outside of ourselves.
- 6:27Erin Gray: We're thinking and we're attached to some number that's going to create security.
- 6:32Erin Gray: But if that were true, you can think back at a time when you didn't have the amount of money you had and you were saying that when you got to this number, that would feel you would feel secure, right.
- 6:41Erin Gray: And here we are and we're still not feeling this way.
- 6:43Erin Gray: So we're putting our security, our trust and in something outside of us instead of bringing it within, right.
- 6:52Erin Gray: And so I think when we're in that hustle space and we're when we're in this, like okay, if we can just get to X Y Z number, if we can just get you know whatever in cash accounts or in investments, or if I can just get my business to X Y Z, then we don't actually live in the present, we don't get to slow down and actually enjoy where we are.
- 7:12Erin Gray: And I think that that is, you know, they always say that, um, you know, comparison is the thief of joy.
- 7:20Erin Gray: I think also, like living in the future is also a thief of joy, right, because we don't get to enjoy our present state, what we are currently accomplishing, what we have accomplished, how far we've come.
- 7:33Erin Gray: So something that I've really had to work on and embody in this I don't know if this happens overnight.
- 7:39Erin Gray: At least it hasn't for me, you know, probably over the last five years, for sure, this is had been something that I've had to embody, right, that money is unlimited.
- 7:49Erin Gray: That money is comes to us in all different ways.
- 7:52Erin Gray: That money is provided from a place or, you know, we receive it from a place of value that we give to the world, not in how many hours we work.
- 8:01Erin Gray: Right, wealth isn't just about how much you save some number in your bank account, and I think a lot of times and I'm always an advocate for financial planners and for CPAs and estate attorneys and attorneys and also when we, when we are constantly thinking that if that number is what creates the wealth, we're missing what actually, like we generate the wealth.
- 8:26Erin Gray: We are wealthy because how many times which you might even be experiencing this now how many people that you might talk to that have way more money than you that don't feel secure, they don't feel safe, they don't feel at peace with their life, with their money, and so, really, me having to work through the belief that I can always generate more right, that wasn't something that I don't know.
- 8:54Erin Gray: If I generate more right, that wasn't something that I don't know.
- 8:55Erin Gray: If I, maybe I grew up like that and also I think it's also this place of.
- 9:05Erin Gray: I think when I was investing in the stock market, I think it was like I almost had it in a way of a separation, like it was outside of me.
- 9:09Erin Gray: The stock market might go up or down, and so there was lots of fear around that versus I'm always the one that gets to generate it.
- 9:18Erin Gray: So, even if it all goes to shit and I have no money, I can generate it again because I have skillsets, I have value to provide to the world and I don't know if the financial industry really focuses on this right.
- 9:31Erin Gray: If we are a society of planning for our retirement and making sure that we don't run out of money, because that is what you, you know, you're accumulating assets, you're trying to get to retirement that doesn't feel like it's abundant thinking, it feels like more, it's like scarcity, like you have to, you know, get to a certain amount of money because it's going to be that amount of money that's going to last you for the rest of your life, be that amount of money that's going to last you for the rest of your life.
- 9:58Erin Gray: And so when I say that, does that feel expansive and open to you or does it feel more scarce and lack?
- 10:04Erin Gray: So the question always is right how do we shift out of scarcity?
- 10:06Erin Gray: And I think with anything.
- 10:07Erin Gray: It always starts with awareness.
- 10:09Erin Gray: Start noticing your thoughts.
- 10:11Erin Gray: Where does scarcity show up in your financial decisions?
- 10:14Erin Gray: What are you doing when you notice those thoughts or feelings?
- 10:18Erin Gray: Are you opening your bank account?
- 10:20Erin Gray: Are you paying taxes?
- 10:22Erin Gray: Are you looking at your P&L?
- 10:25Erin Gray: Like what is it that triggers you?
- 10:27Erin Gray: And it could be some of those things, all of those things, none of those things like really get curious.
- 10:32Erin Gray: When is it that I really get you know triggered and drop into that scarcity thinking and just start paying attention to it.
- 10:43Erin Gray: It's coming up so that we can release it, and I think the next step is reframing the belief right, instead of saying that there's never enough like this.
- 10:53Erin Gray: This week, several clients kept talking about how something, things are so expensive and I think that we use language that we don't even pay attention to.
- 11:02Erin Gray: It's not expensive because expensive to me feels like I can't have.
- 11:07Erin Gray: That it's more so of I don't have or I don't find the value in the price that they are charging and that to me and my body feels very different than it being expensive.
- 11:18Erin Gray: So, instead of thinking that there's never enough, shift it to I always have what I need and I can always create more.
- 11:26Erin Gray: I'm highly resourceful.
- 11:28Erin Gray: Like, try on some different beliefs that feel good to you and feel true in your body, and if that feels like too much of a stretch right For your nervous system, then using those bridge thoughts, like I'm in the process of believing that I can create more.
- 11:45Erin Gray: I'm finding evidence every day that wealth is created by value, not hours worked, and that money is, you know, flows easily, Like I always think about money like an ocean it comes and it goes and it's okay, like we don't have to hold onto it.
- 12:00Erin Gray: Like what does nature?
- 12:01Erin Gray: You know?
- 12:02Erin Gray: This is the first place that I've ever lived in that's actually four seasons and you know, in Idaho they have, like it's straight up winter, like there's snow here and the tree, completely, you know, loses all of its leaves and the tree's never thinking like when am I going to get my leaves back?
- 12:28Erin Gray: Like it knows it's coming and so allowing more flow of money coming in and out.
- 12:31Erin Gray: Money flows freely.
- 12:31Erin Gray: Money comes and it goes and it always comes back, right.
- 12:32Erin Gray: And then the last one is taking aligned action, right, begin making financial decisions from a place of trust instead of fear, and I think this is a skillset, this is a practice.
- 12:44Erin Gray: The better we get you know, the more we do it, the better we get, and the way to do this is to notice what place you're in.
- 12:50Erin Gray: Now I was talking to a client the other day and she was asking me a question about some moves in her business and I said is that a question that's coming from a place of fear, or is it trust that it's actually working?
- 13:03Erin Gray: And she said oh, it's totally coming from a place of fear.
- 13:07Erin Gray: And I told her you know, you have to pay attention to when your brain is wanting you to make quick decisions.
- 13:12Erin Gray: Quick decisions are typically coming from trying to get you out of a feeling which is typically, more often than not, those lower vibration emotions like fear and that scarcity mindset.
- 13:24Erin Gray: So what decisions would you make if you knew it was going to work out?
- 13:29Erin Gray: Like that's the question I asked her.
- 13:30Erin Gray: I was like, would you be making a different decision if you knew that it was going to work out?
- 13:34Erin Gray: That's the type of questions that we need to be asking ourselves and you know, a lot of times what I've noticed is fear comes up when we've decided to do something outside of our comfort zone.
- 13:47Erin Gray: So taking that next step and then gaining clarity is key.
- 13:50Erin Gray: I think what we need to do is really start to embrace those obstacles.
- 13:58Erin Gray: Like I have noticed, every time I up-level, that kind of scarcity thinking comes back in because our we are wired to stay exactly the same.
- 14:08Erin Gray: Our brains want to keep us safe, they want to keep us in a little bubble, just where we are, we, they, we don't, we don't want to grow.
- 14:14Erin Gray: And so every time we're doing that, you know, taking steps to grow and to push outside our comfort zone.
- 14:21Erin Gray: I think that's sometimes when scarcity comes in.
- 14:24Erin Gray: And so really just being mindful and aware, like I had the, I had the awareness the other night and I'm like, oh, what is this about again?
- 14:32Erin Gray: And I'm like, oh, okay, I see what's happening here.
- 14:35Erin Gray: I'm just up leveling again and here comes my brain right, like it's almost like the condition thought to get you to stay right where you are.
- 14:45Erin Gray: So, to recap, first step is just notice where you are in a scarcity mindset thinking and give yourself so much love and compassion.
- 14:52Erin Gray: You know, I truly think that part of our work is to find more self-love and self-compassion for ourselves.
- 15:00Erin Gray: You know, as we are doing this money work yes, we're doing money work, but really what we're doing is is work for ourselves, right On ourselves.
- 15:08Erin Gray: Love how can we love ourselves more?
- 15:10Erin Gray: How can we have more compassion for ourselves?
- 15:12Erin Gray: I know that that's been true for me and for every single one of my clients that I've worked with.
- 15:17Erin Gray: And second, you know, is to reframe the belief.
- 15:20Erin Gray: You have to tell yourself what you're going to create and believe.
- 15:24Erin Gray: Our default is to stay exactly where we are, and this is a skill.
- 15:28Erin Gray: The more you practice, the easier it gets.
- 15:31Erin Gray: It's still going to show up, but the refractory period is is smaller, I think, and it doesn't feel as intense in the body because you're used to doing it.
- 15:41Erin Gray: And the third action is to take action from trust and devotion, not from fear.
- 15:48Erin Gray: If fear is coming up for you, then let that be an invitation to talk to those younger parts of you that might be feeling really scared.
- 15:56Erin Gray: Right, what does that younger version of you need to hear?
- 15:59Erin Gray: Tell her she's going to be okay and we're still going to take the action and I'm going to be here for you and we're going to work through it and we're going to figure it out together, right, a lot of times some of this scarcity mindset stuff really comes up to really help work through and heal our inner child.
- 16:15Erin Gray: What does that little girl you know?
- 16:17Erin Gray: What does she need to hear that maybe she didn't get to hear when she was growing up?
- 16:21Erin Gray: You know, clarity is gained when we take action.
- 16:24Erin Gray: So if you're ready to break free from some of that scarcity thinking, start building wealth with ease from a place of confidence.
- 16:33Erin Gray: I would love to have you join my free Facebook community.
- 16:37Erin Gray: Inside we go deeper into money mindset, financial strategies.
- 16:40Erin Gray: I ask lots of questions to get conversations going and creating true wealth that aligns with your life, not just some number.
- 16:48Erin Gray: You can click the link in the show notes money mindset tips for women in business, and that's what it is called on Facebook.
- 16:55Erin Gray: That's all I have for you today.
- 16:58Erin Gray: Thank you for being here, for letting me spend time with you, and I'll see you in the next episode.
- 17:04Erin Gray: Did you learn something today?
- 17:06Erin Gray: Do you know another female entrepreneur who might be avoiding her money?
- 17:10Erin Gray: Will you send this episode over to her for me and, if you have it in you, please leave me a review for this podcast.
- 17:17Erin Gray: It helps the show grow and I love hearing from you.
- 17:20Erin Gray: See you next week.