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Three Warning Signs of Poverty Mentality
By Randy Gage

When was the last time you gave any serious thought to your priorities, and where you expend your energy? Can you say with certainty that you are completely focused on 'abundance' and not on 'lack'?

I don't think people are born with an abundance mentality or a lack mentality. I think for many of us our priorities are the result of subtle, subconscious 'programming' that determines our approach to just about everything in life. Instead of being programmed for success, most people are programmed to avoid failure.

This programming controls how you react to hundreds of situations, each and every day. And the way you react reveals what your programming really is.

There are many different warning signs all around us that we are suffering from lack programming or a poverty mentality, but none of these red flags will be of any use until we open our eyes and start looking for them.

Like posted traffic signs and speed limits, these warning signs are there for our benefit, helping us raise awareness of our programming. Three of the most common warning signs I see are the following:

Warning sign #1: Constant Money Fixation - What do you think about money? When you do think about it, are you concerned about how much of it you lack, or how much you can manifest? Have you ever thought about why you want to manifest money in the first place?

Most poor people spend all their time thinking about money (or more specifically, their lack of it). When I was younger and broke, that's what I did. I was fixated on money. I thought about all the things I didn't have and couldn't get. And I was very jealous of the people who had them.

Warning sign #2: "I Hate Rich People!" - Being jealous of all the things other people had that I didn't did not help matters. Know where it led? Jealousy soon turned to hate. Soon I hated all rich people because they had what I wanted -- nice homes, exotic cars, expensive clothes. That's when the real problems started, because as much as I hated rich people, I was working hard every day trying to become one! That set the stage for a whole bunch of internal conflict that I had no idea was going on.

I ended up surging forward to success, only to sabotage myself every time I got close. I snatched defeat from the jaws of victory more times than I can count.

I thought I was programmed for success, but was actually programmed for poverty.

Warning sign #3: Fear-Based Decision-Making - Making decisions based on fear of loss or failure never leads toward prosperity. In fact, fear-based decision-making can rob you of any sense of happiness or joy of success, and distort your behavior.

Have you ever seen someone experience more anguish at losing $10 than earning $100? Ever seen someone drive around a parking lot for 10 minutes to avoid a one-minute walk to the store?

These scenarios are fear-based, not prosperity driven. The decisions are not made on what the possible benefits are, but made in order to avoid a possible negative outcome.

How do you know what kind of programming you have? If you really want to know if you have prosperity programming or a poverty mentality, look for your answer in the previous scenarios. Do they sound familiar?

If you make decisions--particularly money and career ones--based on the "moving away from fear" model, you've got poverty programming. If your decisions are made based on a positive "move toward prosperity" model, then you have success programming.

What do you do if you test poverty programming?

You're already doing it. Raise your awareness of your programming and recognize it for what it is. Of particular importance is regulating the influences you're getting from the TV shows and movies you watch, books you read, etc.

I applied the principles of a prosperity mentality, and you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who has had a greater degree of turnaround. This only happened because I was willing to confront my weaknesses, discover and eliminate the insidious poverty mentality I had, and replace it with positive programming. To this day, I am ever vigilant, mindful of what I allow myself to watch and listen to, and the people I associate with.

The more you experience success and prosperity, the more you'll start to realize how little they have to do with opportunity, chance, luck--or even training, education, or skill. It has everything to do with consciousness, beliefs, and even subconscious programming that you aren't aware of.

You see, poverty is not an absence of money and things -- it is a mindset.

Prosperity is not an abundance of money and things -- it's also a mindset.

When I began studying the laws that govern prosperity, I had to get out of my comfort zone, face fears, and really examine my belief system. It was hard work, and sometimes still is, but the results are well worth the temporary discomfort. I share all of this with you in the hope you too will benefit from its truth. I want you to be healthy, happy, and rich!

--Randy Gage
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For over 20 years, Randy Gage has been helping people transform self-limiting beliefs into self-fulfilling breakthroughs to achieve their dreams. Randy Gage is a modern day explorer in the field of body-mind development and personal growth. He is the author of over 40 works including The 7 Spiritual Laws of Prosperity.


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