• Scarcity Scopes

• The Abundance Aperture

• The Abundance Roadmap: 5 Life-Changing Steps to Le …

• Simple Summary

Since 2020 I:

• Quit the law to become a business owner.

• Failed at business and became a content creator.

• Went broke and became a shift worker.

I’ve been clinically depressed, high on life and everything in between.

Throughout that time I’ve obsessed over how mindset impacts success.

From meditating for 1,300 days straight, attending countless therapy sessions, reading hundreds of self-help books and studying psychedelics, I’ve tried it all.

This Lesson will give you the 1 tool that’s helped me the most in my one-person business and a practical 5-step process to implement it.

But first, we gotta address the elephant in the room.

Scarcity Scopes

A mental filter that focuses your attention on what you lack.

• Think of Scarcity Scopes as binoculars.

  • You’ve been using these binoculars for so long that you don’t even know your field of vision is limited.

  • You can’t see the abundance around you because the scopes are so narrowly focussed on what you think you lack.

Most people wear Scarcity Scopes in 3 areas of life.

(The 3rd one’s been my weakness for 15 years)

Relationship Scarcity

Scarcity Scopes in relationships make you feel constantly afraid of losing someone — both personally and professionally.

Personal

• I wore Scarcity Scopes in my last relationship.

• I thought she was the only person I could ever be in a relationship with…

• Like I had to cling on to her at all costs.

• Obviously, this was a recipe for disaster.

  • I become needy, jealous, controlling, insecure and clingy.

  • I cut off my friends and family because I thought I’d lose her if I didn’t devote all my time to her.

Professional

• As I got closer to going broke, I noticed my interactions with prospects and leads getting needier and needier.

• Scarcity Scopes made me obsess over conversions instead of networking, nurturing and providing value.

• I’ve only just realised how inauthentic and gross this made me feel.

Business Scarcity

Scarcity Scopes in business make you hoard content due to fear of competition and insecurity.

• You refuse to share and give away your best ideas in social media posts, newsletters, lead magnets, communities etc because you think:

  • you won’t make any money

  • competitors will outshine you

  • people need to pay for your best content

I had HUGE Scarcity Scopes on while operating my tutoring business.

• Over 2 years I spent 3,000 hours and $80,000 creating an online course.

• I felt entitled and assumed customers would just come and buy from me once I finished creating the course — despite not having an audience, lead magnet or doing any marketing whatsoever.

• The result of this was unsurprising.

  • I made no sales and could barely get anyone to use my course for free…

• Such is the price of Scarcity Scopes.

Money Scarcity

Seeing money through Scarcity Scopes means constantly fearing it will run out.

And this is how I’ve felt for as long as I can remember.

• My dad declared bankruptcy shortly after my mum died in 2009.

• Understandably, after Dad discharged bankruptcy, he became hyper-conservative with money.

• And through no fault of his own, the hyper-conservatism rubbed off on me in a weird way.

• It instilled a deep fear of financial instability.

• For the past 15 years I feared like I was one bad decision away from bankrupting myself.

• And, paradoxically, I fuelled this fear by trapping myself in a hamsterwheel of frugality and extravagance I didn’t even know I was in.

• Just 2 months ago — when I literally ran out of money — did I zoom out and see how destructive this self-fulfilling prophecy is.

Since then, I’ve found a new perspective.

It’s helped me drop the Scarcity Scopes and broaden my field of vision.

The Abundance Aperture

• WTF is an aperture?

  • It’s the little hole that lets light enter a camera.

  • The wider the hole, the more light that’s let in.

So the Abundance Aperture is the mindset we want to adopt because we broaden our field of vision to let more light in — both literally and figuratively — so we can see all the great things around us.

Just like Scarcity Scopes, the Abundance Aperture applies to 3 areas of life.

My solution to the 3rd area might rub you the wrong way.

Relationship Abundance

The Abundance Aperture in relationships helps you see just how many fish are in the sea — personally and professionally.

Personal

• After my last relationship ended, I ditched the Scarcity Scopes and started broadened my Abundance Aperture.

• As I let more light in, my field of vision expanded and I started seeing all the incredible people in my life again.

• Funnily enough, just 3 months

after my last relationship ended, I went on a date with a girl named Hannah. That was 4 years ago, and we’ve been together ever since.

• I wasn’t even looking for a romantic relationship, but along came Hannah.

• That’s what the Abundance Aperture does: expand your luck surface area and expose you to amazing people you couldn’t see with Scarcity Scopes.

Professional

• Just in the past few weeks I’ve started opening my Abundance Aperture with professional relationships.

• Instead of obsessing over conversions, I’m just trying to be useful.

  • If someone asks for help in a comment on one of my posts, I’ll try provide value there.

    • And if it’s clear I’d genuinely be able to help the person more inside my community, I’ll let them know.

  • So the key difference is this: if someone doesn’t become a member, or subscribe to my newsletter or whatever, it’s no biggie.

  • With my Abundance Aperture broadened, I know there are plenty more fish in the sea.

Business Abundance

Widening your Abundance Aperture in business sheds light on all the opportunities at your fingertips.

• It motivates you to share knowledge and collaborate openly.

• If your best mate gets 50 newsletter subscribers over night, you’re genuinely happy for them.

• You know this doesn’t limit your chances of getting a similar result. There’s more than enough to go around. It’s a positive-sum game.

Since letting more light in through my business Abundance Aperture, I’ve seen more growth and opportunities than I ever would’ve imagined.

• I’ve made my first dollar online.

• I’ve grown from 17 to 4.2K on Threads since July.

• I joined Dan Koe's Kortex cohort and grew from 0-430 on X.

• I’ve built a newsletter with 275 subscribers since November.

• I started a YouTube channel, posted 9 videos and got my first 150 subs.

• I started an online community for Threads creators and grew it from 0-195 members in 3 months.

Money Abundance

After widening your Abundance Aperture, you start seeing money as a tool for growth and opportunity.

• You realise money is literally just a medium of exchange that helps people trade stuff.

  • At the end of the day, money is just pieces of paper (or 1 and 0s on a screen). It’s valuable because we think it is.

• Point being: money is an infinite resource. You can always make more.

• You can invest hundreds or thousands of dollars in a course or coach, because the difference between poor you and rich you is knowledge.

I’ve only just broadened my Abundance Aperture to see money in this way in the past 2 weeks.

• What changed?

• I got a full-time job as a shift worker that gives me a stable income.

  • It’s the first stable income I’ve ever had.

  • And for the first time in my life I’m not feeling guilty for taking Hannah out for dinner, or worrying about whether I’ll be able to pay rent next week.

• For the first time ever, I’ve been able to create content without SO much of my energy and attention being devoured by money.

• It’s a weight lifted off my shoulders.

• I’m not saying a “normal job” is the answer; I’m saying whatever frees up your energy to focus on creating content that matters without constantly stressing about paying for food and shelter is.

So it’s all well and good for me to say I ditched my Scarcity Scopes and broadened my Abundance Aperture.

But how can you do the same?

The Abundance Roadmap: 5 Life-Changing Steps to Leave Scarcity Behind

These are the 5 steps I followed to shift from scarcity to abundance.

1. Identify Scarcity

• Recognise where Scarcity Scopes are holding you back.

• To make it easy, think about the areas of life we’ve discussed in this Lesson so far: relationship, business, money.

• Pick 1, 2 or 3.

  • Using Scarcity Scopes in 1 area doesn’t automatically mean you’re using them in others.

• How do you know if you’re using Scarcity Scopes?

  • Ask yourself the following questions:

    • What do I constantly worry or get anxious about?

    • What stresses me out?

    • What am I afraid of losing?

    • What do I get unnecessarily competitive about?

    • What do I see as black or white with no grey?

2. Play the 4-Minute Gratitude Game (4MGG)

• I introduced the 4MGG in a previous Lesson.

• Basically, it’s where you write down 20 things you’re grateful for in about 4 minutes.

• You’re going to play the 4MGG in relation to the areas you identified in Step 1.

• So if you’re using Scarcity Scopes in relationships, write down 20 things you’re grateful for about your relationships, every day, for 30 days.

• If you’re using Scarcity Scopes for relationships and business, write down 10 things about each you’re grateful for.

• If you’re using them for all three, write 7 things for each.

3. Surround Yourself With Abundance

• The quality of your life is determined by the quality of information you absorb from people and content.

  • If you constantly surround yourself with negative people and only consume content like the news that only shows you what’s wrong with the world, don’t be surprised if you feel like shit.

  • The inverse is true.

  • If you surround yourself with positive people and consume content that educates and inspires you, I promise you’ll feel a HUGE shift.

4. Reframe Challenges As Opportunities

• Every challenge teaches you a Lesson.

• The more lessons you learn, the more enriching your life is.

• I developed a weird mental model that helped me reframe the challenge of losing my mum when I was 12 as an opportunity to appreciate how precious life is.

  • Check out this Lesson for more info.

5. Give Fuckloads of Value

• Giving is the greatest form of receiving.

  • When you give generously, the recipient gets something, and you receive the joy of making that person’s day.

  • It’s one of the greatest joys in life.

• Giving fuckloads of value might look like any of the following:

  • Taking on a free client who genuinely can’t afford you, doing AMAs on IG live, helping people as much as possible in the replies to your posts, sending people who cold DM you for advice heartfelt voice messages with useful information, etc…

• This mindset shift from "what can I get?" to "what can I give?" broadens the Abundance Aperture in the most profound, life-changing way.

And those are the 5 steps to take you from fixating on scarcity to welcoming abundance.

Simple Summary

• Scarcity Scopes: mental lens that makes you focus on what you lack, limiting your potential.

• Abundance Aperture: mental lens that allows you to see opportunities and resources, expanding your potential.

• Abundance Roadmap: the 5-step process to transform your mindset from scarcity to abundance.

The Lesson: Ditch your Scarcity Scopes and broaden your Abundance Aperture by following the Abundance Roadmap.

And that’s what my online community — Saints College — is all about.

It helps you build your online presence through writing with courses, calls and connection.

And it’s 100% free.

Check it out the here ASAP; you might be our 200th member!

Anyway, that’s it for this Lesson.

Keep it simple until the next one.

By the way, I’m 24 newsletter subscribers from 300!

• If you liked this Lesson, please share it with a friend 🙏 

  (That’s what someone with an abundance mindset would do 😉)

While you’re at it, subscribe to Hannah’s newsletter if you love yoga, mindfulness and tools to boost your well-being.

(Han’s my partner!)

Bonus download:

~ Community Shoutouts ~

• Huw Davies, Sajjad Hussain, Bastian Klenow, Seana Harvey, Ty Neyedly, Jacque Demarr, Flora Niel, Sristi Tripathi, Pragathi Basker, Jonah C, Paul Melitar, Taylin Simmonds – welcome to Saints College!

Content I consumed to create this Lesson:

1. Feel-Good Productivity (Ali Abdaal, 2023)

2. Mindset Matters: Abundance Mindset vs. Scarcity Mindset (Strategic Coach)

3. There Will Always Be More: Overcoming Scarcity Mindset (Elissa Burdick, Headspace)

4. 5 Ways to Go From a Scarcity to Abundance Mindset (Caroline Castrillon, Forbes, 2020)

5. Do You Have a Scarcity Mindset or an Abundance Mindset? (Angela Duckworth & Steven Dubner, No Stupid Questions, 2023)

6. Tony Robbins Motivational - How an Abundant Mindset Works (TonyRobbins-Life Goal, 2022)

7. ABUNDANCE MINDSET vs. SCARCITY MINDSET (Project Life Mastery, 2017)

8. The Most Scarce Resource on the Planet — Mindset of Abundance (Naveen Jain, TEDx Talks, 2016)

9. How to Have an Abundance Mindset 🌟 (scarcity vs abundance) (Lavendaire, 2024)