Let’s talk about our last rule to finish up our first crash-course on abundance.
Mindset Shift # 3 – Everybody can win. You will make it a mission to create win-win situations in every interaction of your life.
The times we live in today are probably the most competitive seen by the world. It is hard to make your place and what makes it even harder is exactly this line of thinking.
Yes, nobody can deny the competition, but we need to realize that one person’s win doesn’t mean the other’s loss. If the service providers in an industry increase, it’s only because the consumers increase too. There really is enough for everybody.
Like I said before, the aim here is not to squeeze out your share of the pie, it is to expand the pie itself. When you do something that doesn’t only benefit yourself, but also genuinely adds value to other people’s lives, you bring even more success and fulfilment than you could have imagined.
People are smart enough these days to know who’s taking advantage of them and who actually has their best interest in mind. So, when it comes down to it, who do you think people are going to choose?
Let’s take a real life example to clearly outline the power of this mindset shift for you.
Real Life Example
You’re nervous about a job interview because you know that this job can change your life. The pay is great and the career advancement opportunities are amazing and even the location is the perfect distance from your house. All you can focus on now is how it would totally suck to not get this job.
Instead, let’s think about how you can add value to the hiring party. Can you bring your prior experience to make their workflow more efficient? How can you positively add to their office culture? How can you boost their sales and revenue? How can you add value as a team player? How can you make them feel the same fear of losing out on you that you feel about losing out on this job?
When you shift the situation from wanting to get away with something you want to signing a partnership with an entity you can genuinely do wonders for while simultaneously adding to your own life, both your confidence and the hiring party’s confidence in you increase.
The Win/Win mentality encourages a cooperative outlook instead of a competitive one where if the people around you win, you win too. So, if you can show them how you’ll help them win, you will win as a by-product. And if not, that probably means that you weren’t the right fit for them to win and so even if you had sold them on hiring you, you wouldn’t have been valued like you could be at a place where they genuinely need your unique set of skills and personality.
Somebody else’s good fortune doesn’t come at the cost of your own. Thinking of other talented people as competition is a damn shame because if you viewed them as allies, together you could do great things. Even as spiritual beings, our sense of purpose is tied to the service we lend to others. Living a life where our actions benefit only us is hollow and unfulfilling. It is outcome-based instead of principle-based. And if you don’t have principles to live your life by, you will never have a true sense of who you are.
It’s not about your way, or my way, it’s about having the maturity and intellect to recognize that there is a third, better way.
If you truly start to think about everybody in a situation winning or gaining some value, I promise you, you will start to cultivate the best deals and partnerships of your life, especially the one with yourself.
There are many layers and elements of a Win/Win mindset and it’ll take way too long to go into each of them, so if you’re interested in learning more, I’ll suggest reading up on the chapter in 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. I’ve already referenced this book a couple of times before and will definitely do it again in the future because it’s just that good.
So. this is the little snippet I had for you to learn and explore today. Try it out, have fun, and be ready to be amazed by the difference it makes.
That’s it for this week guys!
Remember: “The true test of character is to live win-win even when promoted to positions where win-lose is possible.” ― Orrin Woodward
See all you winners next week.