Poverty Mentality is a suite of ‘unvirtues’ for individuals that rarely result in anything other than personal misery and suffering for others, and it’s everywhere!
The concept of poverty mentality was first introduced to me in regard to small and community non-profit organizations. Many noble community nonprofits suffer from not believing they can be more or operate at higher level. They get stuck. Over the years I developed the concept of poverty mentality and see it through the lens of individuals, organizations, and society; it is limiting or counter-productive beliefs that lead to a host of consequences. Identifying the source of our impoverished thinking is even more critical than the often talked about fanciful pursuit of abundance. If we are unable to identify the things that hold us back, our impoverishments of mind, body, and soul; health, happiness, and abundance are just wishful thinking.
Recognizing poverty mentality is not hard once you begin to see it. It is usually accompanied by excuses and blame. From not making the bed to self indulgent harmful behaviors, poverty mentality is the way of the unvirtuous. Just as leading a life of virtue can be boiled down to a series of small daily accomplishments that lead to much larger accomplishments, poverty mentality hijacks accomplishments. Unfortunately the suffering rooted in poverty mentality ripples out into the lives of others. If a parent has it, this mentality will become multigeneration. Most of the problems young people face today are inherited. In the United States we live at the height of decadence but our mentality has never been more vapid and profane – impoverished. There are vast swaths of the Earth where people are not only poor in material goods but they are profoundly impoverished and there is no amount of money that can fix that.