Poverty consciousness
Poverty consciousness is related to motivation, we are either moving away from something, moving towards something or sometimes both. When people are motivated by moving away from things, (things they don’t want, distress, discomfort or pain) they don’t always pay too much attention to where they are going to end up. When people pay too much attention on their problems and not on solutions it can be a bit like ‘out of the frying pan and into the fire’, their attention is on what they don’t want, and not on what they do want. To put it another way, they won’t see where they are going, because they keep looking at where they’ve been, this is what is known as ‘poverty consciousness’.
Successful achievers generally don’t wait until something gets bad before they do something about it, they take action before pain or discomfort forces them to.
Are you a worrier, do you get anxious a lot? You are probably somebody who is motivated by moving away from things as opposed to moving towards things. Once you move away from something and the problem gets further away, you may well start to lose your motivation, as the problem no longer exists. When motivating yourself it is important to understand if you are moving towards something or away.
The boss that drives you crazy, the work colleagues that annoy you can provide you with plenty of reasons to find another job, the ‘move away’ from motivational strategies can be a very powerful force. However if you predominately keep moving away from things where will this take you?
A low salary can spur you onto learn new skills so your earning potential increases. A car that keeps breaking down can motivate you to save money to buy a new one. A cold wet winter can motivate you to book a holiday.
But when you are constantly moving away from things the question surely becomes what are you heading for exactly, where is all this taking you? It is good to be motivated, either towards something or away from something, but if you find yourself always moving away from something and not actually towards anything then maybe a balance needs to be found.
It is when too much attention is put on what you don’t want at the expense of looking towards and making plans for what you do want in the future.
I am guilty of this, I know what I don’t want but this just means I know what I want to avoid, however it doesn’t help me focus on what I do want.
The way your mind operates is such that when you say you don’t want something, it still has to focus on what you don’t want, your mind doesn’t understand negation.
I don’t want to lose money (last thing you mind thinks is ‘LOSE MONEY’)
I don’t want to work in an office (mind thinks about working in an office)
I don’t want to etc……
It can be hard to create a compelling future for yourself if all you are doing is imaging all the things you don’t want. Always looking at how bad it has been, how bad it is, all the things you have never had, all the places you have never been, all the unhappy times you have had, all the miserable jobs you have had. This is ‘poverty consciousness’ in action.
‘That job didn’t work out because ….’
‘I remember working there it was so ….’
‘I’ve never had any real money, life has always been ….’
What are you moving towards right now? Take a list of all the things you don’t want and change it into a list of things you do want.
Avoid ‘poverty consciousness’ and start looking at where you are headed and what you are going to have in the future.
If you have a lot of ‘move away’ from strategies then change them into ‘move towards’ instead to get a more balanced motivation strategy. For example change ‘I don’t want to work for my boss’ into ‘I want to work for myself’.
Don’t fall into the trap of always being motivated to move away from something and towards nothing.
This makes total sense. I wonder why I didn’t ‘get it’ earlier. Thank you so much for this post. You’re a star.