This week we’re taking time out to share some classic Scoutie Girl posts. Today’s post originally appeared on March 19, 2010.

when i was about 10, my dad left our family.

and while broken families would soon become quite normal, in my grade & group of friends, i was the first to go through the process. one of the greatest lessons i learned from this time in my life was how to embrace abundance. even though my dad leaving took the vast majority of income away from our family, even though we were forced to down size from a beautiful newly built home to a home bought out of bankruptcy court that my mother & community moms spent weeks cleaning to make fit for habitation, even though shopping became a vastly different affair, i never felt that resources were scarce.

my family lived a life of abundance.

my mom never said “we can’t afford that” or “that’s too expensive” – or if she did it’s certainly not the part i remember! i went to basketball camp and softball camp and church camp and music camp. i had piano lessons and new trendy clothes. we always had a computer. and i never doubted for a second that i would go to the best college that i could get into and wanted to attend.

scarcity wasn’t even an option in my mind.

now my mom isn’t a lawyer or a doctor or even an assistant with a steady job. she was a seamstress who worked from home & was her own boss (a luxury that was her own abundance). she learned to never accept no – or “too much” – as an answer. i learned that i could have whatever i wanted and go wherever i wanted to go as long as i was creative about it. i learned that when you gave a lot you got a hell of a lot more back in return. i learned that if you embrace abundance, you’ll be more abundant than you can imagine!

as i’ve grown, i’ve continued to embrace abundance – and that’s why i get to do what i do here everyday. i never thought for a moment that this wouldn’t work. i didn’t let my husband get me down, i didn’t let friends get me down, i didn’t let myself get me down. i knew could create success and i lived every day as if i was already successful (with a smaller budget, of course!). when i made one level of reality a success, i focused on a higher level and i embraced that abundance & embodied that success.

embracing abundance gives us the mindset that we need to live our goals while we’re achieving them.

but that’s WAY too much about me. i’m piggybacking, this beautiful friday afternoon, on the post i wrote last week with my opinions on being a thriving artist. thank you all for the wonderful comments – so many of you obviously see yourselves as thriving. but i just couldn’t stop there after reading dave navarro’s post on breaking the scarcity mindset. while there is so much positivity in our creative community, i just can’t help but get caught up on the scarcity mentality that i hear from so many artists trying to breakthrough.

stop trying already. kick the damn door down.

these are the four beliefs that dave uses to outline his path for escaping scarcity:

* First, the specific belief that there are plenty of people out there who are willing to exchange money for something of value.
* Second, the specific belief that you can offer something of value.
* Third, the specific belief that you can communicate that value to the people willing to pay for it.
* Fourth, the specific belief that you can make an offer – right now (or very soon) – that can generate the money you want to have.

now, perhaps your goal isn’t money. side note: we all need to make a living – so if your goal is money right now, embrace it and don’t let others tell you that’s not okay. perhaps your goal is clout, authority, friends in high places, exposure, gallery space, art classes, etc… you can substitute any of those things that you wish you had in abundance into those four beliefs.

forget all the i-wishes and if-onlys and make a choice today that embraces the abundance that you already have and the abundance that is right around the corner. and then walk around the corner and pummel that abundance into submission too.

now i’m quite certain (cause i embrace my own abundance that makes me think that you actually care what i have to say) that you’ve already thought of those one or two things (a new job, quitting your old job, materials, a new website, a blog post, an advertising budget, a friend, a class…) that you need in order to take the next step. do me a big favor, leave it in the comments. i want need to know what doors you are breaking down tomorrow today.