If you’re reached midlife and feel that your passion, enthusiasm and stamina have faded, you’re not alone. Many of us over 40 experience life as more of an invitation to stay in and sleep rather than an opportunity to go out and explore. This stage of life often coincides with physical changes that can impact our body image, making it easy to slip into a scarcity mindset—focusing on negatives and believing our best years are behind us.
The Danger of a Scarcity Mindset
Scarcity thinking leads to constant self-evaluation and comparison, reinforcing a hyper-awareness of our deficiencies. It stems from an underlying fear of not having enough or not being enough. When we dwell on what we haven’t accomplished, it can create a sense of being trapped or stuck, diminishing our agency to make changes.
The truth is, every day presents a new opportunity to shift your mindset. You have the power to expand, grow, and transform at any stage in life, including your 40s and beyond.
Cultivating an Abundance Mindset
That’s why the essential mindset shift to level up after 40 is to consciously cultivate an abundance mindset. Abundant thinking relies on a willingness to change our patterns of thinking and one of the best ways to do that is through gratitude.
Gratitude is about recognizing and appreciating what is going well in our lives. It’s a state of mind that we can actively nurture. Gratitude is an emotion but it’s also a way of seeing.
Much of what we take for granted today are things we once longed for and worked hard to achieve. Instead of taking them for granted, we can remind ourselves that none of what we have was guaranteed. It’s a string of successes that we’ve created.
How Positive Emotions Help Shift Your Mindset
Gratitude as a mindset intervention rests on the premise that experiencing positive emotions is inherently nourishing to us.
Barbara Fredrickson’s Broaden-and-Build Theory is a psychological framework that explains the mechanism by which positive emotions can enhance our well-being and resilience. When we’re in negative states, our focus narrows which impacts our ability to behave creatively and proactively.
In contrast, positive emotions such as joy and gratitude have a broadening effect—allowing us to think more creatively, explore new possibilities and develop new skills. The benefits of positive emotions accumulate over time, creating a feedback loop that leads to more positive choices and behaviours.
Simple Ways to Shift Your Mindset with Gratitude:
- Gratitude Journaling: Write down what you’re grateful for each morning.
- Gratitude Letters: Write a letter to someone you appreciate. You don’t have to send it. The act of writing is what matters.
- Contemplation: Take time to reflect on why you are grateful for specific people, experiences or things in your life.
I always advocate for getting into the mental gym for 5 minutes a day to practise gratitude as a strategy to take you from scarcity to abundance. This is how you create fuel to continue to level up and be your highest self after 40. It’s an inside out approach that’s always available to you
