3 Things Poor People Do That Rich People Don’t

James Laughlin breaks down three mindset shifts that separate wealthy thinking from scarcity thinking: curiosity, perspective, and gratitude. He walks through a practical "whammo" exercise for seeing options instead of problems, and a daily gratitude practice of writing three things you're thankful for.
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I'd like to thank NZ Mortgages for sponsoring the Lead On Purpose podcast. You can check them out@nzmortgages.co nz. Welcome back. Today, we're diving into three habits that keep people stuck while the wealthy thrive. Being rich isn't just about money. Look, I think it's about relationships, fulfillment, and living a truly rich life. It's a way of thinking, it's a mindset. And I believe there is a poor mindset and, and a rich mindset. And, you know, could you be holding yourself back without even realizing that you're doing it? Let's find out. If you're unknowingly doing that, let's dive in to make sure that you are supporting your own success. Hey, I'm James Laughlin, and on this channel, we're all about unlocking your full potential with proven habits and strategies for personal mastery. So we're going to talk about this, we're going to talk about curiosity and, and how a rich mindset versus a poor mindset. You know, a rich mindset, the person's always curious. And I want to get really, really clear. We're not talking about dollars and cents here. We're talking about a way of thinking. And whether you read those great classics like Think and Grow Rich or more recently, Start Thinking Rich, a friend of mine just released that it all starts with a mindset. And so when I talk about poor people or rich people, I'm talking about a mindset. This is not finger pointing at people that have lots of money and people that don't have lots of money. Here's the first point that I want to make. This is the number one thing that separates those rich people from the poor people, and that is that they're curious. You know, I've been really fortunate to sit down with people of all walks of life. All shapes, sizes, genders, ethnicities, wealth in terms of financial wealth, all different backgrounds. Now, the people that were truly rich across all areas of their life, they were deeply curious. These are people that have got the dream, you know, career. They've got this amazing LinkedIn profile that says they've worked at Disney and Apple and etc. These are the people that are financially free by the hundreds of millions, if not the billions. These are the people that have led countries and led the top sports teams of all times or won gold medals. And you'd think they don't need to be curious. They're already at the top of their game. Well, the one thing that connects this kind of rich mindset, these rich people is that they're curious, that they always are asking questions. They're somewhat nosy, and I really admire that. I love when someone who seems to have it all keeps asking questions, keeps leading with curiosity. And that's something I think we can all do, no matter what area of we're at. In terms of financial wealth, look at all parts of our life and all aspects, you know, of relationships, fulfillment, contribution, health, mindset, career. There's all these different things. And I think truly rich people are curious across those key pillars in their life. Here's a little challenge I've got for you on this first point of being curious. When was the last time you learned something? If it's been a while, I want you to just sit down today and go, I'm going to take 10 minutes to read something or listen to something and actually write down what I've learned. And then I'm going to see where I can apply it to my life or share it with someone else. But that's the first challenge I want to set you. Thank you so much for taking the time to watch Lead on purpose here on YouTube. Look, I'll be honest. I have absolutely no idea, no clue how the algorithm of YouTube works. But what I do know is when one real human hits the subscribe button, it helps other real humans who are interested in this type of content to find it. So please do me a massive favor. Hit that subscribe button right now. Let's get back to it. Okay, let's look at the second point. Let's, let's take a look at perspective. Poor people often see problems, while rich people see possibilities. Often when I'm speaking from stage to teams, organizations, large corporates, I'm always talking about looking through the lens of what is possible. I want you to think about that. And again, you know the rich people. And again, let's remind ourselves this is rich thinking. This is not, how many dollars have you got in your bank account? But often that does reflect your thinking too. They always are looking through what is possible. They don't see the problems, they see the possibilities. So when you focus on problems, guess what? You create more problems. When you focus on more problems, you create more walls, roadblocks, obstacles. There's no way to get around a problem if all you're doing is focusing on the problem. The best thing that people who are abundant in their thinking, the best thing they do is go, whammo. W a m o, what are my options? The next time you see a problem, I want you to go, whammo. What are my options? And explore every possible option. I'm running an incredible 22 day Rewire program right now. It's the first ever live cohort and I and it's a high performance rewire looking at key habits that help high performers thrive. And the one thing I'm always challenging the people in there to do, and particularly this week I've been doing that, is what are all of the things at your disposal? What are all the opportunities that you can do to pursue things that you see a problem? How can you get around it? Whammo. Every time it makes such a difference. So the next time you face a problem, I want you to take action, to look for one positive thing and one possible thing. What's positive here? I and what's possible here. And then take action accordingly. Off the back of that, the last habit, and perhaps the most powerful one, is gratitude. Now, before I get to that, I've got one thing to ask you for and that's a favor and I'm grateful if you will do it. Please just share this episode or the podcast with one friend if you do that. I'm deeply appreciative. That's how the podcast grows. It's word of mouth. Real humans letting other real humans know about it. So gratitude. Poor people often focus on what they don't have what they want, whereas wealthy people focus on what they do have. They're grateful for it. So I often have a poor people mindset. I would like that, I'd like to move towards that. Or I'd really love that. And the thing is, all of us have poor mindsets somewhere in our lives and it's going, okay, which area of my life needs the focus. Maybe it's wealth, maybe it's health, maybe it's relationship. You get to decide, right? But rich people, in terms of a mindset, they focus on what they have and they go, wow, I'm so grateful and deeply grateful. They show and express that gratitude for their house, for their car, for their family member, for the bed they slept in, for the access to clean water, access to abundant food sources. And they write about it. They write about their gratitude. They take time in their meditations in the morning to close their eyes and focus on what they're grateful for. So I want you to think about whether you're focusing more on what you want and what you don't have right now, or are you focused on what you're so grateful for. How many times do you share with a friend or a loved one? I'm really grateful for the fence that surrounds our property. I'm really grateful for paying tax because it means that road I'm driving on is not a hot mess. I'm really grateful for that doctor or nurse who helped me. And they were supposed to have gone home 90 minutes, but they're staying here because they're under resourced. I'm so grateful for them. So I want you to think about this attitude of gratitude and practicing it as a skill, as a muscle. I interviewed an NCIS special agent very recently, and she was sharing how important gratitude is in building grit and resilience. This is something that she has done for years. Today's the day to start it. It's not when the thing happens and hits you. If you're already in an ambush of life right now, get started, of course, but if you're in a pretty good space, get started right now because when the thing comes and arrives, you'll start. I've started to develop that muscle. So important. Here's a little challenge that pertains to this. Start your day or finish your day with three things you're grateful for. Neuroscience backs this up. This is not my wise idea. This is. This is stuff that I have adopted because neuroscientists know that it helps build resilience at a psychological level. And let's face it, we all need to be more resilient. We all have things coming up that we don't know are going to face us, whether that be adversity, sickness, loss. We're human. We experience these ugly things. We've got to face the facts and stay in reality, accept it. To do that, we've got to build that muscle. So that's the one thing I'd love to challenge you to do, is physically write down three things you're grateful for. Speak about them, share them with someone that's close to you. I just want to say you're one of the rich people. Why? Because you're here working on yourself. I have no idea what's in your bank balance. It's none of my business. And that's not what this is about. It's all about how you're thinking. The fact that you listen to this to the end and you maybe even shared this with a friend would show me that. One, you're curious. And two, that you care. I really love that. So to recap that, embrace the curiosity, look for possibilities, and last but not least, focus on gratitude. Please, for now, get out there and lead your life on purpose. I'd like to thank Nz mortgages for sponsoring the Lead on Purpose podcast. You can check them out@nzmortgages.co.nz.










