Greed is born in different ways.
Some learned giving means lacking what you need in the future. Others think there isn’t enough to give to others yet. For others, accumulating as much as they can would help them get ahead.
All these are greed mindsets. And they’re as deadly as other negative mindsets.
So if greed is one of the vices plaguing your life, stay tuned to learn how to overcome greed with these insightful tips.
Let’s jump in!
1. Quit the Scarcity Mindset
The scarcity mindset is simply a mentality of not having enough of something to share. No matter how much money, status, fame, clothing (whatever feeds your greed) you collect, there still isn’t enough to share.
If you have a scarcity mindset:
- You probably find it hard to share some of your things
- You don’t feel secure enough to let go of your possessions to someone else in need because you think it’ll leave you in inadequacy
- You complain often about not having enough of something
- You complain about others taking money for themselves
If these statements sound like you, you’re suffering from greed because of the scarcity mentality. And you probably learned that from someone else who had the scarcity mindset as well.
But once you choose to quit the scarcity mentality, your journey to a mindset of abundance begins. And greed starts to let go of you.
2. Build the Abundance Mentality
Exactly the opposite of the scarcity mindset, the abundance mentality is a source of great success in all aspects of life. The abundance mentality is a belief that there’s plenty of something to go around for anyone seeking.
However, most of us start from the scarcity mindset towards this great mentality. Fortunately, as Napoleon Hill’s quote, “You are what you think,” goes, when you think abundance, you’ll live in abundance.
But how can you achieve an abundance mindset? Here are the steps:
- Observe and acknowledge your scarcity mindset thoughts
- Look around for what you have to achieve what you want
- Surround yourself with people and information full of the abundance mindset
- Always look for ways to create win-win situations in your personal and professional life
- Get used to looking for opportunities for yourself and others
- Practice gratitude
Remember, there’s always something for everyone. Look out for yourself and others as well. You won’t lose anything by doing that.
3. Stop Comparing Yourself
Comparing yourself to others also leads you to the grips of greed since you’d want what others have. But the possessions and experiences that other people enjoy are limitless so if you desire to catch up with them, your desires won’t end – you’ll keep wanting more and accumulating more to no limits.
Instead of focusing on what others have, focus on the things you have, using the resources you have wisely rather than fantasizing about what you can do with more. Life is about using the resources available to us to bring value rather than impressing others through the accumulation of more resources.
Even better, to avoid the vicious cycle of comparison, check out our article on Compare & Despair – Break The Cycle to get rid of this strong force of greed.
4. Practice Generosity
Like every other good habit, you can practice generosity. And the continual practice of this virtue will enable you to become more generous and less greedy with time.
But being generous isn’t just about giving out things as many commonly think. Here are simple ways to be generous every day to build the habit:
- Offer your expertise to someone for free
- Choose to compliment at least one person every day
- Write a review for something you used and liked
- Volunteer to read stories for the sick and differently-abled
- Find a cause that makes you want to help and start donating the least amount you feel like now
The more you get involved in the act of wanting the best for others, the more your heart and mind desire to help others. And the more opportunities to be more generous will come.
5. Develop a Gratitude Attitude
Gratitude is the source of abundant generosity. The fact that you feel you’ve been gifted makes you want to gift others as well. However, one who feels deprived of gifts doesn’t get motivated to gift as well because their attitude is that of wanting more.
Therefore, if you desire to ditch greed and embrace generosity, start seeking out exactly what you need to be grateful for because trust me, there’s always something.
Here are ways to develop an attitude of gratitude:
- Write at least three things you’re grateful for daily
- When you compare, remember to be grateful for the position you are
- Contemplate your day and be thankful for all good things
- Look at people around you, whether good or bad, and be grateful for what they have taught you
- Call and say thank you to people who helped you
When you acknowledge your blessings, it’s easy to bless others. Remember that.
6. Remember No One Really Cares About Your Bank Balance
Many of us are greedy because we try to please others. It doesn’t matter whether we like them, but as long as we imagine they’ll look at us and say, “He’s/She’s doing really good,” we’re ready to impress them.
This is summarized by the famous quote, “Too many people are buying things they can’t afford, with money that they don’t have to impress people that they don’t like!” And it’s a sad truth. In trying to impress others, we fuel greed.
If you’re struggling with this, remember this brutal truth: No one really cares about your bank balance. Absolutely no one. If they really did care, then they’ll help you amass those riches and even assist when you’re struggling financially. But do they?
These same people applauding you for your great possessions will shame you for not having “enough”. It’s all about them and not about you. Their perception of your self-worth is equivalent to your net worth. But you know that’s not true.
While you can’t change their thinking, you can change your reaction to their thinking. You can choose to not care. By reminding yourself that no one really cares.
7. Stop Feeding Greed
If you feed a habit, it grows. In the case of greed, you may feed it by:
- Giving in to impulse purchases
- Consciously seeking gain at the expense of others
- Defeating competition by manipulative behaviors
- Giving in to bingeing
You know what leads you deeper into the greed cycle. So you know how to starve yourself.
Starving greed by abstaining from actions that fuel it may work for the maintenance of contentment but a better way comes in the next point.
8. Recognize the Root of Your Selfishness
Greed is a manifestation of selfishness. But where does selfishness come from?
The best way to deal with anything is to go after its roots. Once you uproot the roots of a bad habit, it can no longer live.
The roots of greed mainly stem from our conditioning since childhood.
Perhaps you grew up with nothing and understood that to be good enough you have to have to be rich with most of the money, status, clothes, or whatever material thing you think.
Maybe you’re on the other end of the spectrum where you grew up in privilege and your rich parents esteemed highly the most excellent of excellence. In an effort to please them, you sought after being the best athlete wherever you are. The medals you received were never enough and you had to seek more and more.
Or maybe you started eating too much so you could fill the emptiness you felt until it became an insatiable habit.
The examples of greed roots are limitless. And it’s all connected to a desire to feel worthy, important, enough – identity issues.
So think about it deeply. It must have started somewhere.
You can check out Expert Insights – How To Let Go Of Shame to deal with roots of greed. For even more resources, stick with me to the end of this article.
9. Taste the Joy of Blessing Others
We don’t just give to provide for other people’s own needs but also to bring a smile to their faces. Be it a compliment, a helping hand to an elderly person up the stairs, or a thank you gift to a friend, as long as it’s something to lighten their spirits.
If you do a couple of generous gestures and feel the joy of the receivers, you’d start getting hooked on selflessness and ditch greed.
The dopamine (feel-good chemical) release that you experience when you feel good for holding back your love would be replaced by the dopamine release of knowing the joy of the receiver.
So go out there and taste the joy.
10. Live the Purpose of Showing Love
What is your purpose?
If you desire to ditch greed, try living a life of loving others. Love, true love can trample all vices. Love is the queen of all virtues.
If you desire to show love in all you do in your time on this earth, greed would let go of you.
11. Realize the Most Impactful Life Is That of Giving
Think about the most famous people in history. Those who lived a life of giving.
George Muller, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Jesus Christ, Albert Einstein – name someone amazing people you know.
No one ever impacted society in a great way without giving themselves to the world. No one. In one way or another, they decided to be the change they were looking for. That’s why we look up to them, decades, centuries, and millenniums later.
If you have to find your way out of greed, why not motivate yourself with the fact that your life will be most impactful through generosity. Along the way, virtue will be all that matters.
12. Remember Those Who’ve Helped You
If it weren’t your father, mother, relative, good samaritan, where would you be? If they chose to not go out of the way to help you because they wanted everything for themselves, would you be where you are?
I believe your answer would be a no.
Why not follow that example. Of the one who gave you a chance, Of the one who didn’t give up on you. Of the one who showed up at the time you needed someone most.
That thought alone would give you the power to let go of greed.
13. Remind Yourself of Those Who Didn’t Help You
This is not to encourage you to hate on those who could help you but chose not to, no.
This point is a reminder of when you were abandoned that you may feel empathy for those in the same boat.
Be the person to tell someone, “I know what it feels like to be in this situation and I don’t want you to feel abandoned as I did.”
This way, you’ll make the world a better place.
14. Visualize Your Loved Ones Who Need Other People’s Help
You cannot help all your loved ones. Someone out there may be a closer help than you.
Therefore, help those within your reach that your loved ones may be taken care of.
It’s nature’s law of compensation, sometimes called karma. And it works.
15. Remember You Die With Nothing
Death is a great reality check for those who contemplate it.
No matter how much you accumulate, what are you going to do with it once you’re gone? Nothing.
Many wealth-hungry people realize it too late when they’re stuck with a deadly or disabling disease. That’s when they realize the excessive wealth-seeking efforts were all for nothing.
Don’t wait for it to be too late. Think about it, “Since I’m going to die someday, what is the most important legacy I want to leave?”
Related: Do Narcissists Feel Guilt? Key Insights
16. Seek Compassion for Others
When compassion is lacking, you can’t think of anyone but yourself. And this fuels greed.
However, if you choose to feel what others feel, it can help you be less greedy and more wanting to help others.
- Visit the sick
- Go listen to stories of the elderly
- Watch documentaries explaining the plights of others
- Visit the disabled
- Listen to your friend share their problems
- Check the experiences of the poor
The more you know and sympathize with other people’s problems, the more compassionate you become, the more selfless you get.
17. The Purpose of Having Much Is to Give More
Perhaps you miss the whole point of having much. And that’s why you’ve become greedy.
The whole point of having much more than others isn’t that you may hold and seek more but that you may give unto the less fortunate and more will come.
To give is more blessed than to receive.
18. Remember Nothing Is Permanent in This World
Even if other points don’t work enough to get you out of greed, remember this one point for your own good.
We see it in movies, documentaries, and in our real lives – nothing is ever permanent.
One person rises up in wealth or fame, another drops. If one was greedy in their glory days, they end up being abandoned and depressed in their poor days.
But if you’re good to others in all your days, it’s likely you’ll never be forsaken.
19. Focus on Impact
The most important thing in life is impacting life. Everything we have is something we can use as a tool to impact lives. Otherwise, what we have is useless if it doesn’t impact others.
20. Redefine Your Self Worth
Earlier, we determined to overpower greed by recognizing the root of this vice. We learned that greed, like many other habits come from a connection to self-worth.
Therefore, if you desire to remove greed by its roots and make it lifeless in your life, you have to deal with your issues of self-worth.
Related: I Don’t Deserve To Be Happy – 11 Expert Tips To Change This
21. View Money Only as a Tool
Money is only a tool. Therefore, instead of focusing on the money itself since it leads to greed, focus on the positive ways you want to use the money.
To understand this better, see how you can view money as a tool for wise use of it.
Related Questions on Overcoming Greed
What causes a person to be greedy?
Greed is caused by an insatiable desire to have more of something. This evil desire usually has underlying beliefs in the subconscious that run it. These beliefs mostly consist of a sense of inadequacy that a person tries to cope with by acquiring too much of something.
What are the signs of a greedy person? 9 common signs
The greed syndrome shows in a greedy person in these 9 signs:
- Excessively self-centered behavior
- Lack of empathy
- Envy
- Manipulative traits
- Slaves of instant gratification
- Limitless seeking of material goods
- Short-sighted
- Insatiable
- Hoarding
How do I stop being greedy? How to stop being greedy and selfish
Here’s a short list of ways you can stop being greedy:
- Quit the Scarcity Mindset
- Build the Abundance Mentality
- Stop Comparing Yourself
- Practice Generosity
- Develop a Gratitude Attitude
- Remember No One Really Cares About Your Bank Balance
- Stop Feeding Greed
- Recognize the Root of Your Selfishness
- Taste the Joy of Blessing Others
- Live the Purpose of Showing Love
- Realize the Most Impactful Life Is That of Giving
- Remember Those Who’ve Helped You
- Remind Yourself of Those Who Didn’t Help You
- Visualize Your Loved Ones Who Need Other People’s Help
- Remember You Die With Nothing
- Seek Compassion for Others
- The Purpose of Having Much Is to Give More
- Remember Nothing Is Permanent in This World
- Focus on Impact
- Redefine Your Self Worth
- View Money Only as a Tool
How do you manage greed? How to overcome greed for money – How to stop being greedy with food
In the above steps on overcoming greed, you’ll find ways to defeat greed for money, food, clothing, and all kinds of pleasures. Discover the strategy that works for your situation most and apply it.
Onto Overcoming Greed
Greed is destructive to relationships, happiness and is a great hindrance to fulfillment. In a nutshell, the sooner you overcome greed, the better.
So what are you greedy for? Which solution above resonates with your situation? Let’s talk in the comments! And don’t forget to share this piece with a friend. Cheers!
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