Why 99% of People Fail at Abundance. (And How to Fix it).

Read time: 5 minutes

Hey internet friends,

Last week, we explored why growth feels like losing your mind and how to navigate that necessary disruption.

​You can read that (and all past issues, here).

By the way, if you're finding these insights helpful, I've started collecting all these tools, resources, and one-sheets in the ever-growing 'Science of Success' vault. Check it out here for additional materials on today's topic and more.

Today, I want to challenge our collective understanding of abundance—a concept we've all heard about but few truly grasp.

The Abundance Paradox

Everyone talks about abundance. Vision boards. Affirmations. "Think and grow rich." The abundance mindset is practically a religious dogma in entrepreneurial circles.

I used to roll my eyes at all of it.

Not because I didn't want abundance—who doesn't?—but because the approach seemed fundamentally flawed. We've been trying to think our way to abundance, and I've come to believe that's precisely the problem.

You don't become a farmer by thinking farming thoughts. You farm.

The Closed Hand Problem

Here's a simple exercise: Make a tight fist with both hands. Hold it for a moment.

Now ask yourself: How would you receive anything with closed hands?

This isn't just a metaphorical question. It's the literal state most of us operate from—hands energetically clenched, white-knuckled with effort, desperately trying to secure what we have while simultaneously grasping for more.

When I was building my first company, I embodied this closed-fist approach. I held tightly to every client, every opportunity, every resource. My fear of scarcity manifested as a desperate grip on anything that came my way.

And then I burned out. Six months of insomnia. Crippling anxiety. My business eventually tanked.

Heart Intelligence vs. Mind Games

The fundamental mistake we make with abundance is trying to think it into existence. We repeat affirmations, visualise outcomes, and convince ourselves intellectually that abundance is possible.

But abundance isn't an intellectual concept. It's a felt experience.

In my journey of recovery from burnout and building Heights, I've discovered something surprising: The mind can only take you as far as what you've already known or been taught is possible. But the heart—what some researchers now call "heart intelligence"—operates on a different level.

Nothing is truly real until you can feel it deeply in your heart.

This isn't spiritual poetry. The heart contains its own complex nervous system—what neuroscientists call "the heart brain." This neural network processes information independently from the cranial brain and communicates bidirectionally with it.

When we're caught in scarcity thinking, our mind generates stress signals that trigger physiological responses—shallow breathing, elevated cortisol, muscle tension (including those closed fists). These bodily states then reinforce the mental pattern of scarcity.

Breaking this cycle requires more than new thoughts. It requires a new embodied state.

The Open-Handed Practice

Here's the approach that transformed my relationship with abundance—not overnight, but gradually and fundamentally:

1. Start with your actual hands
   • Sit quietly for 2 minutes with your palms facing upward
   • Feel the subtle energy in your open palms
   • Notice the vulnerability of this position, and stay with it
2. Shift from acquisition to circulation
   • Ask yourself: "How can I be a channel for abundance rather than a container for it?"
   • Look for opportunities to give without expectation
   • Notice how giving creates space to receive more
3. Practice heart-centred decisions
   • Before making decisions, place your hand on your heart
   • Ask: "What would feel like abundance in this situation?"
   • Notice that the answer often differs from what your mind calculates
4. Embody the end state
   • Identify how you'd physically carry yourself if you were already living in abundance
   • Move, breathe, and speak from that embodied state now
   • Let the physical state inform your mindset, rather than vice versa
5. Cultivate gratitude as a physiological response
   • Train yourself to feel gratitude in your body, not just think it
   • Notice where gratitude registers physically (often the chest, throat, or abdomen)
   • Anchor to this physical sensation throughout your day

When I began these practices, I initially felt foolish. But I noticed subtle shifts in how opportunities appeared, how connections deepened, and how my business decisions improved.

It wasn't magical. It was practical. When you physically embody abundance, you notice opportunities you previously missed because you were too tense, too closed, too defended to see them.

From Intellectual to Embodied Abundance

The transformation from scarcity to abundance isn't a mental exercise—it's a full-body renovation project.

We don't think our way to abundance; we become abundant by changing our embodied state. The open or closed nature of your energy field, which starts with but extends beyond your physical posture, determines what can enter your life.

This explains why some people can manifest extraordinary results while others flounder despite using the same manifestation techniques. The difference isn't in the visualisation or affirmation—it's in whether those practices change your embodied state or remain intellectual exercises.

A Question to Carry Forward

As you move into your week, I invite you to consider:

Where in your life are your hands still closed? Where are you holding so tightly that nothing new can enter?

This might be a relationship, a business model, a belief about what's possible for you, or simply the physical tension you carry in your body day to day.

The path to abundance begins with opening your hands—literally and figuratively.

Until Thursday,

Dan

P.S. If you try the open-palmed meditation, I'd love to hear what you notice. For me, the subtle tingling sensation that develops after about 90 seconds became a physical reminder of the abundance that's always available when I'm open to receiving it.

SOS (Science of Success) Curated:

LinkedIn of the week: The Cost of Culture vs. Compensation.​

Podcast of the week: The No.1 Brain Doctor: Change Your Brain Every Day.​

My Tweet of the week: Most change fails because we try to create new habits with old beliefs.​

The Biology of Open vs. Closed Postures

Fascinating research from Harvard Business School and Columbia University reveals how our physical posture dramatically influences our neurochemistry and behavior.

In their landmark study, researchers found that adopting "power poses" (open, expansive postures) for just two minutes significantly increased testosterone (the dominance hormone) by 20% while reducing cortisol (the stress hormone) by 25%. These hormonal shifts directly impacted participants' risk tolerance, confidence, and performance in subsequent tasks.

What's particularly relevant is how closed vs. open hand positions played a role. Participants with clenched fists or hands close to the body showed higher cortisol levels and described feeling more defensive and threat-focused. Those with open palms displayed increased levels of oxytocin (the connection hormone) and reported greater feelings of trust and openness to opportunity.

This research provides a biological explanation for why abundance feels impossible when we're physically constricted: our bodies are literally in a neurochemical state of defensive scarcity.

The implications extend beyond individual psychology. Teams led by leaders exhibiting closed, defensive postures showed measurable reductions in creative output and collaboration compared to those led by leaders with open, expansive body language.

This science suggests that embodying abundance isn't just metaphorical – it's a physiological state that can be deliberately cultivated through conscious attention to our physical presence.

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Until next week - smash your success,

Dan

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1-1 Coaching with Dan

In my goal to help more entrepreneurs/people who are looking to level up their careers, I've just started taking 1-1 consulting calls (only 1 a week)

Why book a call? Some of my expertise/success:

I've built 5 startups. 1 win, 1 fail, and 3 still going.

E-Commerce: Heights — with revenue over $15M a year.

Community: Foundrs, one of the UK's top founder communities

Podcasting: Leaders Media - bootstrapped media company that makes the UK's top business podcasts, Secret Leaders, with over 50M downloads.

Health/Mental Health: Managed to overcome burnout, insomnia, depression & anxiety in pursuit of success as I talk about in my interview with Steven Bartlett on Diary of a CEO​

Angel Investing: I've invested in over 90 startups

Coached & Mentored: Certified coach & done lots of mentoring

Personal Brand: Have grown to 178k on LinkedIn and X (Twitter) in the past 12 months

So if you're interested in booking a session with me to talk all things business or building a personal brand, book for 30-minutes or 45-minutes. (limited spots).

Science of Success Vault

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Want to take your success (even more) seriously? 👇​
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