How Hitting $100K Changes Your Mindset About Your Problems

Corey Wilks, Psy.D. (: 00:00

So here's what I've learned about the psychology of hitting six figures. So recently I polled my newsletter subscribers about their top three struggles and the results were a unique insight into human psychology. People who make under $100,000 said that their biggest struggles were procrastination, self-doubt, like fear, analysis, paralysis, and trusting themselves, and lack of clarity on their purpose, strengths, and direction to take their life for business. So then what do you think the top three struggles were for people who made over?

$100,000. Turns out it was procrastination, self-doubt, and lack of clarity. And on the surface, these seem like they're the exact same things, but are they actually? Turns out the things themselves stay the same, but the reasons we struggle with them and how they manifest are very different. So let's get started. So like for simplicity's sake, let's pretend $100,000 is the threshold to achieve success, or at least a rite of passage into financial success.

So before you cross that threshold, these three struggles look very different. A lot of times procrastination comes down to living by a single word. Someday. Someday I'll be a writer. Someday I'll start that business. Someday I'll do that thing I always wanted to do. But one day you'll be out of some days, right? Memento mori. And like we talked about in this other video about how to stop procrastination and the psychology behind why we do it, procrastination is often a fear avoidance strategy.

which is why a lot of productivity advice doesn't really work. See, most people want to achieve success, but only a fraction ever do because very few people ever take action. They let fear stop them a lot of times. Ideas are easy, but ideas aren't reality. It doesn't matter how great of an idea you have, how much potential it has, or how much it could change your life or the world. Because if you never take action to make it a reality, it will never exist. But after...

you achieve success, right? After you cross this $100,000 threshold, procrastination no longer means putting off starting your business. Now it means putting off a meaningful life. It means neglecting your health and your loved ones, putting off pivoting your business into something more fulfilling or continuing not to do the things you said you would do once you became successful. But here's the thing, you can't buy your health when it's gone.

Corey Wilks, Psy.D. (: 02:21

Your kids don't care how much money you make if you're never around to spend time with them. And on your deathbed, you're not gonna look back and be like, damn, I wish I would have worked harder. I've seen too many entrepreneurs who are successful on paper, but absolutely miserable in reality. I call this the path of lucrative misery. Because after a certain point, the only thing you're really procrastinating is enjoying your life. And if it feels like the goalpost of enough is always just out of reach, the only way to...

ever actually reach it is to stop chasing more and to look around at everything you already have. Because oftentimes you'll realize you've had enough for a while. So with the second struggle, self-doubt, let's look at the before and after of crossing 100K. Before you cross 100K, self-doubt looks really different. Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will. Whether it's the four horsemen of fear, self-sabotaging behaviors like analysis, paralysis.

or simply not trusting yourself and your own intuition about which direction you know is right for you. So many people who could otherwise succeed and make the world a better place give up before they even try because they're so riddled with self-doubt. But most of the time, anxiety and doubt are selfish, meaning you're so focused on your own insecurities, you can't see past them. So then you wait until you find courage to take action. But courage might never come. Instead, one thing that works better than trying to quote unquote find courage is to focus on building conviction.

Because conviction happens when we look beyond ourself and we focus on helping others and what they need, which is way more effective than waiting around for courage. I got more in depth with this idea when I talked with Pat Flynn on his Smart Passive Income podcast. I'll put a link in the show notes so you can check it out if you're curious. But Pat and I talked about how we both still struggle with nerves. But by focusing on our audience and what our audience needs rather than our own insecurities and nervousness,

we're typically able to conquer self-doubt and share our message with the world. So that's what self-doubt can look like before 100K, but after 100K, it looks very different. See, to a lot of successful entrepreneurs, self-doubt doesn't mean your insecurities are keeping you from starting. Now it means your insecurities are keeping you from moving forward. For example, I've worked with really successful entrepreneurs who've built amazing companies that have helped millions of people improve their lives.

Corey Wilks, Psy.D. (: 04:43

but they themselves continue to struggle with things like imposter syndrome and doubting their abilities to continue to succeed. Some of the most common doubts I help clients like this navigate include things like, well, what if everything goes to zero tomorrow? Or what if my audience doesn't like the new direction of my content? Or what if my customers don't like the new product I'm trying to launch next? Self-doubt is often unrealistic, but just because it's not based in reality doesn't mean it won't affect you in reality.

So like the likelihood that everything would go to zero tomorrow is virtually zero. And even if it did, you would probably be fine because you've built the skills, the network, and the reputation that even if you had to start over tomorrow, you wouldn't actually be starting at zero. Or what is the likelihood that your audience would hate the content you put out? Super low. And even if they do, you'll simply attract new people because your audience isn't a homogenous thing. It's a group of individuals.

and each of those individuals has their own interests. People follow you for you, not your content, typically. Or the likelihood that your customers won't like or buy your next product. That's also pretty low, because if you're passionate about your product, you know it addresses a real need, and you've appropriately positioned it for your customers, at least a subsect of them will buy it. And if they don't, learn from it and iterate for the next launch. Nobody has a 100 % success rate in entrepreneurship.

It largely comes down to surviving and iterating. And the third obstacle, lack of clarity. Pre-success or 100K versus post-success. Well, the reason a lot of people pre-success struggle with lack of clarity kind of comes down to this. Thinking you'll succeed without clarity is a lot like trying to aim at a moving target in the dark. Not only is your goal moving, you don't even know what it looks like. Right, many people say, I want to succeed. Okay, what does that look like? I have no idea. Well, how are you gonna achieve it? I don't know.

This is what most people mean who haven't achieved success yet are talking about when they say they lack clarity. Because if you never figure out what you want or the specific steps you need to take to achieve it, you'll likely just forever live in the land of entrepreneurs and daydreamers. But it doesn't take insane intelligence, resources, or skills to figure out enough to cross 100K. It comes down to figuring out what you want and what you need to do to achieve it, which typically means picking a direction.

Corey Wilks, Psy.D. (: 07:03

committing to it and iterating for long enough to gain traction. But once you develop the right strategies, you're typically able to cross 100K. At that point,

Lack of clarity no longer means not knowing how to succeed financially. Now it means not knowing which direction to take your life, what fulfillment means to you, or what impact you want to have on the world. The biggest reason most highly successful entrepreneurs reach out to me for coaching is because they feel stuck or they're trying to navigate existential questions like, is this it? They've worked so hard for so long, they thought they'd be happier. Or, what's next? They know they're meant for more, but don't know what that means for them.

or what's worth my time to build. They're ready to climb the next mountain, but don't know which mountain is worth conquering. In this case, clarity comes down to a lot of self-discovery. Most of us spend our entire lives chasing, planning, and doing, but we never take the time to cultivate stillness, to look inward, and really clarify what we actually want out of life and what's worth our most precious resource, our time to pursue.

The way I approach this with a lot of my clients is we start by doing a lot of self-discovery work around clarifying your core value. Then we define what a life and business aligned with that core value actually looks like. Then we go through my goal framework to help them make it a reality. We create goals that progressively move them closer to a life aligned with their core value. We identify obstacles that could prevent them from reaching their goals. Then we develop strategies to help them leverage their strengths and resources to overcome.

those obstacles and then finally we build systems to help them maintain the right direction or course correct as needed. It's simple, flexible and super effective. If you wanna work together, shoot me message or I'll put a link to my coaching page down below so you can check that out for more information. I'd love to help you build a values aligned life and business. Just kind of wrapping up. It's easy to think that success will remove all of your problems and struggles. But talk to anybody who's ever succeeded.

Corey Wilks, Psy.D. (: 09:25

and they'll tell you this just isn't true. Your problems just evolve because we're human. And humans by nature are kind of insecure. We struggle to take action. We struggle with self-doubt. We struggle to admit what we want or struggle to create space to figure out what we want in the first place. But just because you succeed doesn't mean you won't struggle. And just because you struggle doesn't mean you can't succeed. True success comes down to clarifying what success means to you specifically.

and aligning your actions and your intentions to make it a reality. So tell me, what has your experience been navigating success? Are these the most common struggles you had or did you have different ones? I'd love to know. So let me know in the comments below. And if you found this valuable, consider sharing it with your network so that it can help other people. Until next time, take it easy.