You know what I’ve come to believe is the biggest pitfall to making more money? It’s simply this: We think we have to have it all figured out first. Yet that’s exactly what slows us down, or keeps us stuck.

I realized this after giving two Overcoming Underearning workshops back to back. When it came to setting financial goals, the women who had the most trouble thinking bigger were the ones who kept trying to figure out exactly what they needed to do to get there. If they couldn’t figure it out, they tended to lower their sights.

That’s not the way it works at all…at least not for the thousands of successful women I’ve interviewed. What these women did was:Reach

1. set a goal,

2. commit to reach it (without having to know exactly how),

3. even if they had a plan, they took advantage of unexpected opportunities that fell in their lap.

A commitment is like a magnet…it attracts coincidences. I always say, once you truly commit to a bigger goal, and you don’t experience coincidences, then you need to go back to the drawing board. You’re obviously not totally committed.

That’s the way it happened for me. I decided to earn $125,000 in the year 2000. As a chronic underearner, I had no idea how I was going to do that. But as I learned from the six-figure women I was interviewing, I didn’t need to figure it out. I just needed to take advantage of synchronicities. Of course, these opportunities always lay right outside my comfort zone.

That’s the real secret to overcoming underearning. It’s not about trying to figure out how, but being willing to let go of control and do what comes next, especially if it’s something you’re scared to do.

My new goal is: Make Millions, Help Millions, Give Millions. Believe me, I have no idea how I’m going to reach that. But once I declared that intention, the universe started tossing synchronicities my way. I’m not there yet, however I’m spending a lot of time in my discomfort zone. I’ll let you know what happens.