The key facts
- Psychologist Karina Kats identified five habits that hinder income growth
- Among them: shopping to relieve fatigue, decisions made while exhausted, lack of a financial cushion
- A five-stage method is proposed: contact with oneself, eliminating the unnecessary, clarity, planning, consolidating systems
Psychologist lists habits that reduce income
One can work a lot and develop skills but not feel income growth — sometimes the reason is not the market or competencies, but habits related to fatigue and anxiety. Women's mentor and psychologist Karina Kats told Gazeta.Ru about this.
Five habits according to the expert
The first is closing fatigue with shopping: spending becomes a way to feel relief or self-care. 'We are not buying a thing, but the feeling that things have become a little easier. But fatigue returns over time, while the money is gone,' Kats noted. The second is making important decisions while exhausted: an exhausted psyche chooses not the best option, but the one that relieves tension faster. The expert advises not scheduling negotiations about fees or changing jobs at the end of a hard week, and instead spending a day in silence once a month. The third is the absence of a financial reserve: without a cushion, any unexpected event seems like a crisis. 'When there is no reserve, a person thinks not about growth, but about how to close the hole,' Kats emphasized. The fourth is earning only through strain: if money has been associated with hard work since childhood, calm ways of increasing income seem unreliable or 'undeserved.' The fifth is devaluing what comes easily: strong skills seem ordinary, although it is often for them that people are ready to pay, and that is where the short path to income growth lies.
A five-stage method
According to Kats, these habits can be changed. She proposed a five-stage method: contact with oneself, eliminating the unnecessary, forming clarity and focus, planning, and consolidating new systems in everyday life. The method helps move from constantly solving urgent tasks to a more structured decision-making system. Earlier, Russians were warned about the risk of burnout due to the desire to be 'mindful' and 'in a resourceful state.'
