There is a philosophy called Wu Wei in the Daoist tradition, or “nondoing.” It doesn’t describe someone being lazy or uninspired, but it does point out ways that we waste our resources with totally unnecessary actions. Oddly, there are even nursery rhymes that point out the same ideal of noble action, which is far from laziness or apathy. While children seem to understand this concept with ease, we get caught up in a race of being “busy” to prove our worth in the world and forget that not all actions carry the same weight. All that task-list checking and needless action doesn’t necessarily add to a healthy bottom line, either. Whether you’re running a multi-national company or managing your own personal finances, there are three financial habits that are the opposite of Wu Wei. They drain your hard-earned time, money, and mental calm. David Johnston, CFO knows exactly how these 3 habits affect your financial success.
Drain 1: Double Work
Do you spend large portions of your day doing things that could be automated or outsourced? In your company, are there multiple teams working on the same project that will likely arrive at the same end result? Do you hire people to do marketing, bookkeeping, or other services while paying them a full-time salary with benefits when you could achieve the same goals by outsourcing those tasks to part-time or contract workers?
The U.S. economy is currently made up of 40% contractual or fractional-gig workers and this number is expected to grow. A fractional gig is one in which you hire someone for a particular project on a temporary or long-term basis.
Fractional gigs for workers at every level of a company and even within your own household are on the rise, and for good reason. Even C-Suite positions are now being filled as fractional positions. This allows someone the opportunity to do only what needs to be done and eliminates double-spend on overlapping or unnecessary work for you.
Drain 2: Not Plugging the Holes
There’s a children’s song called, “There’s a Hole in My Bucket.” In the song, Henry sings to Liza, telling her that there’s a hole in his bucket. First, he needs a straw to repair his bucket. To cut the straw he needs an ax. To sharpen his ax, he requires a sharpening stone. To do this he needs water, which requires him to use. . . you guessed it, a bucket to fetch it from the creek. However, there is a hole in his bucket so he can’t carry water, and he can’t fix the bucket. Ah, the paradox of a deadlocked situation.
Eliminating deadlocks in your corporation or your household eliminates financial waste, excess effort, and needless frustration. This requires clear communication, workflows that quickly address blockers, as they’re called in the tech world, but essentially anything that prohibits other people from doing what they need to do to repair that darned bucket.
Drain 3: Not Treating Time Like Its Money
Many people look solely to their bank accounts or investments for signs of financial wealth, forgetting that time is the most valuable asset of all. You can’t buy more time. There are only 24 hours in each day, and at least 7 of those are used up in sleep. You can, however, treat time as if it’s money to plug the drain of using your time haphazardly.
Here’s an example. A friend of mine was looking to spend more time with her closest girlfriends but she was already tapped out with two small children to raise, a husband to attend to, and a thriving position as CEO of a start-up company in Austin. There was not one minute to spare in her schedule, or so she thought. Then she had the idea of spending one night every other Sunday with her friends cooking together at one of their homes to prepare freezable dishes for their families for the rest of the week.
She saved money and time by not eating out as often, fed her family nourishing food, and got to spend time with the people she adored the most, all with one reconfiguration of her time, and a little creativity. The girls have so much fun cooking together that their group is growing, and they’ve even started to plan ahead for special events like birthdays and anniversaries. She’s saved time and money in one fell swoop and also gets to enjoy the priceless companionship of her closest friends.
Summing it Up
Your financial health depends on what you don’t do, just as much as on what you do. How can you practice non-doing and bolster your financial success simultaneously? Contact David Johnston, CFO at [email protected] for more ideas on how to practice non-doing and still achieve your financial goals.
