Wuwei Your Finances: The Life Sherpa Philosophy

At the core of Chinese Taoism is the concept of Wuwei or non-doing. This is not to literally do nothing; it is doing what is required and nothing more. The theory that if we follow the laws of nature, things get done. If we go against it little gets done, no matter how hard we try. If we try to lose weight by cutting out all the things we like, we don’t succeed. If we try to balance our budget by working longer, this leaves us no time to enjoy life. Saving by cutting out things we love, won’t last long. But what if we aligned our personal values with our finances?

The truth of this hit home for me while training for my first triathlon (750m swim/20km cycle/5km run). Three years prior to that I banished my sedentary lifestyle, shed 20 kilos, and completed two half marathons and the MS Sydney-to-Gong cycle. But swimming was my weakest link, if I wanted to go well in the 750m, I needed training. I discovered a technique that emphasised efficiency and smoothness over power - working with the water rather than against it. This is Wu Wei.

If you want to grasp the beauty of this, have a look at the video on Shinji Takeuchi’s website http://swimlikeshinji.com/.

Can the same approach work for money habits? Can we sustain our good habits without feeling deprived or overworked? If a healthy lifestyle is a balanced one with small indulgences every now and then, surely the same approach can work for money habits. This led me to develop the core philosophy behind Life Sherpa®.

Life Sherpa’s 8 pillars of finance:

1. Know what really matters to you – your core values
2. Find out how your personality traits influence your money decisions
3. Align your career goals with your values
4. Be clear about your true financial situation
   
5. Create and maintain an intelligent spending plan
6. Remove the fragility from your finances
7. Track your progress - celebrate the wins
8. Organise your money so you always have some time and space for what you really want