Problem Solving II (Vision Motivation Persistence)

This is a little bit of Tony Robbins, christianpf.com, a kung fu story, and a tip of the hat to Dave Ramsey.

I have never been completely comfortable with Dave Ramsey’s theory that financial security and peace is 20% knowledge and 80% behavior. This kind of assumes that people are stupid rather than ignorant. As the t-shirt says, ignorance can be fixed. Stupid is forever. I have always had good money management skills (thanks to my parents). As I grew older, I have tried to learn how to create wealth, as well as manage the money that comes my way. It is hard for me to realize anyone else would be any different. But then there is my problem with weight. I know I should eat celery sticks and drink water. Instead, I eat hot pastrami sandwiches and drink beer, so what should I expect?

This approach to problem solving begins with vision, a clear picture with the way things should be. It collapses step 1 and step 2 of the spiral method into a detailed mental image rather than spending a lot of time understanding the problem and developing something like a project management plan. Really this is probably OK. Most of us know where our goal lies and where we are currently located. I know that to get to Florida from Maryland, I need to head south. When I start out I may not know whether to take US-1 or I-95. I may not even have a map, but if I keep heading south and asking questions, I will get to Florida.

Christianpf.com (the pf stands for Personal Finance) calls the second step in this approach, “Getting Mad, Zealous, and Passionate.” There is nothing in the spiral method about emotional commitment, nothing to blast you from step 2 to step 3, implementing the solution. In my own personal experience, I needed that kind of energy to get me into a house. At that time my rent was already approaching the price of a house payment. One year, my rent jumped over 10% when my lease ended. That was it. Even though I didn’t quite have enough money to buy a house, I did it anyway. At the time 10% down was standard and there were about $7,000 in closing costs. We had saved the required $17,000 with a few hundred to spare, but there was not really enough left to be able to pay all our regular bills with certainty. I borrowed $3,000 from my father-in-law until I had the cash flow situation under control.

The last step is persistence. Losing weight, getting out of debt, or saving enough money to pay for a house is hard work. There will be setbacks along the way, weeks when your weight goes up even when you are staying on your diet, unexpected expenses that wipe out several months of effort. Continuing to do the right thing day after day, week after week, without much positive feedback is a wretched business.

A White Crane master, Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming tells this story. “I felt so depressed after comparing myself with one of my most talented classmates. I always felt awkward compared to him. I told my master about this. He again looked at me and said, “Little Yang! The reason you want to train is because you want to train. It is the same as plowing a field. When you plow, you simply do it for your harvest. Why do you look around? If you are ahead of others, you will be proud of yourself, you will be satisfied, and you will become lazy. If you are behind, you will become depressed and despise yourself. Why don’t you just bow your head and keep plowing? Do not look around. Just keep plowing. Until one day…He pointed his finger towards my face…when you get tired and take a break, suddenly you realize that there is nobody around you. You have left all the others far far behind and you cannot even be seen.”