The Raging River
In one day, I heard two different people use a raging river as an analogy for process change. The first person stated that jumping into their respective work was like trying to stop a mighty river. Unfortunately, it felt too powerful to jump in and start. The second person used the river to describe the ability to stop powerful emotions gone wild in a child!
There is no human that can physically stop a flowing river. Oh sure, we have tried, but ultimately, the river will pool upstream until the manmade lake overflows its artificial boundaries. Death and destruction are sure to follow.
The solution is not to stop the raging river. Instead, we must regulate the river with a dam. When a dam is built – outside of site selection – the first step is to build a spillway around the site where the dam is to be constructed. Once complete, water is diverted to the spillway so the dam’s foundation can be constructed in a “dry” and manageable environment. After the foundation is established, the dam wall goes up with sluicegates installed. Finally, the spillways are closed, the reservoir is filled, and the dam is placed into service. The spillways are maintained in the case of emergencies. If the dam’s purpose is to produce electricity, the sluice gates are throttled as appropriate to regulate the production of energy.
Harnessing the flow of water is no different than the way we approach our finances for the first time. First, we must identify the raging flow of our expenses that erode our quality of life and opportunities to be generous. This identification process produces a spillway of sorts that permits our obligations to be met while the foundation for the dam is built. That foundation is representative of all the personal and financial goals that we set for ourselves for near-term purchases and long-term investments. Once those goals agreed upon – if married – and written down, the dam can go up. Your dam – the budget – is constructed to back up the income to create a reservoir – an emergency fund – and to throttle the expenses through the sluice gates of personal discipline and self-control. When the project is complete, you will be able to control your own raging river.
Questions to Ponder
If a raging river describes the state of your finances…
What stage of construction are you in to build a financial dam?
How much time will you take to build your financial dam?
What consequences are you willing to accept if you continue to delay the construction project?
If your situation resembles a completed dam…
When was the last time you evaluated the foundational goals that underpin the structure? What did you change?
When financial storms come, do you have enough resources in your reservoir to handle an income drought?
Are you regularly maintaining and adjusting the sluice gates of your mind and habits to realize the money flow that accommodates your underpinning goals?
Here is to your successful financial (hydrology) project!
Jacob Zimmerman
Coda
Within a few short hours of writing the story above, James Clear emailed me his 3-2-1Thursday newsletter. I leave his second quote by Wendell Berry from The Unforeseen Wilderness as my coda.
"To a river, as to any natural force, an obstruction is merely an opportunity. For the river's nature is to flow; it is not just spatial in dimension, but temporal as well. All things must yield to the impulse of the water in time, if not today then tomorrow or in a thousand years. If its way is obstructed then it goes around the obstruction or under it or over it and, flowing past it, wears it away. Men may dam it and say that they have made a lake, but it will still be a river. It will keep its nature and bide its time, like a caged wild animal alert for the slightest opening. In time it will have its way; the dam like the ancient cliffs will be carried away piecemeal in the currents."