Riding the Lion: Practicing Emotional Budgeting

Many businesspeople are into Stoicism nowadays, due to the revival by popular authors like Ryan Holiday and Tim Ferriss. Finance in Taoist terminology clearly explains why you should practice Stoicism.

In Chinese, the word for anger, 生气 (sheng qi), literally meaning igniting gas. Qi (or chi, ki, or gi) is commonly used to mean life energy in East Asian cultures. It is a central principle in martial arts (qigong) and traditional Chinese medicine, which are based in Taoism. When you’re angry, you’re burning away your life energy, so you shouldn’t ignite your qi unless you can immediately direct it into action. It’s the same idea as not igniting your car unless you intend on driving somewhere. Only an idiot would keep his car running while parked.

However, this doesn’t mean that you should deny your emotions. In fact, it’s the opposite. You should save your emotional energy for only the most important moments so that you don’t waste it. When you don’t waste your qi on petty issues, you become vitalized to experience the most important moments with full passion, because your gas tank is full. Being a Stoic doesn’t mean being an emotionless robot. It means internalizing good accounting practices when it comes to managing to emotions. It means cutting away unnecessary spendings so that you can spend your life energy on the most important things in your life. As a businessperson, you want to get as much value out of every penny you have, so why not treat your life energy the same way?

Also beware of underestimating the value of the subconscious when seeking to control it. Your subconscious is like a lion; you cannot fully control the powerful primal beast. Hyper-rationalism and denial of the subconscious lead to arrogance, missed opportunities, and hidden emotional problems. But fully giving into the subconscious will also result in your destruction. Instead, you must develop the courage and self-discipline to skillfully ride the lion, working with it to nudge it in the direction you want to go. When riding the lion, you must be courageous yet relaxed to maximize the utility of your life energy. Unnecessary tension would throw you off its back and into its jaws. Be like the men who steal meat from lions.