For many years I have had tons of trouble spending money as well as making effort to do those which made no sense.
Definition of “Make no sense”: things that do not enhance my competence in the long run, just meet my hunger for a moment, or a couple of days.
Until I found the magical question “What problem does it solve?”
Have you ever in this situation?
- You start running to shape your body
- You bought a pair of running shoes online as $100
- You see another pair of shoes which is discounted from $450 to $200 at the mall. What a deal!
- You WANT it.
Ok fine! There were more than dozen of times I were in this situation, end up buying the new pair of shoes. I did think it was a great bargain, I thought I would use it, therefore I would need it despite I already had one.
Until I ask myself “What problem does it solve?”
Do the new shoes help me run better?
Is my body shaper by buying new shoes?
What is the initial purpose of mine?
Just 1 minute and my shopping mode’s down. How magical it is! How much money I could save!
Other examples:
- My teammate suggested that we upgrade our website to attract new customers. Oh it’s cool. Everyone loves prettier website.
- But wait… “what problem does it solve?”
- Are people complaining? Is the current website an issue?
- What’s the core problem? The problem is that my company’s not getting enough sales.
- Is an upgraded website the one which helps us reach the target? Probably not.
The point is:
Every time you suddenly LUST for something: bigger screens, sound-good-features, looklike-good-bargains, seem-cool-things,.. Hold on a second and ask yourself “what problem does it solve?”, then don’t waste resources fixing what isn’t broken.