Thanks for the welcome everyone.
I read a similar story to the cow one which was about a man struggling to catch fish. He laboured all day and never got a single bite. Later that evening he noticed another fisherman with many fish and asked for advice on how to fish these waters. The fisherman shown him
The next day he placed bate on hooks attached to floats, many of them. A weight was applied to anchor it all still. He swam out and set up his rig. Once set he returned to shore to drink tea, read and laugh all day. The struggling fisherman was confused "arnt you going to tend to them?" He said "what if you get a bite?"
After quite an enjoyable day they returned to the rigs set up that morning to find the fish had caught themselves
By planning and allowing nature to take its course this great fisherman was at total one with the way and through non-doing achieved just what needed to be achieved.
Moving on from the story my current understanding of "Wu wei" is focus on what you are doing "just enough" and let nature do the rest. The world keeps turning and life goes on regardless of effort levels. By minimising effort and enjoying ones life then maybe just maybe that puts one close to the Tao. It's all good having a fishing story but where I fall short is the "how to apply this in modern life?" Understanding and application seem 2 different things