The 7 Deadliest Forms Of Male Procrastination

I was 15 years old, blasting pig shit off a wall with a pressure washer.

Every inch of my body was covered in protective plastic, my goggles smeared and flecked with various shades of brown.

It was easily one of the nastiest jobs I’d ever had.

But I sprayed away happily anyway.

Why?

I was obsessed. Consumed with desire for what seemed then the ultimate purchase: a new stereo system.

I thought of nothing else.

To make the money, I worked any job I could find, including taking over a friend’s shifts at a pig farm while he was on vacation.

After I’d finally scraped together enough cash, I went to the stereo store and put my money on the counter, hands trembling with excitement.

Once set up, that stereo was everything I hoped it would be: wall-rattling volume, crystal-clear treble, and bass you could feel in your solar plexus.

A few days after purchase, I noticed the receiver was already covered in a fine layer of dust.

Wanting to protect my investment, I draped a cloth over the receiver to keep the dust off.

Days later, the stereo began clicking on and off, a red light flashing on the panel indicator.

My heart pounded with dread as I pulled out the owner’s manual.

My worst fears were confirmed: the unit had overheated. The receiver was ruined.

The culprit? The cloth I had stupidly laid over top of the receiver to keep the dust off had blocked the cooling vents.

My desire to PROTECT the stereo KILLED the stereo.

…

The dream you carry invisible… it’s likely not a new stereo system.

Maybe it’s a better-paying, more fulfilling job. Maybe it’s having a successful business. Maybe it’s financial freedom.

Maybe it’s starting a blog, getting an advanced degree, or starting a non-profit.

Whatever the dream is, you are in danger.

More precisely, your dream is in danger. From you.

For your instinct is to protect your dream. To coddle and polish and refine it into oblivion.

In the hopes of GETTING IT RIGHT, you…

1. brainstorm
2. plan
3. ask experts
4. research
5. self-educate
6. strategize
7. prepare

Yes, I know it all feels like progress.

But it’s cloth on air vents.

Beneath the surface, it’s all ruinous delay.

If you wait too long to rip your dream down from the rarefied air of your imagination and bring it to earth… wait too long to convert your precious idea into meat on the board… it will asphyxiate in the cold dark vacuum of space.

If you want your visions to materialize, here’s what you must do:

Batter them. Bloody them. Roll them in the shit.

Force your unblemished dreams into messy, man-handled projects.

Dreams aren’t “realized,” like a pig sniffing out the prize-winning truffle.

Dreams are created with violence: built one flawed, messy layer at a time.

Each grand outcome stands on a bloody pile of failed and haltingly successful projects.

ACTION is the oxygen of dreams, not refinement.

So stop the endless preparation.

Stop “honing your skills first.”

Quit feeding the black hole of knowledge.

Act in ways that finally, truly move the needle.

Screw the business cards, screw the business plan, screw the leased office space, and go out and make that first holy sale. THEN you’ll be in business.

Go pound doors until you raise that first $100 donation to your foundation.

If you want to be a blogger, then publish a fucking post already.

Take the action that moves your dream most dramatically forward.

Your dreams don’t need your protection: they need your commitment. They need your relentless, heart-in-mouth action-taking.

Your dreams can take it.

They can handle the violence of execution.

They can withstand the terror of the unknown.

Can you?

***

Bryan Ward is the founder of Third Way Man and author of the LIT Black Paper