I have a problem. I’m guessing it’s a problem we share.
I like to hide behind work. Like, lots of work. I take on a lot of client work at a time. Meanwhile, I have creative flashes for fun projects and purchase domains, wistfully biding my time until I can “have enough time” to build out the project. Someday – and granted, I’m 25 when I write this, but – is quickly becoming never.
My projects are like marshmallows on a stick over the fire, and I’m watching ’em burn.
Are you like me? I was reading Do The Work and Steven Pressfield said something that really stuck with me. The general premise was that there’s a force dedicated entirely to actively conspiring against you and your success. If you’re not aware of it and actively fighting against it, it derails you.
You’re probably thinking I’ve gone all Charley Sheen. But really – if you think about it, how many times do you put off a project because you get interrupted? Or how often does that phone ring right when you pick up your pen to get to work? Or the dog needs food, or the dishes need put away, or…
Fuck. Right? So my friend Erika shared DoItMotherfucker.com – a treatise to getting stuff done. And like me, I hope you realize that we’re woefully lacking on tools to take on this foe.
It’s a hard battle to wage war against something you can’t see or touch – for the sake of simplicity, let’s just call ’em Commander Cockblock.
Commander Cockblock loves nothing more than to screw up whatever amazing shit you’re working on by distracting you from what’s really important. Remember when I talked about being consumed in the process? That’s CC’s other tactic: get you so buried in the fine details that you can’t see the light of day and send your awesome out into the world.
The first step in defeating ’em is just knowing that he’s out there. Stop whatever you’re doing to avoid doing the shit you want to do and start fighting back against Commander Cockblock. Make your projects a priority. Make somebody else wait for once. Fuck folding laundry, you’ve got flaming marshmallows to eat.
How are you going to take him on today? Let me know in the comments below.
(Header photo: On Fire by Pipistrula)