Masturbation is healthy and normal. And it can be good.. to a point. But, no matter what you do, or how often you do it, it isn’t the real deal. At some point, you’ve got to just do it.

Yes, I mean sex. But not just sex.

I’m a personal development nerd. It provides great food for thought, and it feeds my soul. But only to a point. Without action, the thought is worthless. It is simply emotional masturbation.

I used to be an academic, and let me tell you, it is can be an awesome life. You live in a world of novelties and possibilities. You publish your ideas and travel to talk about them. However, these are only ideas and words. When they don’t touch the real world, they become relatively useless. Instead, they become a form of intellectual masturbation.

I’m now an entrepreneur. I write on this blog. I read many other blogs, the new USV, Quibb, and Hacker News. I meet interesting folk. Through all of these things, I’m exposed to many interesting ideas/thoughts, and I learn a lot. But it isn’t enough. I need to get shit done. I need to hack, work on product, figure out what works and what doesn’t, work on what may become a future team, and pivot on the idea when necessary. And at some point, it needs to touch the real world. Without this, everything else that I do doesn’t matter. It purely entrepreneurial masturbation.

There are many form of masturbation. We all do them.

As mentioned above, masturbation can be healthy and good. Just don’t overdo it. At some point, you need to translate the thoughts and ideas into real-world action. That is where real satisfaction is.

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P.S. This is post number #58 in a 100 day blogging challenge. See you tomorrow!

Follow me on Twitter @alexshye.

Or, check out my current project Soulmix.