Just over the weekend, I went to a concert of Earth, Wind & Fire along with Lionel Richie. And Earth, Wind & Fire just was remarkable. I will tell you more about the concert later on. Halfway into the concert, they sang the song “Fantasy.” And I started thinking about the lyrics of that song:

              “Every thought is a dream,

               Rushing by in a stream,

               Bringing life to the kingdom of doing.”

Yes, the Kingdom of Doing!

We spend quite a bit of time living in our heads, and we have, I guess, categories of fantasies, dreams, goals, objectives, daily tasks, and then there are the emergencies, and the things that must get done immediately, and all the stuff that other people want you to do—you know what I mean. Fantasy is cheap. It’s kind of a movie that we play in our head. It’s cheap. And what I mean by that is we play the movie that we get the trophy, or we finish the project, that we look perfect somehow, and we don’t even have to sweat at it. Ah, but a goal? A goal is a checklist. But a dream? A dream sits right in the middle.

It’s what we actually want our life to look like. And someone said once that dreams don’t come true; decisions do. I always believe that you must have dreams, and certainly goals, to progress in life. After all, if you don’t know where you’re going, how the hell are you going to get there?

It’s all wrapped up in procrastination. I just happened to listen just a few days ago on The Minimalists podcast, an interview with an author of the book Procrastination Proof. His name is Jon Acuff. And he said something really that resonated with me. Procrastination isn’t a gap, it’s what happens when our intentions don’t align with our actions. Let’s stop beating ourselves. It’s not that we are lazy. It’s not about that. It’s about, I guess, a fear or just waiting for this perfect moment that never actually comes.

Sitting behind the microphone, delivering the show live every Wednesday, communicating with all the WhatsApp and text messages I get during the show is the easy part. It’s a pure flow! But in addition to sitting behind the microphone for two hours every Wednesday, I spend somewhere between four and five hours producing the program. It means selecting the tracks, sequencing them, researching the artists, finding out stories behind the scenes, and setting the block on easttowestradio.com.

I’ll admit, getting off and East to West program, organizing those tracks, doing the heavy lifting behind the scenes, I end up procrastinating. I sit in that gap and I tell myself, “I’ll do it tomorrow,” or “I have plenty of time before Wednesday.” But somehow, some way, my desire to produce the show overcomes the procrastination because, eventually, I must push play. I must have the music carry me across the bridge.

Which brings me to this evening’s program. As I mentioned, I will tell you about the concert of Earth, Wind & Fire and Lionel Richie. I’ll bring some music from those artists as well as a commemoration of my uncle’s birthday, and I’ll always include new stuff, old stuff, and everything in between. Stay with me for the next couple of hours.