The 5 Traps Every Man Needs to Avoid

There's a thin line between faithful and foolish, a buddy once told me. So, what exactly is the dissimilarity? To me, faith means making a move toward change even if it's scary.  Expecting your life to improve without making any adjustments is naive.

I think there are five common pitfalls that every man should avoid if he wants to be a trustworthy and wise adult. I dubbed them "The Foolish Five," but the truth is that we're all vulnerable to falling for any one of them. Please let me elaborate.

The first is pride.

Falling into the trap of thinking we can get by without anyone's assistance is easy to accomplish. All by ourselves, we think we can get the job done. It's common to use phrases like "I got this." "That's old news to me." "It depends on me if it happens." The truth of the issue is a man is only as powerful as the amount of stronger men he surrounds himself with; if you don't believe me, ask a weight lifter.

The second trap is the commitment trap, or should I say the lack of commitment.

When things get difficult or fall short of our expectations, it's easy to fall into the trap of giving up and giving in. It could be something small, but more often it's something significant, like giving up on a marriage, reconciling with a distant parent, or pursuing a lifelong passion.

The third trap is ignorance.

A superficial lack of knowledge isn't necessarily a bad thing, but there's a big gap between the two states. What we see here is what I call "unconscious incompetence." Asking questions and failing to pretend knowledge when you don't can help you avoid falling into this trap. As I tell my pupils repeatedly: "The only dumb question is the one you don't ask; because if you don't ask, you're still dumb because you still don't know."

The fourth man trap is laziness.

While in the case of ignorance, we either don't know or pretend we don't, in the case of laziness, we know but choose not to act on that knowledge because "I just don't feel like it." Putting off getting up and moving around. The individual who waits till he "feels like it" to take action is doomed to mediocrity. A wise man once told me, and I quote: "Do what you have to do so that eventually you can do what you want to do." That wise man was Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington.

And finally, the last trap is the apathy trap.

The "I don't care" mentality is the apathy trap. It's when we don't care about ourselves enough to stop watching porn; when we don't care enough to honor our wives or understand their heart; when we don't care enough to spend more time with our children; when we don't care enough to spend too much time playing video games or watching sports; when we don't care enough to honor our wives or understand their heart.

If we, as males, fall into any of these pitfalls, it might seriously damage or perhaps destroy a significant relationship. The best we can do is be prepared for them, since we can't always prevent them. A great man is not one who never messes up; rather, he is one who recognizes his mistakes and grows from them.