Mental Masturbation

Reading time: 5 min

Let me tell you a story.

It’s September 2023, and a 4-hour video just changed my life.

“Full Money Guide” was the title.

Made by a guy called Hamza Ahmed.

It talks about:

• how to earn money

• how to spend money

• what business to get into

I haven’t made a single $ from it yet.

It’s not that the guide doesn’t work.

I:

• stopped being afraid of spending money on education

• (eventually) got started writing online

• found my purpose and mission

But why am I not rich yet?

Simple.

I fell victim to one of the most common diseases on the planet:

Mental Masturbation.

As you can see on my X, my account was made in January 2024.

It took me 4 months to get started (since watching the guide)

What did I do in the meantime?

I spent every single morning in front of my computer, writing out full guides on fitness, mental health, and social skills.

Over 1000 pages of content:

• unedited

• unsorted

• useless (kind of)

Believe me. The writing is terrible.

I didn’t even try to research “how to write better”.

At least I learned how to type fast.

Now, imagine my progress if I had started X (and real writing) 4 months earlier.

I’d already (probably):

• be rich

• be famous

• have a model at my side

Sadly, we can’t reverse time.

But, we can fight our battles against mental masturbation right now.

You’re by far not at 100% of your capabilities. I’m not either.

Here is the plan for improving this.

What is Mental Masturbation?

Simply put, mental masturbation is the act of being lazy, but thinking you’re not.

The most common forms:

• watching useless content (but thinking it’s useful)

• consuming useful content (but not taking action)

• useless action-taking (not realizing it’s not moving you forward)

All of it is procrastination.

What did I do in my story?

I consumed VERY useful content.

And I did act.

But I did so very poorly. I thought I was productive, even though I wasn’t.

Sure, I could have done worse things.

But the truth is, I was procrastinating on publishing online because I was scared of judgment.

Enough from me now.

Here is some theory on how content influences us:

1. Content discovery.

If we find useful creators, good.
If we don’t = mental masturbation (also called scrolling in this case)

2. We consume from creator.

If it’s useful content, good.
If it’s useless = mental masturbation (also called “9 bESt wAyS tO …”)

3. We react (in our head)

If it’s action-inspiring, good
If it’s there to keep us watching forever = mental masturbation.

4. We react (taking action)

If it’s a useful action, good.
If it’s procrastination = mental masturbation.

During every step, mental masturbation is lurking.

We have to combat that.

Determine if you’re Mentally Masturbating

Yes.

Yes, you are. I am as well.

The question is just:

What percentage of time in the day do you waste?

On:

• consuming

• commuting

• overthinking

• shallow work

and so on.

50%? Probably more.

The things above can be important.

But to illustrate, here is a tweet from my friend Aayush:

He nailed it. F*ck work-life BS.

You get that when you’ve achieved something.

How to stop Mental Masturbation

Action is the answer (as Kieran Drew would say)

But now you know that doing the wrong actions is also mental masturbation.

I don’t know your goals.

I’d expect you to have some (as you did get my GPA system along with signing up).

So.

I need you to identify the ONE single greatest action task that will push you toward your MOST important goal.

Example: Financial Freedom

It’s not:

• consuming content

• planning or overthinking

• achieving some sort of follower count

(I fell victim to the last one)

Why?

And you (maybe) don’t even have anything to sell.

I don’t.

Which is what I am fixing at the moment.

So, swallow your ego, and start working on the most important task.

The “lever-moving” task, in this case, creating an offer.

Example 2: Building Muscle

Can you guess the lever-moving task here?

Yes.

It’s hitting the gym, we know that (and I hope you’re already taking action here)

So how do we progress further?

There is always a constraint.

You have to find it, no matter how small it may seem.

The better or more advanced you are in a given topic or area of life, the smaller the constraint will be.

Compare two people trying to lose weight:

The fat man and the jacked man.

The fat man’s constraint?

→ He’s not even doing the lever-moving task: Moving more. Cardio. Exercise.

The jacked man’s constraint?

He’s doing cardio, lifting weights, tracking his macros, etc.

Why can’t he go from 7% → 6% body fat?

→ It’s something tiny, like:

He’s exposed to too many estrogenics, therefore lowering his natural testosterone levels and making it harder to keep muscle while losing that tiny bit of fat.

The point is:

There is always a constraint right now that you can work on.

Imagine it pulling you down:

No matter how good you get at the other things, if a constraint is holding you back, Progress = 0.

Mental Masturbation often happens because we don’t know what to work on.

So. Find your constraint.

Work on that.

Fix it.

Repeat.

We identified lever-moving tasks and constraints.

We also clarified that you have to ACT on them.

But how?

By testing every productivity hack under the sun and seeing what sticks?

Hardly.

Productivity and (mental) performance are not as simple and generic as building muscle for example.

People’s brains function differently.

These are two of my favorite non-negotiables though (they work for everyone):

1. Fasting

Doing your work fasted is the best way to ensure your brain is sharp.

Intermittent fasting until lunch works best for most people.

Benefits:

• your brain doesn’t get foggy

• the hunger keeps you alert

• gets you into Flow State

• no carb crashes

• stops Mental Masturbation in fasted hours to 96.69%

Just drink black coffee only (+ water ofc)

You’ll notice the difference in performance.

2. Eating the frog

Ties perfectly together with intermittent fasting.

You do the hardest task of the day first thing in the morning.

Short, simple morning routines are allowed (cold showering, meditation, etc.)

The important things:

• don’t speak to anyone if possible

• know exactly what you are supposed to do

• don’t look at your phone or check any kind of notifications

Eating the frog is a game-changer for mental masturbation.

As long as you work on the right things (lever-moving tasks or constraints).

I want to make this concluding Action Step a staple in my Newsletters.

One simple thing you can do, right now.

Designed to Improve your life.

Let me know what you think!

Thank you for reading!

Mental Masturbation is something we will all deal with, probably for the rest of our lives. I hope this guide makes it easier to deal with :)

Never stop Improving!

~ Improvement Wolf