The Problem with Musterbation
I suppose a definition is in order. What exactly is ‘Musterbation’?
Musterbation is allowing your life to be dominated by things you ‘must’ do. A must could be something as simple as taking out the garbage every week to paying your taxes. To be sure, we all have things we must do to survive (eat, sleep, drink water, pay taxes, breathe, etc.). But the insidious trap we can fall into is if our days turn into an endless session of musterbation. It basically means we have lost control of our lives.
How do we stop musterbating?
1- Say ‘no’ more often.
This probably the number one cause of musterbation. The inability to say no to others that make requests and demands of your time. Put a stop to it. The best way to do this is to…
2- Know what you want and organize your life to be, do, and have more of that.
Even though many of us have been taught to write down our goals, the reality is that most people have no freaking idea what they want. They go through life being carried along by the flow of the river without ever taking the time to really understand what it is they desire. Truly desire. And since nature abhors a vacuum, the lack of commitment to what you want opens up a gap in your life that will be filled with tasks and ‘must do’s’ from folks around you that know what they want. Congratulations sucker…their goals are now yours. But you can easily block this sort of behavior by changing your mindset that of a…
3) Be a Creator, not an Acquirer.
What do I mean by this? Most people set up their lives to be acquirers. Their goals are primarily related to having goals such as getting a house, a car, a million in the bank, etc. The problem with acquisition goals is that they force you to work on stuff outside of your mind to get what you want. Your power is pushed to the outside world where the object of your affection lies.
But have you ever thought about why you want something? Think about it for just a minute. You may have to ask “Why do I want this?” to yourself over and over.
For example, say you want a car. Ask yourself, “Why do I want this car?”. Then, when you answer it, ask yourself why you want that. Keep doing this enough and at some point you are going to arrive at a truth. The truth is that you don’t really want the thing…you want the feeling you think the thing will bring you.
Guess what? You can bypass the thing and go straight for the feeling. How? Simple. By focusing your attention and energy on the act of creation instead of attempting to acquire something.
So quit asking “What do I want.” and instead ask, “What do I want to create today?”.
This slight change in focus will work wonders to cure you of musterbation. It is the first step in creating the kind of authentic life you really desire. The type of life that leads to real, lasting happiness. Which, if you did the exercise above where you kept asking over and over again why you wanted something, is probably the exact feeling you were looking for when you set the goal, wasn’t it? You don’t need to acquire things to get that feeling. You get the feeling you are really looking for automatically when you focus your attention on being the creator you were born to be.
I really enjoy your blog. I’ve been sucking at the actual act of commenting, but I’m reading!