What The Hell Is Mental Masturbation? Don’t Worry I Googled It For You

I do love setting goals.

After doing my 2022 self-reflection, I was getting all ready to put pen to paper and suss it all out, when I saw an Instagram post from @dr.stefan.gospodinov about Mental Masturbation. Yes, you read that right.

I was very cautious when I googled it, but when I did, I was surprised to find that it’s a common thing, a common thing that I wasn’t aware of, that I have been doing for years!!

So what is it you ask? Don’t worry, I won’t make you google it.

In a nutshell and to quote Dan Koe, Mental Masturbation is;

The process of raising dopamine in the brain by telling people your goals, plans, and how you want to change but never actually doing anything about it

And I for one am extremely guilty of this.

There is so much conflicting information out there and I always believed that by sharing my goals and intentions, I was keeping myself accountable, however, after reading this, I am not so sure.

I get really excited about setting goals. Each year/month/week I am going to be thinner, healthier or successful, sometimes all three if I’m in a good mood.

When I set my goals, I genuinely believe that I am going to eat salads every day, even though I hate them or go running three times a week, even though my knees can’t take it anymore.