I was talking to a client of mine; we’ll just call him Tim. Tim was having an issue. He said, “Doug, what happens is it’s like somebody else possesses me and they take over. I know what I should be doing, and I know when I’m making the wrong decisions. When I make a wrong decision, I just beat myself up. It’s like somebody else takes over and possesses my body.” What Tim was talking about in this conversation with me was, in particular, he had a very distinct goal. He has distinct goals in all five categories of his five to thrive, but in this one, he broke it.
His daughter had a birthday two days ago and Tim woke up in the morning a little stressed and continued to eat almost the entirety of the leftover birthday cake. Tim’s goal was very specific on getting him to a specific weight as well as getting him prepped for an event that he was doing, which is a tough. To make this event happen, Tim needed to clean up his diet, so the birthday cake was out of order. Tim said what a lot of us feel like. We feel like somebody possesses our body and takes us over like an evil spirit comes in and we know what we should be doing, but we make these excuses up, or the Devil’s on the shoulder telling us not to do it or to do something different. I asked him, I said, “Tim, if you were to name that spirit that takes you over, that other version of you, that Tim 2.0 so to speak, what would you call that person? Who would that be? They show up often, you know them, you know them intimately well. What would you call them? What name would you give them?”
Tim immediately replied, “Eeyore.” I was like, “Eeyore? That’s weird.” He said, “Yeah, Eeyore, you know, Eeyore like Winnie-the-Pooh. Eeyore was always negative, Doug.” He went on to tell me, he’s like, “When Eeyore takes over, I eat the cake. When it’s sunny outside and people are cheery, I’m down and Eeyore takes over. I don’t want to work, I don’t want to get things done to build my business or to get ready for this event, and I’m relationships I’m just negative when Eeyore’s there.” I said, “Great, that’s awesome, Tim. We all have an Eeyore, or whatever name. We probably have multiple personalities in there that take over the show.” I asked him a question that I’m going to ask you too, “When you’re feeling your most powerful when you’re in your center and you’re feeling amazing, when you’re feeling that you could take on the world, what is that person called?” Instantly, Tim answered, “Musafa,” and again, took me back, “Musafa?” He’s like, “Oh yeah, Musafa, I feel like I’m the king of the jungle out there. I feel, my head’s loaded high, I have so much energy, I could take on the world. I can do anything, Musafa is the king.”
I said, “That’s great, Tim, that’s awesome. Eeyore eats the cake, what does Musafa do?” “Oh, no, Musafa wouldn’t eat the cake. Musafa gets up in the morning on time, every time, and what Musafa does is he has the green smoothie you gave me, Doug.” To give you guys a background, I have a green smoothie that I give my clients, a recipe, and they follow that in the morning. He’s like, “Musafa eats his green smoothie, feels energy throughout the day, it carries him on, he can conquer the world, where Eeyore, he wakes up in the morning and eats his daughter’s birthday cake and he crashes after half an hour of that sugar high and then beats himself up about it. He feels horrible. He takes a nap and he’s not productive the rest of the day, the whole day’s ruined.” Interesting. How many of us have an Eeyore or a Musafa in our lives? All of us do, in different varying degrees. You may call them something else, you may not call them anything, although I do advise you to look at these things and give them names, these different personality types, because you can draw upon them at any time you want to to give you power, especially when Eeyore takes over.
I went on to ask Tim, I said, “Okay, tell me what happens in your mind, in the category of your mind? What happens when, in your mind, what does Eeyore do?” He’s like, “Easy, Eeyore just sits in front of the TV and watches just crap. He watches the news, world events that change on a weekly basis that no one’s talking about the next week. He gets down, he watches just crappy TV.” “Alright, well, Tim, in the area of your mind, what does Musafa do?” “Musafa,” Tim got really excited, “Musafa reads. He reads for at least a half an hour every night, if not more. He just digests content and then shares it with his family.” “That’s awesome, what about your body?” He’s like, “Doug, I just told you. Eeyore wakes up and eats the cake, Musafa has the green smoothie you gave me. He has energy throughout the day. He is always priming his body and taking care of it and working towards his goal, that tough [inaudible 00:04:37], where Eeyore is just sitting on his ass.”
I was like, “Okay, great, that’s a great analogy between the two. What about in the area of your soul?” He’s like, “Huh, interesting. Eeyore, when he’s supposed to meditate,” which is part of Tim’s practice, “He’s supposed to meditate, he just doesn’t do it. He’s too tired, too lazy or is too busy and makes up these excuses, where Musafa meditates twice a day and Musafa takes it a step further and reads scripture in front of his family at the dinner table.” See, Tim’s a Christian and so for Tim reading scripture and explaining to his family at the dinner table meant a lot to him, but yet Eeyore was running the show more often than Musafa, so he had this distinction now. “What about your relationships, Tim? What are you doing in these relationships when each of these two people takes over? Eeyore, the person that brings you down, or Musafa that gives you power each and every time?”
Tim said, “Oh, relationships? Eeyore is cranky, Eeyore is moody, Eeyore is kind of a jerk. No one really wants to be around Eeyore. When he goes to parties, he kind of sits in the corner, does his own thing, mumbles a little bit, doesn’t want to be there and everybody knows it. He just really wants to be by himself.” “Alright, well what about Musafa?” He goes on, “Musafa is the life of the party.” Tim is an extrovert to the nines and he was telling me, “Musafa is the life of the party, he’s going around, he’s taking care of people, he’s shaking hands. He’s excited to be there and be with each and every person that he sees. He’s also always taking care of other people. He’s just reaching out to his friends and saying what’s up and how are you doing and how can I help you, and Musafa, he’s the king. He’s running around, he’s having a great time. Energy is abundant and he’s applying that energy to the relationships. He’s putting those emotional deposits in.”
“Awesome, that’s great, now what about your business?” “Oh, Eeyore? Eeyore, whatever, Eeyore doesn’t care about the business. It’s ebbing and flowing, being a business owner’s tough and I should just quit my job or get a job and quit some of my business or throw it away. Eeyore’s just kind of down about it, I just don’t really want to go to work.” “Alright, well what about Musafa? How does Musafa feel about your business?” He’s like, “Doug, when I’m Musafa, when I have that power in me, when I feel that I’m the king, I go out and I conquer. I’m talking to my employees, I’m motivating them. I’m talking to my clients and motivating them. I’m closing deals regularly. I feel like, after a couple of hours of work, I feel like I could do this forever and time just seems to fly by. I’m in my zone.” When looking at Tim, I told him, I said, “Tim, look at this. You could be Musafa any time you want, or you could also choose to be Eeyore, but when that time comes up when you see the cake there, ask yourself what would Eeyore do and what would Musafa do and choose Musafa every time.”
That’s an easy way of doing it, so I’m going to ask you, in your journal, in your five to thrive, where do you want to be? Write those categories, come up with a name. When that Devil’s on your shoulder, what’s the name for that person? Is it Doug? is it Doug 2.0? Is it Eeyore? Is it Musafa? Who is that? Who’s the Devil on your shoulder? What’s the name you’d give him? I encourage you to name that person. You could name him anything you want to. When you’re feeling in your power, you’re feeling at the top of your game, we all know what this feels like, come up with the wind, come up with the success. I use the analogy for myself, “What is it like if I felt like I could bench press the world?” I like to work out, bench press the world, and it just brings me energy even when I’m tired, and right now I’m sick and tired, but it brings me that energy. Who is that person? Name that person for you, whatever it may be.
Name that person who has all that energy that you can call upon at a moment’s notice. When you’re in those moments of indecision, those moments where you come to the Y in the road and not sure which direction to take and you know that your version of Eeyore starts to speak, Musafa can crush him and take him on the other road. Write down your five to thrive after you’ve come up with a name for your Devil on your shoulder, but also the angel or your power center, what are those names, and then write down where you seem to stumble most in your five to thrive where the Devil on your shoulder or your Eeyore takes over when you’d rather have your Musafa take over, or your angel or your power place. Then what I want you to do is identify those, and moving forward through your day, what I want you to do is really check in with yourself. I recommend pulling out your phone and setting your alarm, and I recommend six to eight times a day that your alarm goes off, it’s an easy melody or a vibration in your pocket if you want to, because you won’t be able to hear, and then just check in.
For Tim, I said, “Check in, are you being Eeyore or Musafa?” Getting feedback from Tim, I can tell you what? He was Musafa more times than not. Even when he wasn’t being Eeyore, he was just being regular old Tim, but when he got that alarm and started saying, “Am I being Eeyore or Musafa,” he chose Musafa and it allowed him to close more deals, be more present with his family and increase his path to becoming the author of his own story. That’s what I want for you. As always, go over to authorofyourownstory.com where you can get more tips, tricks and techniques. Make sure you get on our newsletter so you can get these delivered right to your inbox. I would love to hear from you. That’s it for me today, go out and be your version of Musafa and be Author of Your Own Story. Take care.
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